If there is money at work to sculpt this, I have not found it. But there is a strand of western culture that is creeping up on my scoundrel nerve. You see, I have been exercising regularly for about four years now. Treadmill and various sports...sometimes, but mostly lifting weights these days. As you might guess, I am in pretty good shape as a result. But I am never going to be hyper-muscular like some of the regulars at the gym. When I see a guy of about 19 or 20 with ripped guns, my gut reaction is typically one of respect. This is a guy who works hard when he is at the gym, closely watches his diet, and has stuck with it for years.
What? Years? Four days a week since he was what, 12?
Please. After looking into this and asking lots of questions, I know that just about every guy of that size is using steroids heavily. There is literature on this. I have my own experiences with muscle growth to draw from, and those of some close friends. And in some cases, the big guys themselves have told me that this is the case. What gets me though, is that I still initially react that same way even though I know that these are people who have chosen to screw up their body chemistry to pursue this look. It is dangerous, and some of these guys are going to die young from this decision. It speaks about a certain degree of personality flaw that a person is willing to do this. The problem is that our society does not condemn guys for making this choice. We revere them. Our culture has largely turned a blind eye to this issue. There is a ceiling preventing me from ever achieving the kind of look that I am being told I should aspire to unless I am willing to take steroids myself. I was feeling cooked about this until a friend of mine mentioned that women have been dealing with this for years with airbrushed beauty magazine covers, plastic surgery, and runway models who are chosen not because they are typical of who the clothes are designed for, but because the clothing looks better on a waif than on a normal person.
As a side note, I take every opportunity to insert a notion in my kids that the people they see on television are not appropriate role models when it comes to looks. I hope that it is brewing in their heads right next to "advertisements are lies that only exist to trick you out of your money" and "politicians have to be disingenous, duplicitous invertibrates to get jobs". Well, not in those words, but you know what I mean.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Category: advertising
Advertisers are dried turds with little pieces of corn and peanuts.
Ever hear of Nutella? The product calls itself a hazelnut spread. When you taste it, and especially when you smell it, you can tell that it is not just chocolate. But honestly, it is mostly palm oil and sugar. It is more like sweet margarine spread than any kind of nut. But to see the advertisements, you would think it was a health food. I am certain that this company gets plenty of return on that tactic too. It is unfamiliar enough to Americans that we can be forgiven for not knowing that it is really bad for your body. The advertisers working for the company also know that. If the TV spot is your only source of information, you are going to be fooled.
On a related note, you would have to be living under a rock to not know that ketchup has lycopene in it, and that this is an antioxidant. The industry has paid millions to ensure that you do, and it is plastered over every bottle on the shelf. Of course, the stuff is mostly made of corn syrup. Make no mistake - ketchup is junk food that happens to have a single healthy ingredient in it.
I have a bag of bread in the kitchen right now that has "No Cholesterol!" in the corner of the label in bold print. News Flash: Cholesterol is an animal byproduct. For a loaf of bread to have cholesterol, it would have to be injected with it. They could just as accurately advertise "No Shards of Broken Glass!" or "No Rat Turds!"
The news right now is all on about how coffee reduced the risk of some kinds of cancer in a study. I give a month before the entire industry is deep into efforts to rebrand the stuff as health food. This is the same stuff that has oodles of caffeine - a psychoactive stimulant known to have related health risks so severe that there is a political lobby to have it regulated. None of this has changed, and yet I bet you that our kids will believe otherwise from the effects of advertising.
Damned scoundrels.
Ever hear of Nutella? The product calls itself a hazelnut spread. When you taste it, and especially when you smell it, you can tell that it is not just chocolate. But honestly, it is mostly palm oil and sugar. It is more like sweet margarine spread than any kind of nut. But to see the advertisements, you would think it was a health food. I am certain that this company gets plenty of return on that tactic too. It is unfamiliar enough to Americans that we can be forgiven for not knowing that it is really bad for your body. The advertisers working for the company also know that. If the TV spot is your only source of information, you are going to be fooled.
On a related note, you would have to be living under a rock to not know that ketchup has lycopene in it, and that this is an antioxidant. The industry has paid millions to ensure that you do, and it is plastered over every bottle on the shelf. Of course, the stuff is mostly made of corn syrup. Make no mistake - ketchup is junk food that happens to have a single healthy ingredient in it.
I have a bag of bread in the kitchen right now that has "No Cholesterol!" in the corner of the label in bold print. News Flash: Cholesterol is an animal byproduct. For a loaf of bread to have cholesterol, it would have to be injected with it. They could just as accurately advertise "No Shards of Broken Glass!" or "No Rat Turds!"
The news right now is all on about how coffee reduced the risk of some kinds of cancer in a study. I give a month before the entire industry is deep into efforts to rebrand the stuff as health food. This is the same stuff that has oodles of caffeine - a psychoactive stimulant known to have related health risks so severe that there is a political lobby to have it regulated. None of this has changed, and yet I bet you that our kids will believe otherwise from the effects of advertising.
Damned scoundrels.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Category: Strange Behavior
This weekend, I am taking a trip for a guy weekend. It's sort of a weekend anyway. I am leaving after work on Saturday evening (tonight) and returning on Sunday night, so it's more like a guy 24 hours This is an exceedingly rare event for me, and I cherish it. I have been planning it for about four months, and looking forward to it with great anticipation.
The planning of it was not too difficult, but one big issue had to be overcome. Somebody had to stay with my children while my wife works. She works overnight so it is kind of a tall order to fill. Luckily, one of my wife's friends agreed to stay with them! Back when I was deliberating whether or not the trip would be possible, this was like a godsend. We spoke about it several times in the intervening months to hammer out the details, and I was very thankful.
But then about three days ago, when my wife mentioned it to her she essentially backed out. I don't get this behavior at all. She allowed herself to forget and apparently planned something else. Lemme tell you something about forgetting. Nobody has a worse memory than me and my bloodline. But not this. We talked about it many times. And besides, you just don't do that to a friend. I am still going though. To my wife's credit, she never asked me to cancel. She is cobbling together a solution that involves her being late for work tonight and then not sleeping on Sunday. I owe you one, babe.
I suppose there are all kinds of people out there, but wtf? How does a person's sense of self permit this kind scoundrelous behavior? How does it get rationalized?
The planning of it was not too difficult, but one big issue had to be overcome. Somebody had to stay with my children while my wife works. She works overnight so it is kind of a tall order to fill. Luckily, one of my wife's friends agreed to stay with them! Back when I was deliberating whether or not the trip would be possible, this was like a godsend. We spoke about it several times in the intervening months to hammer out the details, and I was very thankful.
But then about three days ago, when my wife mentioned it to her she essentially backed out. I don't get this behavior at all. She allowed herself to forget and apparently planned something else. Lemme tell you something about forgetting. Nobody has a worse memory than me and my bloodline. But not this. We talked about it many times. And besides, you just don't do that to a friend. I am still going though. To my wife's credit, she never asked me to cancel. She is cobbling together a solution that involves her being late for work tonight and then not sleeping on Sunday. I owe you one, babe.
I suppose there are all kinds of people out there, but wtf? How does a person's sense of self permit this kind scoundrelous behavior? How does it get rationalized?
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