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My eyes scan the class and I see a distinct similarity in body shapes.
I can tell they all do the same workouts. The dip and definition in the shoulders meaning they do yoga for flexibility. The shapely legs and slim frame achieved from HIIT. Strength classes have given them toned arms and high, tight asses.
The asses are all the same shape. Round, strong, voluptuous. The emoji peach in real life. The peach tapers into a smaller waist. Everything is accentuated by workout leggings that make the waist even smaller, the stomach flatter, the ass plumper.
The bodies aren’t the only similarities. All the hair is long and straight. The lips are big, the cheeks are full, the nails are done, the skin is dewy.
All I see is the same woman
Same. Same. Same.
How did this happen? When did we all want to become one thing?
I know that the current desired, but naturally unattainable, body shapes are influenced by The Sisters. Lorded as revolutionary when they first arrived promoting T&A instead of skin and bone.
Now the T&A are so obviously surgically enhanced they’re no longer promoting a fuller figure but a body that says I can afford to buy a whole new look. The aesthetic tells us that if you have enough money ~ whatever you’re not happy with ~ you can pay someone to change it.
There appears to be a lot of unhappy women…..
As the Sisters get older their faces don’t look younger they just look more ‘done’.
Tighter and smoother and plumper and shinier and more like each other. They tell us it’s all natural. It’s make up tricks and continuous skincare routines and regular workouts and salads. Lots of salads. Salads give you a flat stomach and a big bum.
And the women seem to follow like rats after the Pied Piper.
The tune the piper plays has no acknowledgement of the cultural appropriation that’s happened. The look they are promoting is so ethically ambiguous it’s merged into one. Even those who’s aesthetics they stole, who’s features, historically, were not deemed worthy of beauty, want to look like them.
What is it about the cult of One Woman? Why do so many want to look the same?
The Homgenised woman is a young woman too so the need to look the same is largely a need to retain youth. Young is better. Young is pretty. Young will get you noticed.
That’s what we’re force fed. That’s what we’re shown. Instagram Face shows us youth and beauty and success.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
We chastise the women who dare to join the pack after their sell by date. The girl gang of YOUNG. PRETTY. BETTER. HAPPIER is so appealing that the lure of joining it means some will alter their faces to fit in. If they don’t the conversation around them can be worse. More hurtful. Louder.
Aging isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be painful and humbling and the lose of what you were and what you could have been can be sad.
So sometimes women will play with their faces and alter their bodies and try to get back into the youth club because it feels safer there. It’s what we’ve known and it’s where we were most desired and it’s what everyone wants right?
*****
It’s not just the faces and the bodies though. It’s how we dress too. The One Woman is everywhere. The herd mentality of trends is like a Tsunami online, in shops, on the streets.
All dressed the same. The sea of Beige, the flood of oversized blazers, a stampede of big boots…..
Same. Same. Same.
The algorithm soothes the overwhelming bombardment of content on offer and whips away the exhaustion of having to think for yourself.
WEAR THIS
APPLY THIS
EAT THIS
It’s all done for you and you can easily, without effort, blend in with everyone else. Hey, They all seem happy, why shouldn’t I be?
I miss individuality. I miss those who break away from the herd. Who have chosen to ignore the masses and do their own thing. Who’s bodies and faces and clothing choices don’t align with the crowds.
How do you get noticed if you’re all wearing the same thing? Or do you not want to get noticed? Why would you not want to be noticed?
Blending in and not being seen feels like a slow, boring demise to me. I don’t believe the attention seeking middle child in me is the only reason I can’t join in. I want to feel inspired and see my future in others. I rarely find what my face will look like in five, ten, fifteen years. I constantly seek out the stylish older woman who dresses for herself and not for everyone else.
Where are you?
I’m desperate to see you, to touch you, to experience you.
If you want to break away then I’m here for you and I will champion you loudly. I will help you {www.redshoesnoknickers.com} and talk to you and have fun with you. I want to look at your face and see how much you’ve laughed in life, how much you’ve cried and how much pain you’ve endured. I want to see the story of your life written on your face and in how you present yourself to the world.
I’m here. Standing outside the mass of every woman.
One individual woman.
Who’s coming to find me?
London | March 2013
The Contents of My Consumption
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