Another widespread form of control of the populace is low self-esteem around appearance.
This is the method that spreads bizarre unattainable images of femininity through Barbie dolls and Bratz dolls or air-brushed advertising in magazines and on TV. Dangerously thin extremely sexualized.
The unattainable masculine images showing weird muscular development and weapons in boys toys and macho movies.
Aisles of products in the supermarket and chemist for ‘beauty’.
If you’re not good enough you can be manipulated into spending a lot of money and time focused on trying to make yourself ‘acceptable’ or ‘attractive’. It saps your confidence that would otherwise be used to get out and live actively and interactively.
A side-shoot of this is where we only choose ‘beautiful’ people to have a public voice (on TV in movies as singers …)regardless of whether they have anything valuable to say. The greater danger is where the value of what is said is ignored if it is not delivered by a ‘beauty puppet’.
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is one book that documents this phenomenon.
A contrast to this is the singer Susan Boyle who sings like a dream which caught many by surprise because her looks don’t match her voice.
The song ‘At Seventeen’ by Janis Ian also puts the other side of this phenomenon where ‘beauty contest winners’ also pay a big price.
ARTIST: Janis Ian
TITLE: [url=http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/atsevent.htm]At Seventeen[/url]
Extract:
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth
/ C – / Dm – / G7 – / C – / :
…
A brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs
Whose name I never could pronounce said
Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve
The rich-relationed home-town queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company and haven for the elderly
Remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality
And dubious integrity
Their small town eyes will gape at you in
Dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen
…
When you look at female leaders in the world they provide a good antidote to this.
Few have succeeded because of their appearance. Women like Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany) Gail Kelly (Chief Executive of Westpac Bank) Julia Gillard (Prime Minister of Australia) did not succeed because of their physical beauty but because of extreme competence in what they were doing and an ability to articulate it in primarily masculine forums.
Anna Bligh (Premier of Queensland) provides an excellent model of a leader who eminates a practical appearance and is fit and healthy without artificial ‘beauty’ titilation.
Julia Gillard tends more towards hair dyes grooming and over-styled designer clothes but it is debatable whether they are helping or hindering her role. She is probably over-reacting precisely because of the pressure on everybody in a public role to be ‘beautiful’ something that has never been her strong suit.
Certainly none of them are promoting sexualised doll-like images.
Men are increasingly caught up in the appearance game too.
If we only elect beautiful people we will end up with a lot of well-groomed physically outstanding men and women but that does not mean they have what it takes to be good leaders.