Adults debate about media representation; ‘let’s have real women on Cosmo , less airbrushing in ads, older women in film’, but it seems to me, the value we put on representation outweighs the value we put on reality. Sure, fight for equal representation, but first, let’s teach our children that the media is not reality, these perfect images exist to sell us things. To make us hate ourselves is a marketing strategy that’s gotten way out of hand. Buying to fit the image of what’s acceptable to the outside world is a big cause of our modern struggle. But the truth is and always will be; so long as you are living, you are as acceptable as the next person. Your right to live is equal to anyone else's. Even if you are the only person representing your type, your way, your ideas, your beliefs, your unique facial asymmetry. All of it as valid as the next person’s, arguably so. Sometimes it may not seem that way. But ‘seem’ is the operative word.
The class system and the patriarchy all work to keep minorities down – it’s beneficial for the dudes at the top – but by sheer recognition of its industrialised falsity, we can overcome it. It’s a system largely led by narrative, largely unpoliced and largely unlawful. While systematic inequality IS very real and built into politics, economics and the legal system, there’s so much that is solely narrative and conjecture. People in our own lives may police us to conform, unwittingly doing the job of the state, but stay strong. They are confused between the line of reality and fiction as much as you are. Fight your battles, question widely accepted truths, find your voice.
The power of ‘should’
There should be no cause to use ‘should’ when discussing how to live. We all can and will live how we please. So long as we’re clear that non-violence is one of those ‘needless to say’ type things, ‘should’ shouldn’t come into it. We listen too intently to the media, to others and to authority figures in learning how to live. Following someone else’s advice, warning or not-so-subtle push is a breakdown waiting to happen.
Your mum, your teacher, your friends, they all mean well, but they don’t know everything. They don’t know what you want as an individual. Granted it’s probably quite similar to what they want and they’ll do a good job most times pinpointing what it is you’re after, but they’re also impacted by their society so as to hide their true wants from you. Their internal truths and the truths that society tells us we should search for are two distinct things. Admitting internal desires is a lot harder when we have a whole canon of allowed and accepted ways to live to call on when we’re not sure. In short, you can only trust the truth as it manifests within yourself.
Stop internalising society’s ideas of wellness
Why is it that I’d be called a complete fucking hippie to say we are all born perfect in our own right. The drugs we take and the products we consume only draw us away from our earliest perfection. I’m not about to denounce modern medicine but I do believe we are encultured to ignore the intuitive knowledge of our own bodies and their natural rhythms, instead trusting the information available outside of ourselves.
We replace our body knowledge with societal knowledge, something which is never wholly accurate and often exists to make someone money, probably some big pharma bro. Excluding more serious conditions that definitely require modern treatment, often the problems we have with our bodies is from our body trying to tell us something. To take a pill is to ignore it not fix it. If you have a headache, most likely it’s your body announcing it is tired or dehydrated. If you have symptoms of type two diabetes, it’s probably your body telling you to put down the iced bun and have more respect for your pancreas.
Socially accepted parameters of 'success' cause us to value money over ourselves. The concept of 'progress' is designed to make us consider science as the only way to answer the question of life. Under this model, intuition has no external value and yet it is something I value above all else. In listening to myself, I can find my own unique paradise, I can progress in line with my own rules. And that to me is success.
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