Do we create image or image that creates us?

I just read the newest entry in Mijung's blog. Unfortunately, for some of you, it might hard to understand as she wrote it in Indonesian. Anyway, she said that she got this dream about went home to Indo where everyone greet her and happy for her. But one thing that made her sad, thing that we sometimes do not realize. It's the assumption from most of the people that being small, or skinny is the most ideal body size. For this, we might ask, whose fault is this? Is this simply because we feel being challenged to keep our body slim and sexy? Or is it because we only have clothes in S size? I'm fully agree with her that it's the media's fault, especially magazines.

We've been reading magazines since what? 10? 12? 15 years old? How many, let me rephrase, how many hundreds times we flip over pages in a magazine and seeing slim, skinny ladies in the newest fashion? How many times we stuck at a page looking at some cute skinny women in their colourful dress? Maybe it's nothing, flipping over pages of magazines might only take 15 to 25 minutes at a time. It feels like nothing, but without our consciousness acknowledging it we are being shaped by them. We are being transformed. Our mindset has been constructed. We -maybe most of the female readers- will think that if they don't have skinny or slim body, they couldn't wear pretty dresses. Not wearing pretty dresses means that we might attract unpleasant staring or presumption. And nobody will gonna have crush on them. :) That is silly isn't? If you think it through, it is indeed silly.

Do you really think or believe that if you buy those fancy, cute and colourful in the magazines, then you can just wear it in daily occassions? You can wear it to visit your old granny in that? Or attending a seminar about Global Warming in those funky dresses? Think again. You're not gonna apply those many skin foundations or lotions to your face, are you? That will show that your face has layers just like a lasagna you had for lunch the other day. Most probably you wouldn't have enough time to wear so much make-up (unless you work as a clown in a local circus) =P No, I'm not being harsh to females. I just want to make them to start realize, to quit dreaming of things that are sold by marketing people. This is their jobs, they are paid to create image. To create such an imaginative promises and dreams to the readers. Of course, those marketers smart @ss can't be blamed. It's now our turn, us as readers to start moderating ourselves.

We create images, so many of them that shape our acceptance, our understanding of someone's appearance. We follow images that sometimes we treat ourselves and others based on that simple judgement. Be aware that sometimes images also tackle us, giving us wrong direction, false impressions about our own images. Images should be no more than marketing tools, that is used by so many business establishment to raise their profit up. Society itself is the one who should control images, which society? Who is in a society? You, me, they, us. We are as the creators, the readers, and the consumers of images should have a grasp. Like Mijung said in her blog, "What is it for you to keep reading magazines that will only give you guilty feeling?" Guilty for not being slim, that makes thousands of females and women -as young as Year 9- are crazed about diet. Wrong diet. For most of the females I know, diet means eating as least food as you could. And this, most of them, will give bad effect such as long term damage to their stomachache, or feeling weak, some have pale face in the most of the days. No, ladies. That is wrong. The real diet is limiting yourself not to consume things like saturated fat from unhealthy food or food with excess oil. Further more, the conception of today's youth is supporting those false images. How many times we saw someone is left out by their friends because they don't have a build, muscular body, or don't have good curves and slim in size? Sometimes we force ourselves to follow the "trend" in the local friendship network just to be accepted as a 'member'. We deny and stubbornly accept that this is how it should run. Fat = ugly = no friends = weirdo. Can we blame on those type of friendship? No, they are also the victims of false imaginary dreams. That to make a better friendship, everyone should be slim.

Why torturing ourselves just to satisfy some people on the street so they can stare at us? Our images shouldn't be limited by curves in our body. Magazines that offer strict dietary is only a guide for those who might exceedly overweight and need a support or guidance. But don't take it as strict rule or requirement that if you don't do it then you're not cool or as trendy the rest of the readers. So, the bottom line here is, don't be afraid to eat. I'm not suggesting you to drink a full glass of fat or to eat a big lump of steak full with fat. Just be moderate. Limit and balance your dietary with healthy stuff, fruits, and of course regular sports. After all, why we should follow someone else's created images? Or some magazine's images? Isn't nice that we also can make our own images? And by the end of the day, you could simply ask yourself that do we really create image or that image creates us?

"The more vivid your imagination, the more dangerous the world becomes."
Matthew Lotti