High fashion or high priced hoax?

It's no suprise that runway shows and designers clothes like Versace are wickedly expensive.
But runway shows seem to be less about clothes and more about being flashing and attention catching for all the wrong reasons.

The fashion industry tends to be over-glamourized and seen as just because it's on a runways & on television viewed by so many people that the clothes must be good, right?

IT'S NOT FASHION, WHEN THEY AREN'T WEARING ANY CLOTHES.

What is deemed as 'high fashion' seems to be less and less about the clothes.
And more about who can put on the most outlandish runway show.

Fashion shows and designers control what sytles and colours are 'in' each season,
and fashion should always center around the clothes.
No matter how over the top or creative the designers get with the clothing, there should still be clothing involved.
When it comes down to it, runways shows have turned into a performance that incororates fashion lines BUT
it not based on showing the pieces in the show.


Runway shows have turned into all hype and creativing contorversy.

So don't buy into all the labels and houses of designer brands simply because of the name.
The clothes should speak for themselves, and in most cases they do not.

Who are you to tell someone how to parent their child?

Recently a news story about a canadian couple raising a child to be gender neutral, exploded all over the net.
Here's the original article below;
http://parentingsguide.com/2011/05/canadian-couple-wont-reveal-childs-gender-the-mommy-files/

The article talks about how the family lets the children choose what toys they want to play with, what they want to wear, if they want to be home schooled or go to a public school. So why are they under such fire?

Our culture and media is obsessed with gender. It's how we are placed in a demographic by the media, it's used to defined our actions as 'manly' or 'girly'. It's such a part of our society today, that anything that crosses over the line into the opposite territory there seems to be a media fire there to voice their opinion.

But why is that grey area between boy and girl such a big deal?

Media doesn't always seem to accurately portray transgendered, or gender neutral individuals in a very positive way.

It's not like someone who is gender neutral or transgendered has any effect on your life whatsoever, them being who they are or want to be doesn't hurt you in any way. Everyone should be intitled to live their life the way that makes them happy, and if you don't like or agree with someone else's lifesytle, then look away.

So why, as a society do we feel the need to be entitled on how to tell someone how to parent their child?
I interpreted the story as simply a human interest piece, stating the story, letting it raise some questions and to really get people thinking about how their parenting style is different to this on, and how they might be open minded to accepting this way of parenting a child.

Think of the way your parents raised you and the colours as well as the types of toys they gave you. Where they associated with your gender?
The pressures of gender seperation influence parenting styles, and helps shape how the next generation view gender.

I personall support these parents in how they are raising their child, becasue ultimately it is their business how they raise their child and nobody else's.

If your interested in viewing some more opinions, check out this disscusion lead by Dr.Drew sharing their thoughts on this specific article.
http://fitperez.com/2011-05-25-gender-free-child-discussion?from=PHheadline

It's All for Show

Remember the good old days?
I sure don't, Im way to young to remember the days when there was real simple and pure musicians.

Nowadays singers, musicians, bands, all seem to be concerned with their image and it seems there's so much fluff surrounded with mainstream music now.

What ever happened to the day when somebody just sat up on stage with their guitar and sang their heart out?
Let me tell you one thing, Kesha wouldn't be able to capture people's interest just sitting their singing her songs without all her costumes, props, auto-tune, and dancing.

Compare to 2011 to any year during the 60's ot 70's.

Who was popular then? Bob Dylan. The Rolling Stones. Jimi Hendrix. Janice Joplin. The Specials. Just to name a few.

They were popular for a reason, because of a killer voice and musicality.

Who's popular now? Kesha. Justin Bieber. Brittany Spears. Black Eyed Peas.
Who all seem to be more focused on their image and performance with all of these extra unnecessary things about their sets. If people only focused on their voices without seeing what the singers themselves actually looked like, I doubt they would be as sucessful as they are now.

Now don't get me wrong, Im not ragging on all music created recently, but bands/singers who keep true to their love of music and don't throw in all these attention seeking extras to their image and whatnot never seem to get enough of the deserved attention. Because they don't have that 'it' look or flavour of the month sound?

So all I ask is next time you listen to your ipod, or mp3 or music thingamabob, ask youself why your REALLY listening to the songs you are. Is it because their catchy and everyone is listening to them? Or do they actually have substance and infectious passion from the musicians who make it?

The music industry seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, but the good stuff is far and few between but when you find it, it's priceless.

Here's a few songs I feel still have that put your heart into it, attitude I find infectious. Even though they might not get the biggest coverage, that doesn't take away from how good their songs are.

Wagon Wheel - Against Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtdoyPG0OY

Beauty In The Breakdown - The Scene Aesthetic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoFsshDfE0k

Rabbit Hole - Comanechi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaEBlFwgRVo

If It Means A Lot To You - A Day To Remember
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzq1Kmu7Xmg

It's Only Wednesday - Crash Kings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huz_n5vFXnQ

Photoshopped or photo shocked?

Photoshop is something that goes hand in hand with digital photograhy nowadays.
Especially when it comes to the advertising world.
But it wasn't always the norm to see photos altered.
Before digital photography, photos were always looked as accurate portrayls due to the fact it was much harder to alter in the darkroom.

Personally I have mixed feelings about photoshop. I feel you can be very creative and create wonderful surreal images in photoshop, but in the adervertising world it is taken way too far. Photoshopping in the media has been accepted, and it is so normal that people accept overly prossed images as reality.

Now if you didn't see the comparison, would you have accepted the second one as real?

Or how about this one?

Not convinced that these 'shopped pictures have that big of an effect on us? Eating disorders and body insecurities are influenced by media portrayls of the 'perfect body'. When you are surrounded by it constantly it's hard not to willingly accept it and not consider the fact it's photoshopped. I have never met a single woman that likes everything about her body.

Have you?

So don't ever be down on yourself, especially with summer comming up and it's time to wear those bathing suits soon because you feel you may not have that so called 'perfect body' but even the celebs don't. If they did, there would be no need to photoshop.

We are all human, we all have bodies, no two the same. The fact that you wake up every morning and live one more day makes you beautiful.

Thinking Pink.

Pink.
It's just one of the ten million colours that our eyes can distinguish.
Look at these two photos.

Did you assume one was a boy and one was a girl?

Why?

Simply because of the colour their wearing?
It's not like they can choose the colour of blankets they are wrapped in or the colour of the clothing they wear. But why is pink so overly associated with females?

Not only are baby clothing and toys seperated by pink for girls and blue for boys.
Think of all the commericals kids see growing up for toys that are pink for girls.
The pink power ranger was a girl.
The colour pink has such a negative connatation around it towards men. There have been instances when men wear pink shirts and get called gay. But what does a colour have to do with someone's sexual orientation? It's ridiculous, it's simply a colorur! When a woman wears blue, she is not seen as masculine or 'manly', so why is it so different when a man wears pink?

Elvis drove a pink cadillac, and in the 50's it was popular to paint cadillacs various shades of pink.
Pink floyd? Pink Panther? Not exactly the face of feminine in the least.

So are we really that easily media persuaded, that we are so brainwashed to associate a colour with a specific gender just because everyone else does? Do you really agree with pink being a girly colour? Or have you been bombarded with messages surronding pink, that you have bought into the association of colours rather than using your own rational opinion?

Beauty is Skin Deep.

"You look beautiful today."
Seems like a flattering compliment to receive. But what exactly do they mean by beautiful?
Their personal perception of beauty? What the media tells us beauty should look like? Or do they mean the confidence we exhibit of our inner beauty?

What exactly is does it mean to be BEAUTIFUL?

Beauty is defined as: the combination of all the qualities of a person or thing that delight the senses and please the mind. But we all have our own idea of what we personally see as ideal beauty. But do we really go with our instincts of what we feel is truly beautiful or are we influenced so greatly by the western ideal of beauty that our opinion of beauty isn't really our own anymore.

So let me ask you this...

Is this beautiful?

What about this?

Or this?

All of the people above have one thing in common. They want to fit into what is considered to be beauty in the part of the world they live in. Not so different from us westerner's, huh?

Media messages are all about conformity. In any part of the world. It sets an ideal, and it's your job to meet it and until you do you will be bombarded with it's messages telling you to be like that. And some poeple take that obsession of that ideal way to far.

For example in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, western ads and media is advertised heavily over there. And it has set off a chain reaction where women feel they should be more fair skinned. So much so that they turn to skin bleaching products, which some are unsafe and have horrid lasting effects on skin. Another reason why Thai women bleach their skin is because it is a sign of wealth & status. Tan skin indicates you are a labourer and very poor. So let me get this straight? To be beautiful, you have to rich? Sounds crazy right? Not far fetched when we compare it to all the Hollywood stars who the media adore because of their success and beauty.

In some parts of Western Africa traditional tribes still consider the beauty ideal passed on for generations of being overweight to be beautiful. It is considered to be more attractive to be overweight and have stretch marks. Some daughters are sent to camps where they are fed up to 16,000 calories a day to help them gain weight. Just about the polar opposite of the whole 'skinny is pretty' philosophy if you ask me.

There's one place that seems to be on the right track though. Brazil. The embrace and encourage curviness. Even the comparison of Brazilian models to North American models, they look much more muscular, healthy and curvier. Sounds perfectly realistic, right? Think again, Brazil has an huge draw of crowds for their plastic surgery industry. No place is perfect, but Brazil seems to be onto something groundbreaking...healthy? Could it be? Encouraging health and being fit? This is one thing that shouldn't just stay as a trend!

So what ever happened to having a size 12, healthy, happy, confident,  Marilyn Monroe being the face of western beauty?