What shall we rant about today? OH! I know. See... body image issues have long been a passion of mine. So much so that I wanted to go off and get a PhD to be paid to research and rant about them all the rest of my days. Well, the whole economic crisis that left universities with no money and the me not getting in anywhere stunted that ambition... for now... but that doesn't stop the ranting and raving. Oh no... it just makes it come out in forms of blogging and random conversations, sometimes with others, sometimes with the cat, sometimes at random cars driving by.
I just spent an hour by the pool... let's not even GO there on how that can complicate body image... and finished reading the latest edition of Marie Claire. Okay, I know that these magazines are going to piss me off in one form or fashion... but I did not anticipate this particular manifestation of cultural crappiness. I can take apart the skinny jeans and the models and the liquor bottles shaped like the female body. I can dissect the images that portray violence against women as a tool for selling handbags and high heels. I can shake my head at the eccentric fashion guidelines that have taken misery to the next level (I mean seriously, have you SEEN the shoes they want us to buy for the Fall? FOR REAL!)
Then, on the LAST page... there's an ad for the new emerald-green 4x9 inch Sony VAIO notebook... a COMPUTER... that says "Make your MacBook Air feel old and fat." WHAT THE HELL?????
My first impulse? Rip out this page and send it to a friend and therapist, Elyse, who happens to be the resident guru for body image at Renfrew. Second impulse? Scream and shout. Third impulse? Write a ranting raving bitching post on my blog. Guess which ones I did?
I mean... seriously?!?!? It's a fucking computer! It doesn't have to worry about body image or size or anything. And why should it? Why not have a comparison about megabytes or pixels... or just bash the PC vs. Mac thing again and again. You could talk about internet safety and high-speed access. WHY does the ad have to "go there" with size and age and weight? First of all... the whole Macbook Air thing as being the "thin" computer - really? What's up with that? And then to go even SMALLER? What the hell? What is this culture trying to do... institutionalize anorexia so that even our electronics have complexes and avoid mirrors?
It seriously pisses me off. Secondly... why would ANYONE want to make something that is already perfectly fine feel "old and fat" - that's just mean. Thirdly... and this is going into my rhetorical theories... WHY do we insist on making "old" and "fat" dirty, bad words?? Seriously... there is NOTHING wrong with either of those words. Old is a state of aging... if we cease aging, we cease living. I'd rather be old than dead. So what is so wrong with being old?? And fat? Okay... I struggle with this still... but really, at the end of the day, it's a food group. It's NOT about body size or cells or anything else. That... and to insinuate that a MacBook Air is FAT... it has AIR in its name... what is fat about air? NOTHING. Ads like these just perpetuate the ideas that fat = bad and aging = bad. When really? Having fat is part of LIVING. It's part of being a normal human being capable of living and breathing and jumping and remembering and all those fun things that come with being alive.
ARGH.
Maybe I'm just ranting. Maybe I'm over-sensitive. But really? Really? They had to go and make something about ELECTRONICS into an issue of fat vs. thin and old vs. young? What the hell is wrong with us? What's next... pillar candles are going to be sold as "fat" or "thin" - you can't have any curves in your house... not even in your candles. Or electronics. Watch out for the wine glasses... they're going to get straighter and straighter until they resemble shot glasses... but wait... being short isn't good either... so they'll be the tall shooters. Maybe we should get rid of bowls as well... can't have those rogue curves lying around the kitchen. Plates are flat. But stick with the breakfast plates because they are smaller and clearly, the dinner plates could go on a diet, shave off an inch or two around the edges.
I'll stop. For now.
2 comments:
I could not have said this better if I had tried. I agree 100% and you know that Elyse would flip if you were to tak that to her.
I know I am always pushing this website, but I can't sing its praises enough: http://www.about-face.org/
SO awesome- I <3 media literacy campaigns. And you should definitely submit that ad to them for their Gallery of Offenders.
As always, your analysis was spot on, while being so passionate and entertaining. Keep it comin'!
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