Did you read the possible side effects?? Omg, possibly reversible darkening of skin in lids, and possibly irreversible browning of the eye, and hairs growing elsewhere!!! This is scary stuff. I'm upset as it is that there is no medicine that is safe anymore, and even so called natural health products can't be trusted half of the time. But now, cosmetics too. I'm sick of this materialism as well. Butt implants, I would feel so awkward knowing I was carrying around some fake butt on my butt. I went wedding dress shopping today, and they all looked the same. More like prom dresses than wedding dresses. Modern, sleek, straight and minimal. ALL Of them. They didn't even have the choice of long or short sleeves. Only straps or strapless. I want a choice at least, even if I pick the strapless. Its about making us all look like Miss America, or preppy debutante or Sarah Palin. I do everything I can to be different, to rebel against this. If something is "in" then I'm out!! I have never plucked my eyebrows. Almost all women do, it looks so odd to me. But people think I look odd, and offer to pluck mine. Whatever.

Well, if someone's going to be fake enough to take something to make their eyelashes grow longer, thicker and darker.. then they may as well be fake enough to simply wear false eyelashes!! It's probably cheaper too and reduces the risk of genuinely messing up your body. It really makes me angry because I naturally have long, think curly lashes.. but other people can just fake it!!

Ruby- I agree! Plus you're so darn pretty and normal looking, it's great! Not like, in a bad way, blah, normal. But like... this is how human females are friggen supposed to look.

Funny wedding dress story. My cousin got married last winter, she lives in NYC. She's all tall, Manhattan chic. And loaded. She got fit for a Vera Wang custom dress. Sleek, straps, looked so ugly I swear it was so plain. And she wanted to be super skinny and have it fit her "perfectly."

So I don't know if she fasted or what but she looked anorexic at her wedding and when she was walking down the isle, she passed out. She had to do the whole ceremony sitting in a chair.

Love her to death, but what an idiot.

Mason- Right. But the issue is, as you know, Brooke Shields not over 50. She could still have another kid. By marketing it this way, young people will want to use it. And it might make them infertile.

Oh wait, maybe that's a good idea.

Crying- I guess fake lashes are too much hassle? *points to my picture* Mine are pretty good. I mean, they're dark and they're there. The media is not allowed to make me self conscious about my eyelashes. That would be the stupidest thing ever. It's like toenails. If you have them, great, don't worry about it. If you lack them, yeah, you could do something to fix that.

Well it's my general opinion that you look your best when you look like a natural human being.

And not fake.

But I'm generally a pretty person and I don't need to spend tons of money and risk my health to look like someone that I'm not. I've never needed to diet in my life and I can eat anything that I want and I've still never been over 100 lbs. I wouldn't really like my future husband very much, though, if his love wasn't unconditional and took into account the natural cellular aging process.

Haha, this thread is silly.

Mason- maybe that's why people are encouraged to go tanning. I think we've got a good argument here. All the things you're supposed to do to look "gorgeous" might end up killing you or making you infertile.

Edit- I still think that with the amount women spend on this stuff, we could solve so many other, more important problems.

[edit on 7/25/2009 by ravenshadow13]

Originally posted by ravenshadow13

Crying- I guess fake lashes are too much hassle? *points to my picture* Mine are pretty good. I mean, they're dark and they're there. The media is not allowed to make me self conscious about my eyelashes. That would be the stupidest thing ever. It's like toenails. If you have them, great, don't worry about it. If you lack them, yeah, you could do something to fix that.

Well, if you've read the steps and watched the video on how to apply latisse.. I think you'll find that they aren't really less of a hassle than applying false lashes.. also, on the Latisse website, it says that "In the clinical study, 78% of participants experienced a significant increase in overall eyelash prominence (including elements of length, fullness, and darkness)" However, if you get false lashes, 100% of the people will be satisfied with significant eyelash prominence, as they simply choose what eyelshes they want and apply them- done. And umm.. toenails are more important than eyelashes- don't you think? If you had some kinda toenail disease/problem, your doctor will try to provide you with a medication/treatment, but Latisse isn't related to health in any way is it? It's all beauty.. since it takes about 4-6 weeks to grow an eyelash after one fell out, so the fact is that if someone has some kinda problem where they don't have eyelashes at all, Latisse isn't gonna make them grow any.

It's not just women that are pressured anymore,sometimes i think alot of men are actually worse off.It's not so widespread but alot of men in their 20's feel pressured into what they should look like...and if they try to achieve such things the other group of *manly men* are all over them like a pack of wolves.I really fear to see what will become of the next generation of men and women,if anyone has played the pc game bioshock i think along the lines of that..although not literally! little by little the idea of what constitutes as the norm or beautiful is going to be distorted beyond recognition until everyone turns insane from trying to achieve a certain image and never being satisfied.

I'm late to this discussion Ravenshadow, because of my own foolishness. I prejudged your thread title, thinking it was something I wasn't interested in; I should've known better, having read many of your responses and gaining a slight sense of your education.

I believe that these processes are ideas that we sustain ourselves in our desire for social acceptance. If our motivations to change our appearance were grounded in a desire for attaining better health, that would be a good thing, however I think it's more a socialization -- we're encouraged to fit some ill-defined mold of what the perfect person should look like.

I wandered down this path years ago, when I began prematurely loosing my hair. Why prematurely? Because societal mores suggested to me that a virile and healthy man shouldn't be balding at age 21. So, I did the minoxidil thing and even considered getting hair "hook-rugged" into my scalp via the Hair Club for Men. ugh. Thank God I was too poor to afford it. I later came to my senses and elected to just shave it all off, be a baldy. I admit to a certain amount of vanity, as I don't care for how I look with curly fringe around my head -- worked for one of the Three Stooges, not a complimentary look for me, IMO.

I don't care for the layers of makeup I see on many women. I feel bad for them, as often I can see through that to what appears to me as a beautiful woman with layers of stuff on her face. I thought the point of makeup was to change without it being apparent. I can understand someone using makeup on TV -- apparently people's skin looks somewhat lifeless without it. I can understand people who have what appears to themselves as a "flaw" in their skin. But......... these are the things that make us unique and individual. Our thoughts and ideas are unique, why shouldn't our physical selves be as well?

I started working out again last year. Not to fit some norm, but to loose dangerous fat layers around my waist. I feel better. My scars and flaws tell a story. I would never want to tear out those pages. To blazes with societal paradigms....... we shouldn't hinge our worth on our appearance -- it's only part of the variables that are us, and none of the variables that define a good human being, IMO.

Crying-Lightening- It is for beauty. And since beauty is undefined and this form if it is skin deep, why would you risk taking a medication for it which could leave you infertile or cause other complications that we don't even know about yet?


Solomons- It would be even worse if men wore makeup more often. Luckily, they usually don't, so at least their faces typically look natural. But I remember that stupid show on MTV about cosmetic surgery. I don't remember what it was called. Anyway, it practically encouraged teens to get it. And one guy got calf implants.

Calf implants. If you're too lazy to build up your own calf muscles but want to appear muscular, get calf implants. Can you believe that?


Argentus- Well, I'm glad you joined in the discussion! No worries if it's a few posts behind. I think that you're right about social acceptance. I don't think it's as much about finding a mate, or else people wouldn't mind looking themselves online or in public. But people have almost an agoraphobia without makeup on.

Honestly, I think being bald is perfectly normal. Most women probably don't. But think about it, we've lost most of the hair everywhere else. The hair on our heads doesn't really serve as much of a purpose as it would if we lived out in the forest. Balding is probably caused by a gene (which we know) but it may also be a way of phasing out head hair. My aunt also has a form of balding. Yes, in public and socially... people may think less of you or whatever. That's the whole problem with looks. I think it should be based on intelligence and pheromones.

I agree that our physical appearances should be unique, as well. Look at all the makeup in the stores. They've categorized skin tones into between 3 and 12 shades. There are an infinite number of skin shades. They're trying to get people to look the same.

I wish people felt bad for me when I wear makeup. I feel bad for me when I feel makeup, you know?

I loved your post. I really did neglect things in this thread which also impact men, such as balding, etc. I think that you make a good point, as others have, that working out should not be for gaining beauty. It should be for keeping healthy. Being healthy shouldn't mean you look like a model, be it weight or skin or whatever.

Being healthy means you look like yourself, healthy, a normal human being.

When I was 14 my grandmother told me that when we are not born natural beautiful it was many ways to make ourselves beautiful.

I love make up and love to take care of my body inside and outside

So for that I wear my age very well.

But I will not do plastic surgery or any type of enhancements that will require surgury.

Now, I believe that the eye lashes or the stuff you put on the eyelids causes some nasty reactions.

I laugh when I hear people buying this- it goes away and is terribly expensive to buy. The funny thing is I see guys with eyelashes that women would be excited to have all time.

Of course, going along with it is the fact that people use mascara all the time. It's generally infested with lots of bacteria. I see women who scratch their eyes with the wand and get nasty corneal ulcers.