calimary
calimary's JournalMen have a somewhat easier time, although looks matter on men, as well.
But mostly, they get away with flimsy-in-the-looks if they're male. If you're female, on the other hand, you're SUNK.
ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY. Pretty gets you farther. And more. And better. PERIOD.
Everyone wants to look at pretty. Everyone wants to have pretty on their arm. Everyone wants to BE pretty. NOBODY wants the ugly duckling. NOBODY cares or is interested in the least. Pretty will get you everything from the benefit of the doubt to the better prom date to the job, all other things being equal. I know with absolute certainty that if I were a photogenic blonde, most if not all of my career in broadcasting would have been on television where they paid better and of course the exposure was FAR better. As is, my career was mostly in radio.
When my daughter was born - and was just simply pretty from the get-go, I was THRILLED!!! And relieved like I cannot even describe! Big blue eyes, blonde hair, perfect peaches-and-cream skin, heart shaped face, Cupid's bow mouth, ridiculous natural golden like-in-the-storybooks corkscrew curls - she looked like she belonged on an Ivory Soap box. I kept thinking - "THAT came outta ME????" She turned out to be smart and sensible and kind and a good judge of people, too. And - shame on me, when I found out I was pregnant with a girl, I prayed for that, based on my own experiences, being snubbed and stood up and laughed at and hiding under my hair and long bangs for most of my youth and going to the Senior Prom with a blind date who pretty much ditched me to hang with his friends. Didn't matter that my grades were always the best in class. Always had a weight problem, bad eyesight which meant thick glasses until my dad couldn't stand to look at that anymore and made me switch to contact lenses which hurt and never fit correctly and made me squint all the time, and a nose big enough to provide you shelter from a rainstorm. With a lifetime of shit like that behind me, I didn't even care if our daughter had ANY brains. I just wanted her to be pretty. So she wouldn't have to go through the shit I went through as a fat ugly kid and teenager. My first thought, when I first saw her (after "THANK YOU, SWEET DARLING GOD!!!!!"
, was - "she'll go farther. She'll probably make more money. And her life will be easier. And with far less heartbreak. Simply BECAUSE she's pretty." So far, that's how it's worked out, too. AND on top of that, she's never had a weight problem, either! O.M.G.!!!!! She was born with the proverbial brass ring.
Shitty, isn't it, the way things are? We're so damned superficial! In this world but especially in this country! Nothing but the world of appearances. It governs EVERYTHING.
My mother was hugely hung up on looks. HUGELY. My father, too, for that matter. She was always thinner than I was, and better dressed than I was, and super critical and sometimes downright hostile toward me that this was all I was. Always cared about her appearance almost obsessively. Dressed up to go to the grocery store. Didn't like that I cared little about my appearance but I wore a uniform in school and really didn't have much of an "appearance" to care about in the first place. Undoubtedly the root-source of the contentious love/hate relationship that was constant between us over the years. And I remember as a child, the time she told me this "joke": Two women in an elevator notice a little girl in there with them. One of the women turns to the other and in a loud whisper says "she's not very p-r-e-t-t-y." And the little girl (who's clearly heard this) blurts out "no, but I am VERY s-m-a-r-t."
I can't freakin' WAIT!!!
I already know a couple of the spoilers. My son told me - he's obsessed. He knows I'm the type who goes directly to the last few pages of any book to read the ending before I start at the beginning. (I figure life itself throws you enough surprises, thankyouverymuch. In fiction, at least, I get to find out ahead of time how it ends.)
And remember in "A Hard Day's Night" when Ringo was being interviewed at some
press reception, and was asked - "are you a Mod or a Rocker?" And he answered - "I'm a Mocker"!
I remember it so well! England really was the holy land for us Beatlemaniacs. And Liverpool was Mecca and Medina all rolled into one. My kid's band does a WICKED cover of "Come Together" - in my honor, I think. Both our kids grew up knowing and appreciating the Beatles. My son was the only one in his 4th grade class who knew about the Traveling Wilburys, and everyone who was in it, and why they were important. Blew his teacher away, and she fancied herself an expert on rock history.
Shit - I used to keep a running count of how many different Beatles pictures I owned.
Every page of every "16" and "Tiger Beat" and "Dig" magazine! I gave up after a couple of thousand.
Saw the Beatles in Vegas and at the Hollywood Bowl. Didn't hear a thing! Too busy screaming my lungs out! But who cared? Even brought jelly babies!
Do you remember that little eye-shadow/highlighter thingie that Yardley of London sold - less than two inches high, with that white and horizontal striped design. There was this little hinged top that you could flick open with your thumb, and it had a teeny little mirror in the lid. And the top compartment was a cream highlighter. THEN - even cooler - there were one or two little bitty "drawers" underneath it that you could slide open with another flick of your thumb, and one would be black or dark brown - that was the eyeliner, and then another one would be some color of cake eye shadow.
HEAVENLY!!!! Whoever came up with that obscenely-clever design was a GENIUS!!!! It was such a neat little thing - like a toy for makeup lovers! And with it you could have brow bones like Jean Shrimpton! Sigh… Wonder whatever happened to mine? Probably somewhere in my stuff. I know for sure I did NOT throw it out. MUCH too cool to toss! Even when you'd used up the stuff the mirror still worked and you could still play with it.
Thinking about it here - now I want another one! Wonder if they have 'em on Ebay?
I like your idea better.
Can I add a few ted cruz-types, too? Get rid of 'em ALL! OR how 'bout we ship 'em to Somalia? That sounds like their kind of "government" anyway… (and all the guns and anarchy you can eat!) That's an entire country full of "nobody tells ME what to do!!!!!"
Now THAT kind of typo I can get behind.
I was gonna add something about the incorrect spelling of "received" that caught my eye, but hell, my computer won't even let me type it the wrong way!
Welcome to DU, Cheese4TheRat!
Great to have you join us! There is quite a bit of inspiring humor here! And indignation. And everything in between! Threads like this are what we live for!
Welcome to DU, griloco!
Good to have you with us! And the receipts from the Ukraine's resources would pay for it all! Wouldn't cost the taxpayers a nickel! Just ask the all-knowing chickenhawk paul wolfowitz!
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Oregon
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 81,527
