Saturday, 25 January 2025

Image Obsessed

 

IMAGE OBSESSED

 

Why is it that humans so often lose sight of the obvious?  Our obsession with body image or self-image is one of the prime examples.  We tend to forget that ordinary in the image department is the overwhelming average.  And yet we appear to purposely focus on certain body types as ideal or preferred.  Youth, beauty, strength and virility, all are temporary attributes destined for inevitable decay and decline as we advance in years.  But we’re so desperate to make it last!  Most of us crave what isn’t there!  No matter how hard we try.

We even glorify people who have given up on healthy diets and lifestyles and we elevate obesity as something to embrace with understanding and compassion as if the inner beauty comes shining through from within the mass that surrounds it.

We’re obsessed by appearances.  Muscles, curves, flat tummies and powerful abs.  Clothing and hairstyles.  From the way we cover up, to skin covered with garish tattoos, we can’t seem to get rid of all the ‘image’ excess in our lives.

We’re either stuck in a rut or engaged in a race to appear either in or out, with it or left behind.  We even judge people on whether they are cool or not.  “You’re so not with it.”  “That is so rad!”  Since I don’t own a cellphone I don’t have to participate in the stream of short-form texting people use to express their opinion.

From top to toe, we’re obsessed.  To hair or not to hair; partially shaved or completely bald, curly or straightened, gelled, colored, spiked or streaked.



Why can’t we be happy with who and what we are?  Where does this push come from to look and appear different?  Does it accomplish anything?  From my mom’s side I inherited droopy and baggy eyes and early male-patterned baldness from both sides.  My slightly crooked nose is a bit of a mystery which my older sister explained could have been avoided if I’d only wiped my nose consistently from left to right, taking equal turns.  I’ll let the medical establishment be the judge on that one.

Plastic surgery might improve my looks somewhat, but it won’t change who or what I am.  Is there an inherent sense of satisfaction in appearances, even if they are fake?  And when it comes to attracting potentially intimate prospects, would it really provide a more satisfying outcome?

Perfect white teeth appear high on the people’s list of musts, along with a winning and engaging smile.  Got to show off those pearly whites.  No sense not smiling and keeping them hidden.

Some people change their looks on a daily basis, although facial tattoos are hard to cover up.  Hair pieces and extensions, hair dyes, dressing up or down, covering up or basically showing all.  Spray-on tans or skin bleaching, fake dots or proudly leaving existing skin tags, warts, blotches, ageing spots or any other anomaly in place as a badge of individuality.  Extravagant or modest, the world is your oyster and nearly anything goes.




Clothing is a big tell.  Fashion runways are all about image and making an impression.  They feature clothes to be seen in as any effort to turn them into working garments would lead to imminent equipment failure.  Likewise for the shoes worn by women when they dress to the nines for special events.  It turns into a live-to- tell-about-it contest. 

We also use clothing to highlight or indicate certain professions, especially in the military and security forces.  It clearly indicates who is in charge and it distinguishes the men and women in uniform from the rabble of the masses.  You want to know that you belong, what particular tribe you are a part of.  It is all about identity.



You will never see a devout Muslim woman cavorting around in a skimpy bikini or wearing mini skirts and hooker boots.  Likewise you won’t find a Mennonite male dressed in an Armani suit, wearing Gucci loafers, aviator sunglasses, clean-shaven and with a fashionable haircut ready to take on the runways as a male model.




For some people a certain dress code or appearance is all about indicating what particular tribe they belong to.  They want to make sure that instant recognition is a given.

Hats are another dead giveaway.  For a lot of young men it is all about baseball caps and how you wear them.  Flipped back is for the young and for looking cool.  Fedoras were a hit at one point in time and dressing up like Italian gangsters.  In England, especially during horseraces attended by royalty, the wearing of headgear, from dainty to outrageous, is all about getting noticed.  Top hats and bowlers for the men.  The men all dress like penguins so as not to upstage the women.

Where do we take our cues from?  Does it all hark back to our animalistic origins?  I mean, look at the animal world.  Color and shape, from simple to absolutely fantastic.  From camouflage to utter brilliance.  In many ways their appearance mirrors that of the human world.  A lot of the large herds, like African Wildebeests, are rather drab and uniform in looks.  Kind of like our average factory workers, dressed for work and comfort, rather than for fashion and style.  Utilitarian.  How did it happen in the animal world?  The zebra insisting on stripes so that it wouldn’t be mistaken for a horse?  A leopard mandating spots because it wants you know that it is not a lion?  And what about all those colorful parrots?  Birds of a feather flock together.



I have a sneaky suspicion that we do take our cues from nature.  From colorful and distinct, to brilliant and very specific to give a critter a distinct advantage, to either hide or attract.  We are the same, aren’t we?

Is there even a pictorial compendium out there that celebrates the evolution of fashion during the ages?  From dressing up to dressing down?  From the mundane to the totally bizarre?  On the island of Marken in the Netherlands someone came up with the insane idea that women should walk around with a substantial peak of hair sticking out from beneath their bonnets, lather it with sticky soap so that it stands out like a stiff board.  Have there ever been penalties handed out, or prison sentences, to individuals concocting some of these crazy notions and fashion styles?

In recent years the slashing of brand new jeans for instance is but one fashion head scratcher.  Especially when I saw one young girl taking it to the ultimate level and her jeans were literally hanging in tatters around her legs.  Why do we do the things we do?

Asking you to change or moderate extravagance would be a silly and totally useless thing to do.  You are going to do what you want to do anyway.  The only thing I would like to propose is the following: Let’s not take ourselves too seriously and that counts for everything, not just looks.      

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