Alicia is a teacher and fierce competitor and recently started a blog to write about these inspirational things.
And being a jerk, I came across a passage that bothered me. So I emailed her about it.
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J:
"I feel we try to uphold this image that society expects of us. This image is all over the television, magazines, and the web. The image is of a sexy, skinny, pretty, “perfect” woman."
Alicia - I dig your blog. One article in particular ("Who Says") has resonated, as many of our mutual friends have "shared" it already,
however I disagree with your premise that Society expects anything of us.
Society is a vague villain and easy to blame. We are the ONLY ones to blame, we do it to ourselves!
I assume you agree (?) as you (the quote above) continued to say,
"We start comparing ourselves to her. We compare ourselves to something that is unrealistic."
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A:
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A:
First, thanks for reading my blog! I'm glad you liked it. I want to clarify the fact that I am not blaming anyone or anything. I do think that there are a number of pressures that are put on us at a young age though. Teenage girls feel an overwhelming pressure to be skinny, pretty and perfect. Maybe it goes back to the toys we played with as kids. Do you remember us girls playing with barbies and you guys playing with GI Joes?
Think about the pressures of society that you have fallen victim to? Have you ever wore your pajamas to a gig? Or, are you guys dressing how society expects you to dress? What about the people that come to watch you play? Are they all in pajamas, or are they dressed up? We'd all stay in our pajamas because that's the most comfortable, but we don't. Wouldn't we get some strange looks if we did?
So, I think we have all subcome to the pressures of society at some level. For me and most females, we compared ourselves to the image that is on the television and all over the magazines. It's human nature. As we grow, I don't think we let those expectations get to us as much. We come to a point where we know and love ourself. We come to a point where we accept who we are. However, it's tough not to fall victim to those pressures when you haven't accepted yourself and you don't know who you are quite yet.
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J:
-Of course I remember the action figures and although they were bearing my namesake, I never feared GI Joe. His bulging plastic muscles and cold blank stare may have challenged my personal fitness goals and patriotism, but I never let it bother me too long.
-I can honestly say we have never worn pajamas to a gig. We dress how society expects us to dress. The people at are gigs are also NOT wearing pajamas.
"me and most females" is a loathsome line, both a broad generalization and a generalization about broads...the Battle of Self-Acceptance knows no gender biases, in my opinion.
I do agree with your point that Self-Acceptance is very important to the Meaning of Life, which I hope to address in my next post (stay tuned!)
Your email made me imagine a group of people who were so completely comfortable with themselves that they wore pajamas all the time. Why not? Our campaign would demonstrate a large range of people who are already living it, you yourself could represent Teachers, myself the working Musician, we would recruit doctors, lawyers, policemen, nurses, life insurance salesmen
to run a campaign of humans working for the greater good, in sweatpants.
This revolution would catch on relatively quickly I imagine, and when we ultimately challenge the Left & Right we will distinguish ourselves with an obvious moniker:
The Pajama Party
-----------------------
J:
-Of course I remember the action figures and although they were bearing my namesake, I never feared GI Joe. His bulging plastic muscles and cold blank stare may have challenged my personal fitness goals and patriotism, but I never let it bother me too long.
-I can honestly say we have never worn pajamas to a gig. We dress how society expects us to dress. The people at are gigs are also NOT wearing pajamas.
"me and most females" is a loathsome line, both a broad generalization and a generalization about broads...the Battle of Self-Acceptance knows no gender biases, in my opinion.
I do agree with your point that Self-Acceptance is very important to the Meaning of Life, which I hope to address in my next post (stay tuned!)
Your email made me imagine a group of people who were so completely comfortable with themselves that they wore pajamas all the time. Why not? Our campaign would demonstrate a large range of people who are already living it, you yourself could represent Teachers, myself the working Musician, we would recruit doctors, lawyers, policemen, nurses, life insurance salesmen
to run a campaign of humans working for the greater good, in sweatpants.
This revolution would catch on relatively quickly I imagine, and when we ultimately challenge the Left & Right we will distinguish ourselves with an obvious moniker:
The Pajama Party
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