YOUNG VOICE
Vanity
I faced the mirror for the third time. The word “ugly” comes to mind. The red pimples on my face remind me of connect-the-dots.
I pressed a handful of peach face powder and some strokes of pink blush, hoping I could hide my hideous zits and big pores.
I faced the mirror again. Still “ugly.” A cuckoo bird will think my frizzy hair is its nest. I place some hair polish into my palm and trailed it along the tangled strands, hope it would help. And for the last time, I looked at my reflection. I look decent. I grabbed my cell phone, activated my camera feature and took a few snapshots of myself. I uploaded the pictures to my computer and applied the wonders of digital enhancement. Goodbye huge pores. Farewell red pimples. With a few strokes of the smudge and the eraser tool, I look decent. I connected to the Internet, logged in to my Facebook account and changed my profile picture. What came next were instant comments from friends. Yan, vain vain ba, daw pihu. Hahaha.
Vanity had seeped in into the core of pop culture. Proofs are the Friendster and Facebook profile pictures, which seemed to portray a look halfway between seduction and innocence. Proofs are the increasing number of image editing software in the market. With Photoshop or Corel you do not need Dr.B elo’s magic to turn yourself into a million-peso diva. Proofs are the shout-outs and instant status messages posted online every second, luring others to comment and notice you working on a research paper or simply munching on Boy Bawang.
It completes a person, especially its young form, whenever one is appreciated and admired or whenever one becomes the topic of the conversation. There is nothing wrong with being tagged as KSP; it simply shows that you are human enough to accept the fact that you need to be noticed and that you need to be assured.
Yet our perception of beauty, intelligence and all there is in order to be considered as appealing, has been dominated by rigid stereotypes as popularized by shampoo models and globally renowned academic elites. Photos considered pretty and worth viewing are those in which more flesh is exposed, less split-ends and tangles and skin smoother than a newborn’s. Intelligence is measured through the use of rare and deep-sensed terms, jargons that would sound like alien mutter. Failure to comply with the prescribed poses and converse in the accepted manner would leave you tweetering for friends who will supposedly notice you and smother you in praise and admiration. It will leave you tweetering until you can tweet no more.
We are confined to a limited dictionary where certain definitions are only amenable once the trend changes. Those with red pimples and frizzy hairs will never have as much admirers as those with flawless fair skin and long bouncy silk-like hairs. Those who use simple words to express their thoughts will always be overpowered by those who impress the many with their “ostentatious arguments”. There is no one to blame. Each of us act like zombies, hypnotized by the lure of vanity, a one-sided predefined vanity.
I do not have any arguments. I do not denounce the current fad. I am one of the zombies. I let my desire for vanity lord over from my daily social life (if ever I do have one) to my Facebook profile pictures. But I continuously dream that one day, our dictionary may consider more definitions, that being beautiful would also include red pimples and frizzy hairs and being intelligent also includes using simple words to deliver world-shaking speeches. I continuously hope that one day, I may be able to take a candid picture of my wide grin after a Sunday meal with my family and upload my picture in my Facebook account without digitally enhancing it.
I hope one day people may think less of vanity. But for now, since it is in the nature of man, mostly of the young to be vain, I’ll settle the ambivalence with foregoing the digital enhancement of my big pores. As long as I’ll be pimple-free in my pictures, it would be okay.
I wrote since I just recognized our obsession to vanity. But since it is an obsession, it will be hard to live without. Just so you know.
Friend, I just realized I’m vain. How about you?
Check your facebook profile picture or your tweets on twitter. While you’re at it, add me and send your reactions to reylangarcia@gmail.com.
(Visit http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)
