Superficiality

I don't normally comment on TV very much because I don't pay a lot of attention to TV and the garbage on is just not worth mentioning. Last night though My Darling Wife wanted to watch a show that caught her eye and I sat and watched it with her. I was so mad at the end of the show I could hardly talk. Let me tell you a little bit about it.<br />n<br />nThe show was called Extreme Makeover. In it they took this normal, everyday couple who wanted to get married, gave them massive amounts of plastic surgery to look better, and them threw them this grand fantasy wedding so they could get married. In my mind the whole thing was revolting on a lot of levels.<br />n<br />nThis couple had known each other for 6 years. The woman had been through a very messy divorce some years previous and she wanted to get married to this new guy but they couldn't afford the wedding she wanted. I really wonder if this woman realizes that having an expensive fancy wedding is not going to make up for her previous shattered marriage and that a fancy, expensive wedding is not a guarantee to future success in her marriage. This program just covered the surface of this womans problems with a superficial good look. She really needed some kind of deep counseling to get over her insecurities with life not a "makeover" to cover up her problems.<br />n<br />nThis program took the man and woman and pushed them to lose weight and gave them all this plastic surgery so they were beautiful on the outside. The man was very heavy and they stated that he ate for anxiety and stress which was why he was so heavy. So how did making him look pretty solve all of his stress and anxiety so he won't eat more? It doesn't. The stress and anxiety in his life will still be there so all he is going to do is fall back on his old habits and eat again, gaining all this weight back. So how did they help him?<br />n<br />nThe program "helped" these two unfortunate people by making them look pretty. Isn't this just a wonderful statement on our society. If you look pretty everything will be all right. What's under the skin doesn't count. This is the message our culture sends to people. Lets not help them deep down where their real problems lay, just give them a superficial makeover and call it good.<br />n<br />nThe show culminated with the wedding ceremony where the Groom lifts up the brides veil and gets a look at his bride's altered facade. What does he say? "It was so wonderful to see her for the first time." <br />n<br />nSEE HER FOR THE FIRST TIME? THIS IS THE SAME WOMEN YOU HAVE KNOWN FOR SIX YEARS YOU IDIOT. JUST BECAUSE THEY THREW A LAYER OF PAINT OVER HER DOESN'T MAKE HER A DIFFERENT WOMAN. SEE HER FOR THE FIRST TIME, HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE.<br />n<br />nCan you tell maybe what set me off about this? Why was he seeing her for the first time now that she had an eye lift, nose job, liposuction, breast enhancement, and various other procedures? If you have been with her for six years, what was the problem with her? This just shows how vain and superficial our society is that looks mean so much and what is inside a person means so little. My Darling Wife said that if I talked about this people would be upset with me here. Go ahead and be upset. This upset me too much to be quite about. What is inside a person is a lot more important than the shallow covering people see and our society has distorted this. Keeping quite about it doesn't help the situation out. It just hides it.<br />n<br />nI am still just madder than a hornet about this. The message our society sends to people is atrocious and everybody just accepts it as normal. Well, its not normal in my opinion. It's wrong.<br />n<br />n<strong>Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I. Alan Watts</strong>