March 18, 2005

A City Full of Broken Mirrors

We as humans always want something more…something better than what we’ve been given. It’s all over the media, its in the shows we watch, and frankly, being a student at Ryerson, I couldn’t possibly escape being bombarded with billboards upon billboards of the ‘ideal’ product or look claiming to better my life.


The flashing lights, the endless pamphlets, and the people preaching the ‘word’ of God?
This is Toronto. Or is it?

Today as I walked past the giant billboard of Sarah Jessica Parker posing for a Gap ad, I couldn’t help but wonder, in a city where ‘beauty’ seems to be unattainable, why are we always chasing it?


I mean we have American shows like 'The Swan' and 'Extreme Makeover' which only reinforce the message that you're body is never good enough. My professor played us an old clip from a tv show in the late 50's called 'Queen for a Day' where different housewives would literally compete for who had the worst life and why they deserved to be pampered. It made me sick to my stomach seeing each woman trying to top the other, and today much hasn't changed. Its something within all of us, no matter how nice of a person you are; we females are ALWAYS competing with one another. And the finger of blame almost always gets pointed to the media. But what if the media, and all other messages were swiped off the earth completely... would we all of a sudden be nice to one another?
For some reason, I highly doubt it.

Sure it would be nice to have more shows out there embracing woman in a positive way, but really it all comes down to your own self confidence. As hard as it is to see yourself in a city full of broken mirrors, it comes back to how you absorb it, and what you decide to do with it. I passed another billboard today with Paris Hilton on it, I realized that you've essentially got two choices: become depressed by it, or look at it and realize you've got way more than she ever will... class and respect.
As I posted in my earlier blog,

Its not what you do to your body
but what you do to your mind that counts

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