Knowledge is a Beautiful Thing
Knowledge is a Beautiful Thing IF you have up-to-date information about Cosmetic Medicine and Surgery. Excuse me?
For the first time in many years, I picked up a women’s magazine, New Beauty’s Special Issue. There are 200+ pages in their Winter/Spring 2015 edition.
The cover model is 42 year old Sofia Vergara: Modern Beauty Icon who states, “I believe women should try and put energy into looking younger. We can’t just give up.” Hmm.
Let’s start with the headlines.
Look Sexy Now! 60 seconds to a dramatic transformation
Best of the Year! game-changing products and treatments you must try!
The Future of Anti-Aging, The most advanced discoveries ever!
Inside, there’s a great ad for Toothbrushes!
Tall
Thin
Smart
and
Chic
Who knew? One toothbrush can contain and manifest all of our most cherished beauty ideals!
When it’s time to get serious about wrinkles, you can defy gravity and get plastic surgery!
The Formula for Looking Younger Revealed!
30’s Botox
40’s Fillers
50’s Consider surgery
60’s Maintain with injectables, fillers and lasers. If you have jowls, correct them with surgery.
It is OK to “soften” wrinkles and not get rid of them entirely but be sure to restore lost volume, and to firm and tighten your skin.
And, if you want to look like Kate Moss, get these Beauty Must-Haves.
Sunglasses $230
Ankle strap shoes $650
Burberry Bag $2495
Black Suede Trench Coat $1695
Of course you need the Perfect Body to wear these beauty must-haves. Lose weight and then, because losing weight isn’t enough, you can choose from these procedures:
Body Lift $6840
ThermiRF $3000 per area
Tummy Tuck $5400
Lipsuction $2815 per area
I told my husband I need $20,000 to look sexy and get my dramatic transformation because you know what? I gave up trying to look younger and now I’m almost beyond repair. My jowls! My skin! My wardrobe! My body!
I NEED CORRECTION!
This magazine does not contain one word about inner transformation, self-love, treating others compassionately or helping feed the poor. Forget about world peace. It’s all about external appearance.
New Beauty‘s promotion of anti-aging propaganda is unnerving and appalling. Too much energy and money goes into this industry. No one is deeply flawed if they haven’t gotten serious about their wrinkles, pores and skin texture. How has this become so important?
Revenue in the U.S. for the cosmetics industry is estimated to rise to 62.46 billion dollars by 2016! This doesn’t compete with the $3.9 trillion for the U.S. military budget. But I digress.
As a society, where are our priorities? What are our values?
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. We live on a tiny blue marble in the middle of vast cosmic space. The Earth is our home. We need to take care of it and each other. If we don’t, we won’t last as a species.
I’m certainly not opposed to looking and feeling good. I am opposed to the emphasis on these skewed priorities.
Will you say on your deathbed, “I wish I looked younger?”
I would much rather say that I lived and loved well.
It’s all about the bottom line and the media selling us what we “should” (not) think. If you are beautiful on the inside, like yourself, then none of this crap is needed at any age. Very sad this is the role model for so many. Keep up the good words Loran.
Gaelyn recently posted..In and out of Joshua Tree with stops along the way
Thank you, Gaelyn. I don’t buy in to what the media tells me I “should” think, fortunately. But a lot of women do and it won’t make them any happier to look younger, in my humble opinion.
Great post!
When I went back to college for my undergrad in 1984, the first class I took was a women’s studies program. In addition to introducing me to amazing women authors (did I even study one in high school in the wild and wooly 60s – hell no!), our teacher taught us to look critically at magazines – the images and the words. It was eye opening. I think it did me in for magazines forever. For all the reasons you list above – it is important that we teach our children and grandchildren how to discern what’s going on – I think images way more so than words personally. Excellent article!!! you should share with the magazine and see if they pick it up. Because most magazines are just vehicles for advertising these days!
tammy vitale recently posted..Is this Message for You?
Thanks, Tammy. In the early 80’s, I took a Women’s Issues class with the same results. Killing Us Softly changed the way I viewed magazine images as well. I hadn’t looked at one in so long, I got curious. I think it’s worse now!
Not sure the magazine would appreciate my commentary.