Unlovely

Love•ly |ˈləvlē| adjective ( -lier , -liest ): exquisitely beautiful

Un•love•ly |ˌənˈləvlē| adjective: not attractive; ugly.

Beauty. Allure. Charm. Elegance.

What makes a woman lovely?

Rather, what does society deem beautiful?

What do you think of when you hear the word pretty?

Lisa Noel Ruocco -Model

Long legs.  Glossy hair.  Full lips.  White teeth.  Smooth skin.  Big eyes.  Curling lashes.  Tiny waist. Delicate collarbone.  Flat stomach.  Curving hips.  Toned arms.

What’s one thing they’re looking for? Maybe you don’t think of those things.  But Hollywood does, modeling agencies do.

Skinny, slender, slim, thin, svelte, lean, willowy, slight, lanky girls.

Anyone heard of Tumblr?  It’s pretty much a photo  blog with captions for each picture.  Lately there has been a weight-loss blog craze.

People (mostly females) post pictures of skinny girls and talk about how much they want to slim down.  It’s obsessive and even scary.

“I didn’t eat for three days so I could be lovely,” said Cassie, a character from the British television show Skins. 

I don’t watch the show, but I stumbled upon that clip and went WHHHAAAATTTT??????

People are listening to this?

I saw this picture the other day:

Oh my Ross Turner… That is SO WRONG!

Exercise is good.  Maintaining a healthy weight is good.  Trying to look your best is good.  But that?

THAT is NOT good.

In fact, that’s bad.  Very bad.

Weight-loss blogs.  Media figures promoting eating disorders and exhibiting symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder. “Thinspirational” pictures.

All these entities are furthering this perversion of beauty.

Speaking of which, how much do you know about photo editing?

Not that much?  Maybe this will give you an incentive to think twice about the hottie you met online:

Freaky huh?

I’m not saying that trying to be skinny is bad and I’m not trying to trash make up and photo editing.

I just think that there is a line between the lovely and unlovely sides of beauty and crossing that line could be very bad indeed.

Washington D.C. 2009

Check out the links.  I promise they’re not standard Wiki pages!

My best friend (yes, the same one I mentioned in New York City 2008 who says I can’t cross a city street) and I have an ongoing debate.  East vs. West, New York or California?  San Diego or Washington D.C.?

Of course being from California, I always say West.  We have better beaches, better waves, we’re more relaxed, we have Hollywood and Disneyland.  He laughs at me, claiming they have better cities, better public transportation, better manners, New York City and the good colleges.

In California, we don’t really have seasons.  But when we do, we can have all four seasons in one day -even one afternoon.  So when I went to Washington D.C. with my school in October of 2009, it was quite a shock seeing the trees changing colors and watching the rain fall steadily every night and early morning.

We took the red-eye out of LAX, flying out at 10:45 p.m. on my first Virgin America flight (I highly recommend this airline.  It’s super awesome.)  The inside of the cabins look like this:

They’ve got little TVs built into the seats.  You can chat, watch movies, play games, and order food/drinks with them.  Last time I was there they were working on texting and calling, the next step in air travel technology.  There are pretty lights all around the cabin and the seats are comfortable.  And  wasn’t even sitting in first class.  I was actually in the cheap seats and it was still good, which is saying something.

We landed in the Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, and took a shuttle to collect our bags.  Stopping at a McDonald’s, we ventured forth to historic Jamestown.  Only 6:30 in the morning, the sun was already strong and shining brightly through the autumn tinted leaves.

The tour guide took us into the shops, which were filled with beautiful trinkets.  Made of the export Jamestown was famous for back in Colonial days, glass baubles of every color covered the shelves in neat rows, glittering in the early morning light.  Jugs and coasters, decorative figurines, cups and pitchers were all laid out to buy.

I remember standing on the shore, the water gently lapping at the toes of my vans, and staring out at the pale blue offing, fringed with the green of a small peninsula that jutted out across the horizon.  The ocean sat still inside the bay and I could not hear the waves crashing on the other side of the greenery.  But the day was radiant from where I stood.

There were all sorts of odd monuments hidden through Jamestown, standing at the side of a winding path or quietly tucked back in a shadowy grove of trees.  The magnitude and architecture struck me, so different from the design in California.

Whose side are you on?  East…?  Or West?