Yeah. Me neither.
That was 20 years ago, more or less. What's happened to American women in 20 years?
Fast forward to the present. Now we have Pinterest. You know Pinterest, the website all women love to hate. Supposedly 42% of women surveyed said Pinterest had made them "suffer from Pinterest stress."
Jenna Anderson is 28. She started the funny and ironic Pinterest Fail website. For some reason viewing all the failures from Pinterest attempts should make us all feel ... better? Well, it's good for a laugh.
Here's the thing: why can't we women view other people's beauty anymore without having fits of insecurity, covetousness, and blame? Anderson said of Pinterest: "It tricks you into thinking everyone is baking their own bread." Whaaaa??? I'm a Pinterest Victim? It's tricking me, messing with my mind? What is this stupidity?
The fact is, if viewers can't handle seeing something lovely, something nearly perfect, something they (unfortunately) do not possess, they should stay away from Pinterest. But they shouldn't blame Pinterest. They should take full responsibility for their own inability to handle viewing somebody else's lovely food/crafts/clothing/handwork/vacation/home. The point of Pinterest is not to make you covetous; if you feel that way, it's on you. Pinterest is there to inspire you to make your own life a little prettier. If you don't feel inspired by Pinterest, well, that's rather sad. There's a lot on the site to be inspired by.
Women admit to putting undo expectations on themselves, and the article (linked above) says that. But the blame -- the blame! -- still seems to fall on Pinterest, or sometimes Facebook. It saddens me greatly that so many women are not what they were 20 or 30 years ago -- women who appreciated beauty and had the maturity not to see its value only as it relates to themselves. There's a selfishness in all this angst, a self-centeredness. It's not all about you (or me). It can sometimes simply be about the beauty.
(And if Pinterest shows you a gorgeous cookie that claims only 5 ingredients, and you believe Pinterest, and you buy the ingredients, and you unfortunately produce nasty little cookies (as I did), then so much the silly are you! The universe's best cookies usually don't come from 5 ingredients!)
As for Ms. Anderson, I would note that at least Victoria had excellent grammar. Sigh.
3 comments:
You're so right. Why not just enjoy beauty without attaching performance to it? That's just silly and a big fat lie. I guess I do know a few women who have houses that look like magazine pages but most homes I go to look like sweet little welcoming nests. I hope the next generation doesn't stop inviting people to their homes. Ha ha ha! I also love what you say about the five-ingredient cookies! Hilarious! Make my cookies the old fashioned way, I say!
I just realized that Pinterest is perfect for procrastinators. I'll explain that later. Love love love to you, dear MK.
"Pinterest is perfect for procrastinators." That is so totally TRUE!! You must do a post on that, Pom. They even have pins that say, "Pin now and use it later." haha!! I can't tell you how many crochet projects I have pinned there that I'll never, ever make. But it's nice to keep them organized, yes? :)
Victoria is back and just as unrealistic as ever but then, aren't most magazines? I've stopped reading them; they aren't my life so why waste my time? -grin-
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