nothing’s going south
I know I’m on shaky ground with this topic and potentially leaving myself open to all manner of mick-taking and criticism, but I don’t think I like what women are becoming. And, if your favourite red-top is to be believed, they all apparently aspire to it. Artificially enhanced femininity is rife and coming to a work-place, gym, public house or coffee shop near you very soon.
OK, I hear you say that women through the ages have all sought to enhance what nature has given them, or not as the case may be, and the older have always paid to look younger, so there’s nothing new in that. But what is new is the manner of this enhancement. There is no pretence to hide the fake, no desire to disguise or beguile, no attempt to discreetly integrate any particular procedure. It appears to be less a case of enhancement and more a case of replacement. If you’ve got it, flaunt it has never been more true and believe me, it’s going to be in your face – hair, nails, tan, teeth, t*ts and more. From where I’m standing a botoxed, liposuctioned, tummy-tucked, boobed-up, bootylicious Lily Savage and her fellow drag queens are taking over the world.
And if women’s empowerment is not achieved through cosmetic procedure then surely it can be gained in equal measure via a strong dose of retail therapy. Owning and wearing dozens of pairs of shoes is a compelling way for a strong and financially independent women to display and declare such qualities and status. My, she can shoe herself without the support of a man. God forbid we consider it shallow, crass, exploitative and showing of both a lack of imagination and moral compass.
Buying stuff, aka retail therapy, is the way our modern western culture encourages us to believe we have some form of power and control. When it all goes wrong and this season’s must have bag is ever so subtly different from last, then we discuss the morality of it all and how we should have seen that subtle change coming a mile off. We could have bought better, more wisely, as opposed to not in the first case. Health and happiness now appear to take a very dim and distant secondary place to what has been coined ‘erotic capital’ where what you are is determined purely by your look and your possessions. Lady Gaga may sing ‘Born This Way’ but with her internal shoulder pads, prosthesis, spare ectoplasm and recent ‘horns’ she clearly displays she was anything but.
