A few days ago, I reached over and picked up one of those celebrity gossip magazines. They were covering the TomKat wedding. What caught my attention was not Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes but the guests for the wedding. David Beckham was one of them and I like looking at him. Well I didn't get far into the magazine because on the table of contents page, there was a picture of a Brazilian model for some really big name in fashion (I really cannot remember now) and they were saying that she died from kidney failure. She was anorexic and at the time of her death, she was 88lbs at 5'7". I think the height may be an inch or two off but whatever it was, it was definitely out of proportion with her 88lbs.
This girl had starved herself to a point where it had become a psychological disorder that ultimately cost her her life. All in the name of fashion and a few dollars more. Beauty comes at a high price! Or society's warped picture of what is beautiful. Society will always be society. American society is very image-conscious. So image conscious that millions of young women have some form of eating disorder....and now males are joining those numbers too! Speaking from a Trini point of view, I really cannot understand why people will do this to themselves. You have food in front of you, you are hungry and you refuse to eat. I cannot say I am totally sorry for her and now I will say why.
Last night, I did a google image search on darfur. I found a picture of a starving girl. I spent a long time staring at this picture. Partly because at first I didn't even know if it was really a girl or boy. That is sad. The picture genuinely scared me. It is one thing to be hungry for one day but this child has obviously gone hungry for days on end. Type in DARFUR on any search engine and click on images. These people wish they had food! Hundreds are dying daily for the lack of food and here, in a society where we have the food, we refuse to eat because we need to keep up appearances. This is indeed ironic! It explains why I am not sympathetic with the model's plight. Any job that requires you to starve yourself to achieve a level of "beauty" is not worth keeping. And for the women out there, most of the standards of beauty were set by men. Fat men with money. It's up to you if you will follow your own instincts or if you will listen to the chatter of society. Back to Sudan now!
The estimated number of people killed is anywhere between 200,000 to 600,000. This can stop! There are many things we can do including writing to our local government representatives and persuading them to lobby for help in congress. If we are able to donate, please do so. Anything helps!
4 comments:
me nut know what to say, poor little kiddie. this has to end!
About the first part.. Have you heard of things called corsets. In the victorian era, a lady would wear a tight corset to get a right shape at the cost of abdominal dis-orders, malnutrition and what not.
And about the second part, I am sure you must have heard of how Kevin Carter got his Pulitzer prize.
Its a saga that speaks of the horrible fate of the such kids.
Ironically enough, just as your models pay "the price of life" for their profession, Kevin Carter paid the price of his life for photographing that child.
Check the following link
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm
I really thought i had commented on this but it was never saved i guess. Anyway, yes krishna, I have heard of corsets! And i still maintain that it was something done to impress men. As for the photographer, I have also heard of him. My point was not to examine the downside of givers but to just hope that maybe if you can help at least one person, that will be one better life. That is all.
Post a Comment