I went to buy a pair of pantyhose this morning and was confronted with a million choices - sheer, control top, leg shaping etc. I chose the control tops in the hope that they would assist me in dropping a dress size without any of the hard work that it ususally involved (a.k.a. exercise & healthy diet). As I tried to squeeze them over my hips, just as if I was an Olympic swimmer squeezing into my high performance Speedo swimsuit, I started to think of all the things we put our bodies through just to look/feel/appear different than what we really are.
Vanity is not a new phenomenon, history tells us that women bound their feet to make them smaller, broke ribs so that they could fit into a tiny corset, and applied ghastly powders/chemicals to their face as make up.
Today, we are no different from our ancestors. We endure plucking and waxing parts of our bodies that very rarely see the light of day. We even thought that xxx waxing was the way of the future .. ouch. We colour our hair and convince ourselves that the tingling/burning sensation on our scalp is normal and just part of the process. We add extreme heat to our hair by way of hair straighteners and end up with 3rd degree burns on our ears and foreheads. We pierce our ears (and other unmentionables), poke our eyes out with mascara wands and walk around smelling like a high school chemistry lab thanks to the new healthy glow we have sprayed onto our body.
Why do we put ourselves through this? I know that God created us in his own image but boy I wish that Heavenly Mother had a little input when the fairer sex was being created.
I think we judge ourselves too harshly. When I look in the mirror I shouldn't focus solely on the blemishes on my face or the stretch marks on my body but focus on who I am as a person and value what I have to offer to my family and those I come in contact with.
PS. control top pantyhose adds 15 minutes to your toilet stops and doesn't help with dropping that dress size.
3 comments:
i boycotted pantyhose years ago! i think if you look in the index of that history book of yours you'll find them listed under torture devices.
oprah and tyra rave about 'spanks' they look like physio therpy bands,the ones you wear when you've sprained your ankle and they're about as small.
I know.. the things we do. Men have it so good, when they get face wrinkles and gray hair the look "distinguished" "handsome" and "rugged". People dismiss women who are wrinkled and gray as slightly psychotic eccentrics (which we kind of are, but people shouldn't judge). If I can tuck my belly fat down into my jeans, I usually call it a good day.
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