Jan 21: Perfection

Do you feel pressure to be perfect? How much of it is tied to what you see online?

Most certainly not.

Perfect doesn’t exist. We all have our ideal of what perfect is – what it looks like, what it feels like etc, and a lot of people strive for that – perfect life, perfect job, perfect partner etc etc, but it simply does not exist.

The media, in it’s various shapes and forms, plants a seed in your head – if you look a certain way, then your life will be happier and easier, you’ll be popular, you’ll marry a model, live in a mansion, have lots of money so you can spend your days living like one of those bitches from The Real Housewives…

… I don’t buy it.

Maybe it’s because I’m so jaded?

When was the last time you saw a model interviewed? Miranda Kerr, anyone?!? Even Sportspeople… hello, Ryan Lochte…

Both of them are incredibly beautiful, and great at what they do… so long as they don’t open their mouth – then it’s all over. But people like this are everywhere… basically anything that doesn’t rely on being skilled enough to string a sentence together. They may be beautiful, but sometimes it ends there. Take Miranda Kerr… gorgeous, Australian, ambassador for countless organisations, international supermodel, and up until last year, was Mrs Orlando Bloom… as an outsider looking in, she seems to have the perfect life, job, partner etc.

…now he’s left her, she’s been dumped by Victoria’s Secret, as well as a number of organisations as their spokesperson etc, does she still seem to epitomise what we view as perfection??

Being seen as somebody who has everything doesn’t exempt them from all the personal and professional shit life throws at every single one of us. Just because you’re famous, and beautiful, and rich etc, doesn’t mean you’re untouchable.

But that’s the problem, the media constantly portrays a life of wealth and beauty as being perfect, when really it might appear like that, but underneath all those diamonds and designer dresses, they’re just as miserable as the rest of us.

Case in point, let’s look at Taylor Armstrong from Real Rich Bitches Housewives of Beverly Hills:

Married to a very successful (read: wealthy) business man, has a young daughter, lives in a mansion, wears designer dresses, is driven around in a limo, flies on private jets, runs a charity, donates to charity, has published a book, spends her days lunching with the other ladies, attending social events, and basically just being a rich glamorous bitch.

Sounds pretty perfect, right?

Well, behind all that, she was being abused by her husband, keeping it from her friends, developed a drinking habit as a coping mechanism, lashed out at her friends for even talking about it, tried to keep her husband happy and went against everybody else’s advice to just get out and save herself and her daughter and had a number of pretty epic breakdowns. In the end her husband hung himself, she found the body, was up to her eyeballs in lawsuits and debt, discovered her husband had a completely secret life and business dealings she knew nothing about, and had to sell off her possessions including her wedding ring to start repaying her husbands debts.

Still sounding perfect to you?? Didn’t think so.

Even with Taylors case, I think it’s wrong to be airing such dirty laundry like that and bringing it to the public’s attention, because it’s between her and her husband, and who’s right is it to get in amongst whatever issue they’re having. On the other hand, she’s said that she’s grateful that it was featured on the show, simply because of that reason. It brought attention to something like domestic violence. It brought attention to the fact that here is this woman being beaten by her husband, and she’s still managing to be a parent for her child, and continue about her day as though nothing is wrong, putting on a brave face, whereas her girlfriends (and the rest of the country) are all sitting by thinking ‘gurrl, you gotta get outta that situation!!’. But nobody can force her to do something she’s not comfortable doing.

I feel sorry for all celebrities having their private life plastered all over the news, especially when it’s about their relationships and the ending of them. Celebrity divorces, custody battles etc, they’re all big sellers in the media, but part of me feels that at the end of the day, they’re still human beings like the rest of us.

If I was going through a divorce, I wouldn’t want anybody knowing the ins and outs of the situation as it would be between me and my ex – who else’s business is it? Oh that’s right, NOBODIES!!

So no, I don’t believe in perfection. You might, and good for you for doing so, but I see the world for the harsh reality that it is, and it’s certainly not perfection.

Daily Prompt: The Outsiders

Tel us about the experience of being outside, looking in — however you’d like to interpret that.

This is actually quite a great prompt for me to write about right now, as I’m up to my armpits in episodes of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Hulk and I have recently smashed out 3 seasons in about 2 weeks, and currently up to Season 4 and it’s fantastic!

When I was first introduced to the Real Housewives franchise, it was with those lovely respectable ladies of New Jersey,

And, of course, Hotlanta Atlanta:

But for now, we’re dealing with Beverly Hills, and fuck, have those bitches got money!!

Growing up with no money, I have always been fascinated by people and their wealth, and how they choose to display their wealth. Some people are actually humble enough to not parade their wealth around, but they seem to be far and few between. The rest of them, however, are basically like Nene above: “I AM A VERY RICH BITCH” and the great thing about shows like these, are that they give the rest of us peasants an insight into a world that we will never know or experience.

When was the last time you bought your 15yr old daughter a $50,000 car? Or the last time you flew in your friends private jet across the country? Oh, maybe you didn’t have time because you were too busy swimming in your millions of dollars from all the casinos / basketball teams / restaurants you own… I can imagine it would be such a hard life.

All these ‘ladies’ (and I use the term so very loosely) seem to do is throw lunches and dinners and parties and make them all so ridiculously over the top. Didn’t your parents spend $60,000 on your 4th birthday party? No? Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. How are you able to live with yourself? How can you even look at your parents the same anymore with out an overwhelming sense of resentment for not making your day the most elaborate and over-the-top day possible. How selfish of them!!

The thing with shows like this, is that for people like me, there’s rich, but then there’s rich. Just looking at some of the mansions these people live in is simply ridiculous. To have somebody say on camera that ‘being forced to live in anything less than 10,000 square-feet is going to be a complete nightmare’… ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?? Some of these bitches have walk-in wardrobes bigger than my 2br apartment. It’s just unbelievable how some of these people live.

But like one of the girls says “Having money doesn’t give you class, it just gives you money” and the show clearly demonstrates this. They all talk about how each other needs to behave like ‘a lady’, and stop getting caught up in petty bullshit, but that’s pretty much ALL they do in every single episode. They may have millions of dollars, live in mansions, have successful husbands etc etc, but at the end of the day, they’re all basic high-school bitches always starting shit, and stirring the pot.

Well, except for Kim Richards. She’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic now. She’s now out of her stint in rehab and ‘sober’ again, but she can barely string a sentence together at the best of times.

Unless of course, she’s lucid enough to get involved in a fight

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/daily-prompt-outside-2/

Daily Prompt: Style Icon

Describe your personal style, however you’d like to interpret that — your clothing style, your communication style, your hair style, your eating style, anything.

I really don’t know how to answer this, because I’m not really certain of what my style actually is…

Clothing style: Comfort. I like things to be comfortable and relaxed. I’m not a suit & tie person, I never have. I’ve had to for work, but even then, I’ve certainly not enjoyed it. Sometimes I wish I was, but I simply don’t have the wardrobe space for a plethora of suits and shirts ties. Hell, I don’t even own an iron!

It’s also partly because I work in the fitness industry, so majority of my wardrobe is all gym gear.

Communication Style: Sarcasm.

Most of the time, anything that comes out of my mouth is sarcasm. Sarcasm and humour. I have a tendency to shoot my mouth off and then think about what I’ve said and it’s usually with a touch of remorse and guilt, but most of the time I don’t apologise. Now, I have to make sure that I really think about what I’m going to say before I say it, because I usually just say things as throwaway comments without actually meaning anything by it, however, the people that I say these things too take them seriously and literally and are easily offended or upset by it. And that just annoys me. They should know by now that I’m like this, and to basically just take anything I say with a grain of salt.

Hair Style: A hot mess.

Previously, I had what I referred to as my lesbian hair, which was partially shaved with a little mohawk on top…

…but just not that long, and it didn’t trail down the back of the head – it was just on top. But now it’s growing out and going all curly again. I can’t stand my hair. I had a dream last night that I ended up growing my hair right out and had a small curly afro, and I actually liked it. Clearly, it was more of a nightmare, rather than a dream.

Eating Style: Get in mah belleh.

There is nothing attractive at all about watching me eat. If anything, I see food as some kind of competition – how much food can I stuff into my body, in as little time as possible, before I end up feeling like I either want to vomit or die.

Usually when it comes to dinner with Hulk, he always finishes dinner before me. I end up eating really slowly because I’m too focused on whatever show we’re watching and I take my time… but when it comes to desserts, I inhale mine. Especially when it comes to ice-cream. I can be down to the stick of a Magnum before he’s even eaten off all the chocolate of his.

It’s a bit disgusting.

 

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