I'm experimenting with different themes in this blog. One option is to have numerous blogs, each with its own theme. But I keep coming back to the same underlying theme.
And that is that ugly is not an option. It really isn't. Not for me. Not anymore. And I'm really certain that ugly is not an option for you either; especially when there's instruction and perhaps inspiration for getting out of ugly. Thus, I'm amalgamating all these different themes in the same blog.
The theme written extensively already I call Beauty Matters. It’s about the politics of appearance. Our physical looks have a tremendous impact on our life. Beauty sets the trajectory of our lives. How that goes is determined by how people perceive us.
If others enjoy looking at us, we enjoy ‘the kindness of strangers.’ If not, then our lives are littered with shame, regret, and limitations. Exceeding our limitations is beauty’s greatest gift to us. Often, knowledge of being beautiful and enjoying beauty is a gift by other women for us women.
One theme involves one of my best friends who's morbidly obese. She's considering gastric bypass surgery, something I'm wholly supportive of to the point of being with her during her surgery. She will write anonymously in her own voice. I'm encouraging her and hope you do, too. She may write about her personal experience through her own blog. We'll link to hers if so.
Another theme is the travails of women everywhere, thin and fat. Often we make excuses for our personal failures by blaming our weight. Yet, when thin and fat compare notes, it's the same disappointments, upsets, and even devastations. Weight has nothing to do with it. What then? If we can't blame our personal plight on weight, then what can we blame? Simply, it’s a culmination of all our own decisions. This theme we blog as Phat Gurl and Skinny Byotch.
Another theme is what I call Economic Exiles. This is about our quest to find meaning, purpose, and beauty in what can only be admitted honestly as a fully compromised existence here in Exilestan. The economy changed, this we know. You would have to be an obtuse idiot not to know it. The questions we probe are: In what ways have we compromised our values, our integrity, our self in this new economy? In our new reality, who are we and what have we become?
As a part of that theme, I'm writing about my move from Midtown Atlanta to Northwest Arkansas. I'm a career Navy Brat who's grown up in Europe and Asia, and on America's East coast. Yet, of all the places I've lived, never have I experienced more culture shock that here. As if the the company I moved here for isn't shocking enough, it's the small town living in Flyover Country that got me.
Struggling to make the most of it, at least until this blog pays for itself; I surround myself with beauty as best I can. All those efforts I'll capture here and share with you. I will share with you my beautiful balcony with luscious plants, including many herbs and my tomato plants. This includes my weight loss of 20 pounds and 10 more underway. The wonderful food I buy at the local farmers market.
It is my reclamation of my health and my happiness. All of it written for you. If I can find happiness and healthiness here, by God, so can you. Wherever you are.
I'm also pursuing a theme about Middle America Beauty. Every single beauty product and beautiful lifestyle apparatus I will find at Walmart. Whatever I can't find there will be purchased online, at Target, or at local shops. Despite being in BFE (Bum F*ck Egypt), we do have mail service however compromised it might be. I'll give you links and referrals to everything I find and do myself. If I can create beauty in this utter abyss, then so can you, wherever you are.
Another theme is what I call The Office Hottie. You know that one woman at work who's so beautiful, so magnanimous, so influential? The one who makes other women step up their game? Now suddenly the dowdiest of hens loses weight, wears makeup, attempts heels, and dons stylish new apparel? Yeah, that girl. The one who commands a conference room full of married men at her beck and call - even the gay ones, despite not saying a word or holding an esteemed title? Yeah, that girl. She's The Office Hottie. She's me. And she's probably you.
The Office Hottie: Mentor mentors a beautiful new intern. All the advice she gives this lovely young woman so new in her professional life, you're now privy to. Everything's covered. This includes what apparel to wear and where to buy it. What to look like and why. How one can maneuver through corporate corruption and careerist deception. All the advice I got from my amazing mother I give to you. And all the things I learned the hard way along the way, I give to you.
Additionally, I'm creating videos showing how to do beauty treatments and beauty routines. I'll post those videos here and on YouTube. In my blog, commentary and links to any products you can buy shall accompany my videos for your reference. The videos are my biggest gamble because it's real and honest and very, well, potentially embarrassing. Whatever you think, please don't be embarrassed for me. I'm a professional writer.
I've exposed myself intellectually, socially, and emotionally in a myriad of ways. It has always cost me my job running my editorials or publishing my books. But if I can't be authentic now with nothing more to lose but a shitty job in BFE, otherwise known as NWA, who am I really and what purpose do I serve here on earth? It can't be to be a wage slave as a corporate drone, however impressive my accomplishments and extensive my resume. Even if it were so, I am not satisfied.
That's the thing. We fight like hell to save our job. Save our marriage. Save our home. Save our ego. We do it because we must. It's the right thing to do. It's what good people do. And we're good people. But we fight for what, exactly? We can always get another job. Another man. Another place. Another image.
At some point, long after going for broke - and actually going broke for it - we say forget it. Give up the fight. Sacrifice its artifice. Let go of the lie. Perhaps then, there, we find beauty. Because honestly, ugly is not an option. Not anymore. I've had enough of it. It no longer satisfies me. Nor does it you. This I know. The rest, we'll figure out.
Good job - although it seems more of an outline on what you may or may not want to do - either way it's well written and engaging. I wonder if you could perhaps define "ugly" or the ugly you are writing to so that your readers have a clearly defined understanding of what you mean. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOk, so I get your idea and concept but find it ironic that someone writting about physical beauty is not very attractive herself (at leasy physically speaking). Seems to me you think of youtself as some beauty queen and not to be rude, but you are average at best. Sorry to burst your bubble, but a good dose of reality can do wonders for humbleness.
ReplyDeletehahaha so fanni!
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