Vanity Fair?

Miss Conflicted courtesy of Vogue

My trip to Barnes and Nobles after church was a pilgrimage of sorts, a quest for a Vanity Fair magazine. I settled for a Vogue.

For some days now I have had this mental cement mixer churning around and around regarding expectations and in particular expectations of and about women. How we think of ourselves, and why. How we act, and what thinking style predicates action. I know, I know - why think about this stuff at all? I don't know! Can't seem to help myself, then the thought gets stuck in my head. Seems that the only way to exercise myself of it is to go ahead and explore the subject, write it down, and then be somewhat done with it that way. Obviously I am interested in this subject personally at present, but maybe someone out there will get something out of this post too.

My little creation to the left is the result of my taking scissors to the Vogue and combining bits of women throughout the pages. Miss Conflicted (that's her name) - she doesn't know really how to look or who to be so she is a little bit of a lot of people. The final result though is somewhat odd, don't you think? I discovered while going through the Vogue magazine is that I did not see one photograph of the women I know and hang with. What's with that? I guess I hang with the wrong crowd...I think not.

I have six sisters and I love each of them and I did not see any of them in the pages of that magazine. My friends don't look like that. My Mom didn't. My sweet nieces are beautiful, but I did not see them in those pages either. That teacher at school that took some extra time with me wasn't there. Neither was the doctor I see in there. I did not see Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Sally Ride, Margaret Thatcher, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt or Condoleezza Rice.

And so that leaves me to wonder why these magazines and movie stars and such are so popular and if this culture we are living in is actively detrimental to the psyches of women. We look at places like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and point our finger at their mistreatment of women but I think that in our culture women mistreat themselves to give credit to this fantasy glamour splashed across pages, internet and printed page.

Ok ok - what's the solution? I don't really know except to live in the real world with real people, affirm each other daily and shun the type nonsense that makes money off portraying truly unattainable superficial goals of physical "perfection".

And so my soap box has shrunk in size now but I leave you with this thought -
Psalm 139:14
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well".