why i am angry

[ursako]

I find myself rather spectacularly disgruntled with the world these days. The causes are many: someone I know and love is suffering from an eating disorder. I'm tired of the sordid lives and deaths of starlets being 'news'. My trainer has dictated for me a strict diet of shredded wheat, beef, mustard greens and takeout Indian. I don't own any

Comments

[str1]

"In other words, I'm freaking out. Just a little. But damn if I'll sit back and shut up. Damn if I'll let it pass."

I wouldn't expect you to. If you did shut up, I'd have to assume the pod people got you. :P

Anyway, I know what you're saying, but I can't say that I understand your viewpoint entirely. Guys just aren't subjected to the level of beauty insanity (Beautinsanity? Insanibeauty?) that women are. The thing that I'd just like to get across to the media is that I don't care, seriously. I have my own idea of what beauty is, internal and external, and while that has been molded by the media to a certain degree, I do not need to be explicitly told what's hot and what's not by some TV jackass with too much gel in his hair. If I believe that a particular girl is hot, whether she's dressed in flats, heels, swimfins, or mismatched socks, I will not be dissuaded. If people would turn away from being spoonfed images of Baldy McMouseketeer for two seconds, maybe they'd see how ridiculous the whole thing is. All of that shit just makes no difference, and it turns perfectly normal people into trainwrecks by trying to conform. There are healthier things to obsess over.

Like Oscar the Grouch, for example. You should see the gossip columns on him. Fascinating, I tell you.

[wendolen]

If people would turn away from being spoonfed images of Baldy McMouseketeer for two seconds, maybe they'd see how ridiculous the whole thing is. All of that shit just makes no difference, and it turns perfectly normal people into trainwrecks by trying to conform.

Please don't forget that people like Britney Spears are not immune to this -- if anything, they're getting it worse than anyone else. (And she's certainly been demonstrating the second sentence amply for years now.)

[str1]

I realize that people like her aren't immune and that the stress of such celebrity can cause people to ultimately do harm to themselves, whether it be turning to drugs or overworking to the point of a nervous breakdown. Some people rebound, but others can't seem to stop until they've completely destroyed their lives, which is a tragic thing turned farcical by the mobs that eat misfortune up.

I wish I had the link handy, but earlier today, I read an AP article on CNN.com in which the AP explained their rationale for blackballing any and all reports on Paris Hilton for a full week. When word leaked out about the experiment, the response to the move was overwhelmingly positive, despite the inevitable group of critics who complained about selective censorship. Maybe if more news services were more vigilant in this regard and spent more time reporting news that actually mattered, things would get better.

[wendolen]

I actually read that piece today. The line from it that stuck with me the most was where they described her as having "a beauty with a "downmarket" appeal." Ouch!

What an insult to everyone downmarket!

But seriously... I wish the AP hadn't suspended their ban. They should extend it to Anna Nicole Smith (yes, she's beyond help, but we aren't) and Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, to start.