Tuesday 25 February 2014

Looks.

There is an article in today's Times about the pressure on young people to 'up' their glamourous looks.   The case in point being Rebecca Adlington the Olympic Gold Medallist Swimmer, who the press keep pointing out, has a rather large nose.  How dare they keep pointing out such a personal thing?   Is it anybody's business other than Rebecca's and if she is quite happy with how Nature intended her face to be then so be it.

So many of the Olympic medallists, Wimbledon stars etc. have become Glamour models, appearing in all the glossy magazines, wearing designer clothes, and of course reaping in thousands of pounds in the process.

There is a cult of glamour/stroke beauty now in society which can be so very harmful to so many young people in my opinion.   If you happen to be pretty/good-looking and can afford to dress in a so-called glamorous way then you are going to attract the cameras.  The rest of society just has to get on with life - and surely that is better in the long run.

None of this attitude was around when I was young.   I pondered on why not and came to the conclusion that television and the popular press should share the blame.   People like Posh and Becks attract publicity whenever they step outside their own front door and women and men strive to stay slim like Posh, cover their bodies in tattoos like Becks, emulate their life style.  The nearest we got to it when we were young was by going to the cinema and then trying to do our hair like Veronica Lake's.

And were we are the poorer (I don't mean in monetary terms because we never had much money to spend on ourselves anyway) for it?   I don't think we were for one moment.   To be honest, I don't ever remember giving that sort of thing a thought.

Now we are seeing people like Wayne Rooney earning £300,000 a week  - I suppose every boy in the country will be striving to become a Wayne Rooney lookalike!

***
Hens.   The farmer is going with friend T to collect the point-of-lay pullets after tea tonight.   Our Buff Orpington Cockerel doesn't even bother to come out of the hen hut on wet days at the moment.  All the hens come out, cross the yard and go and stand dejectedly in the straw barn.   He stands in the pop hole of the hut looking out but doesn't bother - they are such old girls I don't think it is worth the chase.  Reminds me of a little old bantam cock we had called McKenzie (he came in a box with McKenzie on the side) and outlived all his bantam hens.   He used to wander sadly around the yard scratching and looking really lonely until one day we bought him three new bantam hens.   We watched as he came disconsolately round the corner at dusk - he spotted the three hens, stood in amazement, puffed out all his feathers and crowed his little beak off.   (He outlived those three too).

15 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Poorer? No, you were richer by far. Whenever I see young girls so obviously trying to look "sexy", I feel so badly for them I want to run over and say... "No! Don't buy into the lie! Life is so much more than how you look! Everyone is beautiful!"

Love the story of McKenzie!

Mary said...

Great post Pat - I see this same thing among the young girls in my own family - starvation and 12 coats of mascara does not a beautiful girl make!
It's definitely the media - responsible for how we see ourselves (luckily we're old enough to see through them) - and for all the other ridiculous and disgusting things such as salaries like Rooney's!

I feel so helpless watching it all go down the drain - the kids today don't stand much of a chance when it comes to leading good, productive lives on a decent salary, and feeling good about themselves…………the media has taken control of everything and makes normal people feel really bad about themselves!

Mary

jinxxxygirl said...

Love the little hens story.

I wish everyone could stop for a moment and see the direction this old world is taking and see that its not for the best and change it....
Hugs! deb

mrsnesbitt said...

Glamour - it's the long false nails which get me going - especially when shop assistants can't access the cash register due to the lack of practicality!

angryparsnip said...

What a sweet post about the hens and McKenizie.

cheers, parsnip

Terra said...

Cute story about McKenzie seeing his hens for the first time.
All this attention to appearance is very misguided and there is Scripture to remind us of that. God sees our hearts.

The Solitary Walker said...

Re. celebrity, so-called glamour and the pressure to 'look good' — I agree with every word you say, Pat.

John Going Gently said...

Ah
You are getting the hens ready for spring!
My hens have strangely laid eggs well all winter
A first for me

Heather said...

I always wonder what glamour girls look like when they've taken all their make-up off. Probably like the rest of us apart from the real stunners. As for making personal remarks - that's really unkind and isn't acceptable.
Hope the new hens perk up the cockerel's life. Mackenzie 2?!

George said...

Let's face it. The quest for glamour is a quest for inauthenticity. Who would want that in a person? Not even those hens of yours, I suppose.

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Hi Pat.
You are so right in asking how they dare keep pointing out such a personal thing. Very well put.

Loved the McKenzie story, too! I just read a brief article saying pullet eggs are "fluffier" with a "creamier" yolk. I wonder if this is so?

Cro Magnon said...

I feel very sorry for Rebecca Adlington every time I see another article about her looks; it's disgraceful.

But imagine the pressure placed on relatively PLAIN women, who the press claim to be BEAUTIFUL. Diana Spencer, Jackie Kennedy, Posh, and countless others, have been put on pedestals, and it's affected their entire lives. Imagine getting up in the morning, seeing that ordinary face in the mirror, then having to spend hours transforming it before facing the daily press crowds waiting at your door.

I know it's different for men, but I totally stopped worrying about what I looked like aged 14...and I still couldn't give a monkey's.

Bovey Belle said...

It is a great pity that such shallow ideals are held up as desirable for our young folk and that they have no real mentors to look up to. Wayne Rooney doesn't count as he is admired for the money he earns, rather than his skills . . . As for Posh and Becks - don't get me started!

I think making personal comments about someone's looks/appearance is incredibly rude - a million times more so when it is done across the front of a newspaper. With Rebecca Adlington, having a big nose doesn't stop her being an Olympic medal winner and a shame she has had her confidence dented so badly she feels she had to have surgery on it.

As for McKenzie - I bet his eyes lit up when he saw those young bits of fluff arrive, and I hope your present cockerel has a smile on his beak today!!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Glad you all agree. But then we belong to the age where we would agree don't we. Thanks for joining in.

Crafty Green Poet said...

the media definitely has a lot to answer for on this. Womens' magazines, tv shows etc are all full of tips on how to be glamourous etc.

I like the hen story...