I have never
understood why women do this to themselves, when the results are clearly
horrific. I can understand a bit of hair dye, but it's not necessary, long
natural hair looks better even while going gray, and after a while dyed hair on
an aging woman (or man) just looks out of place. I understand a bit of make-up,
of course. But botox, cutting, nipping, etc, etc, just makes the face age
horribly.
Save your
money and your pain. Everything fades with time. We all age. But aging
gracefully is a skill much of our society has lost.
Obviously
being young and healthy is the best physical part of life. But we are mortals,
our hope is not in this world. Eat healthy, work out regularly, and you'll
extend your health and beauty naturally. But it will still fade. I am fitter
than I was ten years ago, but I'm not as strong and I need longer to heal from
injuries. This is all a reminder this world is not our home. Our focus should
not be on trying to artificially extend that which cannot last anyway,
"3
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of
gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden
person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which in God's sight is very precious" (1 Peter 3:3-4).
Now, of
course, some woman will be reading this and think, “Matt, you have no idea how
much pressure is put on women to look like movie stars, or athletes, or
dancers, etc, etc. How can you be so ignorant to all of the pressure women are
under?” Whenever this topic comes up it is not uncommon for some people to talk
about the kind of social messaging that women are placed under. Like, "Have
you seen how unrealistic they present woman's bodies in the public sphere? That
puts pressure on young women that you men just can understand."
I could
respond that they do the same thing with men. Just look at these images below.
Do you realize the punishing routine that is required to create that physique?
Even these guys can't maintain it for long.
But the truth
is the reason this sort of messaging is less successful on men than it is on
women is because when men see Chris Pratt like that we think, "Is that the
chubby guy from parks and rec?"
When we see
superman look like that we think, "How does Superman get so fit, when
literally everything around him is too easy for him to pick up? He can lift
planets, how does a guy like that get shredded?" And when we see Hugh
Jackman look like that, we don't even really notice him because we just see
Wolverine, and of course a mutant with super healing powers can get in good
shape.
In other
words, the problem is not the messaging, it is in the mind of those who believe
the messaging. There is being fit and healthy, and there is looking like what
movie stars look like in these movies, and unless your full time job is working
out to look like that and you have really good genetics, it ain't happening.
Some men resist the messaging a little bit too much and let themselves get
incredibly unhealthy. But still, the point stands that it is inside your mind
where you decide where the social messaging is going to have an impact.
People have
to stop blaming messaging for their choices. We all have fallen for a public
narrative at some point, we are all human and fallen after all. But the fault
is in us, not so much the messaging. There are plenty of other messages out
there that we could be listening to.
Women don’t
go down the plastic surgery route.[1] You don’t want to end up
being someone else’s cautionary tale.
List of
References
[1] I
understand there are exceptions for serious injuries and things like that, this
should go without saying, but someone will likely bring this up in their mind,
so I should make a note of it.
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