Late night television is still making fat jokes. It seems that the only thing that is
consistently funny, and the one thing the comedians fall back on is how someone
looks. There is a small twist this
time though. This time they are
doing it to Christopher Christie, the New Jersey Governor, as well as to
Jessica Simpson.
This is not the kind of equality I am fighting for.
If the only way to create something as funny is to remark on
a politician/celebrity’s appearance, then I think we live in a heartless world
who does not understand the meaning of character or when someone is in
distress. Once again we are
fighting a lipstick war and not one of compassion. Attacks on Charlie Sheen and his recent very public breakdown
are nothing short of heartless, and display the type of competition that is
usually reserved for how women talk to each other. And it worries me.
This is not the kind of equality I am fighting for either.
What I mean why are celebrities reduced to the kind of
treatment we normally reserve just for women. We comment on their appearance, their intelligence (usually
the lack of), their latest scandal, their fashion, their hair, their love life
etc. We feel that we have a right
to it, turning to each other and saying things like “Well, if they didn’t want
the public to comment, they shouldn’t have become a public figure.” As if this justifies our own judgmental
behavior. We also seem to think
that there is something that the person can do about it. It is their fault, after all.
An additional argument here is that many of the self esteem
and self image issues that celebrities walk around with we also impose on our
young girls. Man have a tendency
to manifest these issue through the use of alcohol, sex and drugs, while women
focus internally and use food as their tools of choice. Make no mistake; I am not arguing
either form of coping as gender specific, just as a tendency.
Young women are subject to the same kind of scrutiny that
celebrities are. They are attacked
at a stage of development in which they are sure there is an imaginary audience
watching them all the time, and so become concerned with the smallest of
details. The trouble is we have
created a society in which they are partially right, there are people out there
who comment on their appearance, and it is usually other women. Very often it
is their peer group. I found
myself commenting about a woman wearing pajamas into the local Chipoltle. (They
were bright yellow and had SpongeBob faces on them. And it was 4 pm on a Wednesday).
Part of the problem is that we as a society do in fact
attribute characteristics based on how someone looks. It is called the Halo
effect. We give jobs, dates, and
better deals to those who we think are attractive. We want those things for ourselves too, so we primp and
curl, and when we don’t, jokes are made.
Awareness is the first way to fight this, but I spent some
time thinking about the source of this meanness, and can only come up with . .
.nothing. Sure some jealousy is
there, but jealousy of what? I think we should fight this, because I don’t
think it is okay to victimize or dehumanize someone based on their weight or
their gender. I also find myself
becoming derisive about SpongeBob pajamas in public.
So I am throwing open the doors for discussion. How do you think we should fight this
kind of judgment to help prevent young women from “image-ing” themselves into an
eating disorder?