Core77

Wow. How old do you suppose a young girl begins to engulf our society's addiction with how we look? I can think back to fifth grade when I secretly shaved my legs in my bedroom and being in sixth grade and stealing my mother's makeup; she said I was too young, that I didn't need to. I thought she was thinking too anciently-besides all my girl friends had been engaging in such activities for quite some time already. And I felt behind. And now I think, behind what? Who? It could likely be guaranteed that a number of the other students I pass at the university I attend also feel behind. Why can't everyday girls or women look like this explosive, ugly display of beautiful models, celebrities, and the like? What do girls and women have to do to achieve this "luxury"? Somewhere along our society's time line (this ideology has been around for a while), somebody spread the disease of obsession with what beauty looks like: what we look like, what we wear, what car we drive, where we live, where we work, and so on. There is always the effort to move upward, yet is this a bad thing? Our country is one that tells its people to "be all that you can be," and that moving up in the world and meeting goals creates happiness in our lives. What if people feel good by looking good? What about dressing to impress for an interview? Business careers require business suits for men and women to look the part. Fashion designers desire thinner models to better show off their creations to the public eye. So there are times when appearance is because of customary requirements and not based on trying to be better than the next. Outside of fields like these, young girls and women,and more recently men, see them and will do what it takes. Surgery, crash diets, eating disorders, to dental bleaching, creams, makeup, or hair coloring. In class we were assigned an essay assignment and had a discussion on the question, "Does design play a role in your life?" Is it style or substance? Overall, style will continue to influence our society indefinitely. There's no denying that design in any form matters to people as they walk through their daily lives. What about substance? Surely everyone and everything needs some substance at some times, but can the weighing scale ever even out? Not likely. The young girl here demonstrates the innocence of children and the effects that socializing people has on them in their future. How simple: talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does. Oh, so she wants to be an actress? That's great, but she shouldn't have to starve herself in order to be one. Worrying about appearance takes time out of our lives. Shamefully so, I can remember back in high school when I would take my entire lunch period fixing my hair and makeup after a P.E. class. Now I scream to myself that I could've been hanging out with friends or doing homework or anything productive for that matter! I believe I caught the obsession disease somewhere at a young age when my mother said you can't leave the house not looking at least somewhat presentable. At that age, all she wanted me to do was to pull my hair back off my face, and at this age, I have exaggerated her belief with dieting, fasting, exercise, whatever to look a certain way. Now I don't let the beauty industry get to me as much through means of a lot of therapy, realizing that everybody wants to look like somebody. Even celebrities can wish to look like the next person. Should it really matter what you look like to strangers if you have your circle of friends or family who see you for the awesome person that you are? My mother never talked to me about the beauty industry's evil temptations, but I came out okay. Can other mothers reach their daughter's minds and plant the notion that style will affect their life, but there can be made room for substance as well. What a powerful ending displaying how scary the beauty industry is and its reach for girls and women, and yet how simple it is to defeat-talk to them first.