materialism, i'm not finished with you

i've realized that materialism takes many forms. yes, we, as a society, depend on "coveting thy neighbor's goods" to sustain our economy. but "goods" doesn't just refer to your best friend's shirt, or your sibling's sweet new ride, or even to your neighbor's house. thanks to plastic surgery, you can covet your neighbor's gooooods (i.e., nose, face, boobs, butt) and get that too, only tighter, firmer, smaller, or bigger, depending. i'm taking the opportunity to pick on spencer's better half, heidi, because A) it's easy, B) it's cathartic, and C) she's in the news.

after what i just read (i'm such a loser), i must add D) it's sad.

now, my four loyal readers, i'm not going to turn this into a gossip rag. i'm not going to waste your time (or mine--i have a synopsis to write!) on senseless celebrity drabble because most days, i can't care less who's doing what or whom and when. i'm using heidi as an example of the epidemic that is sweeping girls across our great nation, and across the world. the perception of feminine beauty as thought up by an overweight, balding, old guy. the perception we cling to. that women have to be skinny and super tall, while maintaining big boobs and big bootays.

many, many, many, many moons ago, a famous painter named peter paul reubens painted voluptuous, curvy women like these:

The Three Graces

he painted Venus (the looooooooove goddess) as a curvy blonde. back in his day, which was the 1600s i know, it wasn't a crime to have some meat on dem bones. it was frowned upon to be a skinny, waifish, little thing because that meant you were A) poor or B) diseased. women like the graces were esteemed as beautiful. there are fertility goddess statues of women with large breasts and large bellies. and it was OKAY. it was the STANDARD.

the difference between those cultures and today's culture is that they didn't covet immortality. we do.

we want eternal youth. we women don't just desire growing old wrinkle-free, we DEMAND it! hell hath no fury like a woman scorned by her crows feet and laugh lines! God forbid we tell our stories on our faces. God forbid we look like we've lived.

i can't be the only one disconcerted by what i see on TV and in magazine ads. women who are stick straight with huge boobs, airbrushed to perfection in print; women 40, 50, 60 years old afraid that one wrinkle will transform them into old crones when women who allow themselves to age are so beautiful (and don't freak me out in olay commercials). my grandmother lived to be in her 70s. she didn't have a wrinkle on her because she took care of herself. okay, she had the crows feet, but that was about it. she didn't care if she got them. i loved and admired that, especially in a culture that thinks wrinkles are like cancer. worse, really.

so where does heidi fit? *honestly, i almost forgot i'd mentioned her. i have to try to reign this bad boy in*

heidi falls into the materialistic category that houses plastic surgery. coveting your neighbor's ass, and i don't mean donkey, folks.

there's so much that bothers me about this girl. she's only 23 (i'm 24), and yet she's had at least THIRTEEN surgeries. thirteen. nose, lips, boobs, entire face. and she wants more. it's sad. it's sad that we can't be comfortable in our own skin. and it's even worse that people profit off our insecurities, but of course, people will profit off anything these days. here's a girl, who was actually pretty before, now looking like a trampy barbie doll. honestly. there are lots of things i'd like to change about myself, too, but i'm not going to. because i want to be okay with what i have. i love what my body could be should it lose about 20 pounds (to be in that healthy range). i'm happy with my face. i don't want to think that the only way i can be beautiful is to have some person who doesn't care about me deconstruct my entire body and rebuild it as some plastic mess. i don't want that. i want to explain to my kids, especially if i have girls, that i developed an awesome personality through my ugly faze, and now i'm happy with who i am. what's the point of looking like everyone else?

no one can be happy as-is anymore.

and what chills me is that this girl thinks God's okay with her. um, NO. i dye my hair because i like the colors better. i admit it. but that's as far as i go. she's tucked and enlarged and removed the things that make her who she is, and if she thinks that the "real me" is some inflated, sanded down, superficial surgery-addict, then that's pathetic, and i can guarantee that that is NOT what God created her to be.

see, these bodies don't last, no matter how we try to preserve them. and when heidi dies and decomposes, all that'll remain of her will be silicone.

what kind of legacy are we leaving for our children? we're teaching our sons that girls like heidi are what to look for (forget personalities. those are so pasé), and we're teaching our daughters that you must look like this to be accepted. it's wrong. it's immoral. and it's unfair.

but, again, these are the people we want to be like. go figure.