nuances of being

evaluate.critique.stop

consumerism in the western world (or shall i say, the depressing greyness that is vancouver) is so easy.

it is too easy. this is a society for which i could easily spend thousands of dollars on frivolity - beauty products, clothes, vitamins, cosmetic surgery, bags, stuff and more stuff.. you get the picture.

like just today i spent something around $100 and it was so easy. $20 for a beauty product. another $20 for another beauty product. $20 for art supplies. $20 for food. so easy - it was like it was a fix.

yes, a fix. a fix of consumerism because of what? i was sad, upset, anxious and needed something to soothe my rattled nerves? i had nothing else better to do? i was greedy and feeling overly narcissistic today?

let's be honest here -- it just may well be a little bit of all of the above (though to varying degree).

--------

while meandering through the vast wastelands of shopping bliss, i couldn't help but ponder rather philosophically about all this nonsense about falling in love at first sight. about a week ago i picked up that awfully-good-yet-still-manages-to-be-so-utterly-trashy magazine, cosmopolitan (yes, i did and stop judging), and read this article about 'why men fall in love'. now why on earth did i bother even reading that article in the first place, i don't know. as i was reading it, i couldn't help but laugh - apparently, falling in love for men is purely scientific and nothing else. for example... he will fall in love with you for your symmetrical face. he will want you because your flawless skin says that he can procreate with you and have genetically robust offspring. and finally, he loves you because you guys have so much sex that he feels "bonded" to you because of the chemicals that are given off during sex. so the lesson for us girls?

1. get plastic surgery if your face isn't already symmetrical (they actually word this "have a more symmetrical face")
2. wear loads of makeup to fake a flawless skin look, or else just fake it by getting more plastic surgery a la michael jackson
3. have lots more sex, particularly with a guy who you want to love you

isn't love so easy? now if only we could all have plastic surgery to all look the same so men will love us and the world will be a better place...

i also read the heartwarming 'how we met' stories, where the guy gives his version of how he met the 'woman of his dreams'. i found it particularly interesting that most of the guys related it to how the girl looked -- she caught his eye and that is how it started. uh-huh.

so lesson for us girls: be as attractive as possible all the time. because you never know who you may run into anywhere -- your future husband!

really, though -- why do we put so much emphasis on 'finding someone'? why is there this need in our society to couple up? to date? to be part of a unit?

i was having brunch with friends this weekend and the topic of conversation came up -- someone had asked the dreaded 'are you seeing someone' to a friend. then the mayhem started. one of the girls started going on about how it was so difficult, especially the older you get (she is in her late twenties). i wouldn't know because i'm not there yet, but maybe it is true... but it just got me thinking, why is there this ongoing pressure to "be" with someone? can we not be satisfied with our lives without that "certain someone"? or is our societal conditioning of forming family units so strong that we cannot ignore the call to simply find someone to just 'mate and procreate'? (or to put it in more traditional, heartwarming yet so-cliched terms: "spend the rest of our lives with")

Posted by unknown at 11/20/2007 12:55:00 AM