Be Weird

Thursday, October 02, 2008 - Comments 1

Do you ever stop and think, “What a strange culture we live in?” Consider the following: We are the richest country in the world and yet women are starving themselves to death. We spend $40 billion each year on beauty products yet 8 out of 10 women are dissatisfied with their appearance. Children have more opportunities in this country than any other and yet a 9-year old’s most pressing concern is voiced in her question, “Dad, do you think I’m fat?” Strange culture, indeed.
 
Our first reaction is too blame “them”—whoever “they” happen to be; the media, Hollywood, the cultural elites. “Someone’s at fault!” we shout. But we need to take a closer look. Below are three cultural beliefs that are central to these problems. See if you can identify with them.
 
Identity
I can think of several teen girls I counseled at Remuda Ranch who stumbled into their eating disorder because it provided a sense of identity. Some became known as the “anorexic” at their school and, despite the stigma attached to the title, for the first time they had a sense of who they were and their place in the world. In this culture of performance they might not have been the best singer, brightest student or best athlete, but they found they could be the best anorexic. Unfortunately, the best anorexics die. But can you blame them for ignoring this warning? Our culture tells women that their identity is defined by how they look and how self-disciplined they are with regard to food and exercise.
 
Beauty
40 billion dollars! Let that sink in. We live in a culture that spends that annually on beauty products. The result? In a culture of abundance, women (and increasing numbers of men) starve themselves in search of beauty defined by numbers on a scale. Meanwhile children in Third World countries die for lack of enough food. That’s not beautiful. Somehow we’ve come to believe that beauty lies in flat abs, big breasts, and fuller, shinier hair. We’ve dismissed the beauty of faith, hope and love. Please don’t hear me suggest that we all stop taking care of ourselves or vow to never again use lipstick (not really an issue for me), but in our search for wonder and awe we’ve settled for botox and liposuction.
 
Impact
Finally, women are told that how they impact the world around them is often dependent on how they look. Consider this; when was the last time you read an article on the fashion sense of John McCain and Barack Obama? And yet Hillary Clinton’s fashion choices make the news in no less than the Washington Post. Recently the fashion style of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain garnered the front page of USAToday’s home page. Sarah Palin’s fashion sense is discussed on major news websites. No wonder a 9-year old girl worries about being fat. In this country she can run for President, but she’d better look good while doing it!
 
Identity, beauty, impact. Our culture holds some strange (and at times harmful) ideas about these concepts. So, when we at the True Campaign say “Challenge the Culture” do we mean “blame the culture” (media, Hollywood, etc.)?” Not exactly.
 
People have approached me and said, “Thanks for your work. If we could get advertisers and Hollywood to stop using skinny models and actresses we wouldn’t have these problems.”
 
While I appreciate this idea I don’t believe the media is our primary problem. I do believe that media should have some level of responsibility for how they portray women and that the fashion industry needs to address issues of eating disorders and weight among fashion models, but I hesitate to lay the full blame of our problems on them.
 
Why? Well, because I believe the problem is much more insidious than that. The problem has to do with cultural beliefs. More specifically, our adherence to cultural beliefs.
 
The story goes that when the well known Christian thinker G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was asked to write an article on the topic, “What is wrong with the world?” he submitted the following response to the newspaper:

Dear Sirs;

I am.

Sincerely,
G.K. Chesterton

I think he was right. The problem is with us. With me. With how I’ve viewed women and allowed that to affect my relationships, ideas and work. What about you? Have you bought these ideas hook, line and sinker? 
 
If we want to see changes in our lives we’ve got to stop pointing fingers at others and reflect on what we believe and how those beliefs influence our behaviors. Even if our beliefs are challenged by the culture around us, how we choose to respond is our own responsibility.
 
So how do you challenge the culture? I like how financial expert Dave Ramsey puts it. He teaches people to live debt-free. To those who live in a country where the average American has over $8,000 of credit card debt, Dave says, “Be weird.”

If we are going to be a part of challenging the culture and ending the crisis we must “be weird” too.  The good news is that we don’t have to be weird alone…
 
Travis
The True Campaign