I want to look like a doll

I am known as someone who doesn’t wear make up and as someone who needs to dress more feminine. I have to say I do agree with the latter ‘advice’ and it is work in progress, however in terms of make up I stand my ground.

As I usually like to do, while travelling on the Melbourne-slow-as-snail-trams I was exploring the streets and shops we passed. If anything caught my eye I’d try and remember where it was so that I can come back to it. Like that organic shop that I would like to go have a look at. Tram 86 stop 40-something.

However something horrible caught my eye as the tram stopped at a traffic light. It was a poster on the window of what I think was a beauty salon.

A poster of ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of two women. One was white with blonde hair and the other was dark (with dark hair, if you care). Next to the photos of the white woman it said something about her being pale in the ‘before’ shot and next to the dark lady something about un-even skin tone.

So I started staring at the before shots to see what was wrong in them.

In all honesty there was nothing wrong with either of them. The pale one probably looked more pale because she is blonde, but so what. And so what if someone’s got an un-even skin tone. SO WHAT?

I find it so ludicrous that (mostly) women would go out of their way to create this ‘perfect’ look of themselves, where some end up looking like clowns with the amount of (unnecessary) make up on their face. Yes, you see those orange-looking girls walking down the street, that’s what I’m talking about. Although I’m sure there are other examples.

And my point in this blabathon of mine is not make-up per se. The poster got me thinking if we, the consumers, weren’t the ones demanding all these ridiculous I want-to-be-perfect and make-me-look-like-a-barbie-doll thingamajig (that’s a synonym for ‘thing’ according to ‘Word’) it probably wouldn’t be on the market. Yes they try and sell it to us by using sneaky marketing by making us feel insecure in our own skin, which we fall for. However it is mostly our fault we do fall for them, simply because we have a brain.

If we weren’t trying to please everyone else (talking to myself first!!) we’d have much less grey hair (which you than cover up with some hair color that is full of chemicals, which ends up ruining your hair and if you’re not careful by the time you’re 30 you’ll probably need a hair rejuvenation treatment because you will bebald).

Make up is only one example of our degradation.

We pay too much attention to our outward then our inward. Looking good is important, don’t get me wrong. Just because I might dress up as a hobo at times and not wear make up, I am not saying everyone should. Good presentation is very important and a human thing to do; it is also a part of self-image that we put out there and from experience can affect the way you are treated by others. However when our self-presentation becomes an obsession and a means to fit in, it is a problem.

I attended a ‘Prohibitions of the Tongue’ class the other night out of which one thing stuck in my head related to what I’m talking about. It was- ask yourself why do you dress the way you dress. Why do I present myself the way I present myself? Try answering it in more than just a sentence. It could tell you quite a bit about your own person.

And I could go on.