Sunday 5 January 2014

Contradictory.

There is so much we can learn from people-watching. Not just about people individually (e.g. weird habits or something like that) but about society as a whole and how humans function either individually or within a group.

One thing I've learned is people often act or behave in different ways in different situations. I once had a friend (let's dub her Anastasia or Ana for short). When we were alone, she was playful, caring and waltzed about as if she didn't have a care in the world. She acted like a big sister to me and answered all my questions, no matter how stupid or insignificant. When we were with our relatively small group of friends, she was mostly the same but held back a bit more and sometimes embellished the truth a bit, making up some stories that were false.

But the real change came when we were with other people (who I sometimes called "outsiders", or at least in my head - haha). Ana would make up new parts of her that were utterly ridiculous and construct lies out of thin air. At the time, I was too young and too scared to confront her about it so eventually we just distanced ourselves about this. Although we were once very close, we drifted away because she felt pressured to fit into this "perfect" life or stereotype.

I was bored so I was wandering about through tumblr when I saw a post that were quite interesting. It didn't occur to me to screenshot it (oops) but what was said really stuck with me.
"Why don't boys feel ugly without makeup on? Because society hasn't told them that they need it"
(okay everyone a round of applause, tumblr just got deep)

Sometimes society just seems like one big contradiction, and nothing makes sense anymore.
Be yourself! No, not like that.
You're unique! Just like everybody else.
We accept everyone! But only if you are normal, good-looking, athletic, smart, etc. 

Honestly if the "space" that is allocated for people society will accept gets any smaller, nobody is going to fit anymore. We're people, not Barbies or Disney princesses or whatever.


2 comments:

  1. You are so right Florence. I have (or had) friends like Ana which I realised I wasn't able to trust; and since they knew I was gullible they took advantage of me. I'm sure you have been in this place before, and it's not nice! Also on the whole "why don't boys need make up" thing, my friend and I were just talking about this yesterday! Since forever it has always been known or 'thought' that make up makes you look better, you need it, you look ugly with out it. People need to stop and think, does this make sense? It's okay for boys not to wear make up, but girls are considered ugly if they don't?! This is such a stupid logic. I have got so fired up now, and my brain is really working so thanks for that! What do you think? Is the whole make up situation getting better, worse, or exactly the same?!

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    Replies
    1. First off - friends who take advantage of you and then push you aside are the worst. It feels like everything you've ever known and loved has just crumbled down over you and is smothering you under its weight. It hurts a lot, but knowing that other people have gone through this and I'm not alone really encourages me to keep on going.

      Second off - makeup. Makeup to me is such a difficult thing to understand. All these brands are saying that their products are for woman to improve on themselves, yet at the same time the adverts just scream "You're ugly. Buy some of this so people will find you attractive". It's really hard to tell whether the makeup situation is getting better or worse - a lot of people are thinking and talking about it, some people are taking action in small ways, but very few people actually write in to companies to tell them that they're doing something wrong.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I might have to write another blog post now. Haha.

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