Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Is she real or synthetic?

I was just looking on Amazon for the book by Arianna Huffington about Picasso and his many women (her quote was at the bottom of my blog yesterday) and saw this ad:

I assumed it was for a Barbie Doll.  When I looked more closely, I saw it might possibly be a real woman.  Sort of.  I can't quite tell.  She looks plastic or porcelain, but she has bubbles coming out of her mouth and her hair is swirling sort of realistically.  Her gaze is a mix between real and synthetic.

Is this what we're coming to?  A society where we can't tell real people from fake ones?

Chris and I were talking the other day about fantasy machines which we'll be able to enter one day, get squished and transformed into the "perfect" shape, then come out the other side a carbon copy of everyone else, except our height.  Perfect for the rest of our lives.  Except that, oh yeah, "perfect" would change each season, so you'd have to go back in every few months to get the updated look.  How else would the company make its money?  The more I see, the more cynical I get, and the clearer I am about the importance of the work I'm doing.

I watched a documentary last night called Bigger, Stronger, Faster.  It was about men who have chosen to take steroids to get a physical advantage in their competitive sports.  The director seems to be honestly trying to answer for himself whether using them is moral or immoral, healthy or deadly, acceptable or unacceptable.  It gives good insight into what men are beginning to experience in terms of expectations of six-pack abs and pumped muscles.  It seems similar to what women have been going through for years.  I hope it doesn't take hold for men.  These societal expectations are simply not helpful for anyone except for the companies who sell the products.

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