Sunday, March 10, 2013

How far?

Early this morning as my husband and I were walking in the mall, I stopped to look in the window of a big name store. He knows that I like to know what is in style and who is wearing what.  He also gives his input about today's fashion know how that he picks up from watching the television. He told me that Kim Basinger's  daughter looks quite mature for her age, although Kim Basinger still looks very young herself. I told him that I am not surprised as I am sure models keep themselves in good health. Then I almost bit my tongue as I remembered my parents telling me that only about five percent of girls who want to be models make it in the profession and the rest struggle hard to even survive, some even compromise their dignity and belief. I even asked my mom about the wrong impression we get from watching the models being admired by the general population and young girls wanting to look like them. She assured me that there was nothing wrong to wear fashionable clothes and to some extent look pleasing to the eyes. That always bothered me. Looking good is one thing but in order to look pleasing to the eyes, how far are we expected to do?
One of my former co-workers who is from Russia says that it is more important for a woman to look nice than for a man. I always told her that it is important that we dress according to the job that we do, no matter who we are. It  was very easy for me to walk and work at my job as a vendor auditor, but in customer service it was just as hard. I also had started resenting what men could get away wearing.
How far have we come as women in work force? It is hard to say without statistics and demographics. All I would like from this world as a woman is for people to look at us women as human beings. I would like men to not be threatened by us if we are more educated than they are nor to look down upon us if we are not. We could be homemakers and take motherhood seriously for sometime and be in a profession in later years or be professional now and be homemakers and mothers in later years.
In the television show "Carrie Dairies" the prequel to the HBO "Sex in the City", the high school junior gives more importance to what she wants to do, then to what her dad wanted her to do. This show takes place in the early eighties. It reminds me of a friend whose daughter sounded very independent. She too was in high school then and said that she will expect her husband to help out in the house as she will have to work.
I was lucky enough not to have educational loans. Today a lot of young women have to pay back their educational loans, so the old theory of our Indian culture that a woman's place is at home will not be practical.
Anna Nicole Smith's life was tragic but her daughter is beautiful. She may be modelling right now, but I hope that she does what she wants to do rather than what the world is expecting her to do. If she models, it should be for herself, if she does not it should be for herself too. I would say the same for the daughter of Cindy Crawford who seems to be pretty level headed..

15 comments:

Shelly said...

I think the modeling world is brutal on a young girl's psyche and self esteem. I am glad for those who make it, but there are some real horror stories of what happens to those who don't.

And I like to look nice and to look at fashion trends. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as it's not defining us or changing the essence of who we are.

Great post!

Anonymous said...

A very well thought out post!!

B. WHITTINGTON said...

I agree with everything you said, Munir. I believe we have to be true to ourselves and our morals when choosing a profession. I hope the young models going into it make good choices as they grow up.
It's a tough world we live in today.
We think we have come so far in being actualized and becoming better people then something comes up like inequality in pay between males and females in the very same job and there is much discrepency. (Not sure I spelled that right). You gave me much to ponder on.
Thanks for this post. Barb

My books on Amazon

Ezra and OTher Stories, a collection of short stories
Vada Faith, women's fiction

Susie Swanson said...

A very good and well written post.. Thanks for a great post.

Chatty Crone said...

You know I think the modeling world is a killer for young women.

The work force in same ways is good for a woman and in some ways it has hurt us.

Great post.
sandie

Granny Annie said...

The dress code for office wear, especially the shoes, has ruined my feet. Before I retired I had some foot surgery and had to wear some flat orthopedic shoes. One day my boss (another woman) called me in her office to ask how much longer I was going to have to wear those clunky shoes that ruined my professional image. I went back to the unbearable high heels.

yaya said...

I've always been glad my work dress is scrubs..everyone looks the same, our hair is covered with a blue shower cap looking thing, I wear a mask, shoe covers that cover my very sensible work shoes for someone to stand in for 8hrs. Yep, no keeping up with the fashion models in surgery! I do feel sorry for woman who think they need to do that.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Thanks for such a thought provoking post. I have such mixed feelings about this but agree with a lot of what Shelley had to say.

Launna said...

I think every woman should remember she can achieve whatever she desires if she puts her mind to it... there is nothing wrong with beauty but what is inside of us is way more beautiful than the outside :)

Optimistic Existentialist said...

From a male point of view, I find it unfair that there is so much pressure on women to be models and look like models. This was a wonderfully thought out post.

Ghadeer said...

I agree. Although it is difficult to know whether someone is doing something because they truly want to or were influenced to, because most of the time we are influenced in so many ways without even noticing.

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Optimistic Existentialist said...

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Nikki said...

Great post! I've been researching for a long essay I have to do for uni. My topic is about female representation in fantasy fiction and how just because the typical female character is a housewife doesn't make the male author sexist - sometimes they really respect that role in a woman and show it as being more important than the mens role. I like the idea of seeing the positives in things like that :) I liked this post :D

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

It's not more important for women to look nice than it is for a man. I think both are under equal pressure these days (especially in the U.S.) The way you look literally affects how successful you will be.