Beauty brainwashing

Ok, so the title sounds a little insulting, I realise that, but read on and you'll see what it is I actually mean.

The idea for this blog came from watching the new E4 series, 90210. Whilst I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but notice two things:

1. The mums are somewhere in the region of maybe...5 years older than the 'children'.
2. The supposed 'children' are all well into the realms of scarily thin.

So, with regards to my first point...I know this is no new thing, it was blatantly obvious in the O.C and One Tree Hill, in fact in any popular American teen T.V series. I realise that no-one really wants to watch a programme full of people who, heaven forbid, actually look the 40 something they're supposed to be. That would take away the aspirational qualities of the show. However, when old grandma graced the screen with her presence, I couldn't quite believe that even she only looked about 50, minimum. And that's 50 with plenty of plastic surgery. Surely no-one would mind a grandma who looks 65, atleast? Grandmas are supposed to be old.

Before anyone takes me up on this, I do realise that this particular grandma is meant to look quite beautiful and be a strong presence, so I'm not saying let's replace her with a sweet old lady. However, going back in time a little to Gilmore Girls, Loreli's grandmother is a fiery presence and she still looks like a grandma, granted not a great grandma, but a grandma atleast. Are we really that fixated on beauty and perfection nowadays, that even a grandma who looks like a grandma isn't acceptable in a programme like this?


My second point follows on from this. Why do we need to have ridiculously thin people on screen to aspire to or just to make us plain miserable everytime we so much as even think of a chocolate bar? Unfortunately we are living in a society where we are fed beauty ideals and because these unaturally thin people are always on the T.V, in films, in magazines, there is no escape and we are brainwashed into believing thin is beautiful.

But this isn't just a rant about thin people, oh no. Personally, I am sick and tired of hearing about all these 'real women'. The people we see on screen are under immense pressure to look the way they do and just because they are thin, does not make them any less of a woman. How do you think they feel hearing that? Because society is jealous of these people, we victimise and isolate them from normality. Gok Wan parading his 'real women' doesn't improve the problem, it only increases the divide between 'real' and thin with no happy medium it seems. Its not OK to be ridiculously underweight but don't forget we also have a tremendous obesity problem. Telling overweight women its ok because they're 'real' might help them feel better mentally, but its not going to make them any healthier. I am a UK size 6-8 and am most certainly not underweight but I feel left out of this 'real women' group and I don't fit in with the thinnies either. It would be nice to see some bigger girls on 90210, but I'm only talking as far as size 8-10. I don't expect larger people to be on programmes like this, but to see some other people like me would be just awesome.