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Fashion, The Beauty Standard And The Manipulation Women (and Men)… And Children By The Media
Ask the collective
In honor of Mars squaring Venus today, here is the soldier (Mars) on beauty (Venus). He was talking to my daughter and I… this is awhile back when we visited him. I was really glad my daughter heard this by the way.
He was back on his rant on the trend towards hairlessness for men and women and the “just got out of Dachau” skinny look for women.
‘Now I’ll tell you what’s occurred to me,’ he said. “I’ve thought of doing this and maybe I should do this just to teach these idiots a thing or two.”
“Doing what?” my daughter asked.
“Oh, well I’d have to get a job a Vogue or something like that. Vogue, the magazine I mean. I’d sure hate to be around those kind of people but I could do it I had to,” he said with a groan. “I suppose…”
He stopped to let us laugh.
“But anyway I’d get in there some how. I’d get a job. I’m sure I could do this and once I was in there I’d start convincing them of things.”
“Things like what?” I asked.
“Well you know those African women with the rings around their necks? You know. Those rings they put on to make their necks long?”
“Yeah,” we both said.
“Well first I would convince them this was coming back. It’s the new style. This neck thing; it’s the thing to do.”
We both laughed.
“But I would also convince them they were going to have to do like the Chinese women as well. They were going to have to bind their feet so they wouldn’t grow.”
We snorted.
“Yep, it’s the new fashion. To be stylish, you have to have rings around your neck, bound feet and one more thing. Let’s see. Oh, I know. I could have them hang something heavy from their earlobes. Bricks or something. Something hanging from your earlobes so they’d be all stretched out like… I think it was some Indians who did that so we could do that again. We could have everyone do these three things and there you go. This could be the new beauty standard.”
Mosta and I laughed.
“And just give it a year or two and everyone would be walking around like this. And they’d look ridiculous of course which would be exactly what they deserve for letting someone convince them there was something wrong with them in the first place.”
Where is your Venus?
27 Responses to “Fashion, The Beauty Standard And The Manipulation Women (and Men)… And Children By The Media”
how could i not be at least somewhat influenced? though in my case it was more, as a teenager, going, “well, hell, i’ll never be pretty, so i’ll just be myself.” (i was blind though. apparently i’m reasonably attractive. i just thought that was impossible with a A cup. seriously :P) and myself was a raging feminist anti-girliness total not libra-ness for awhile.
it’s more important to me that i’m strong than skinny. tiny girls with nothing over their bones scare me.
i still wear doc martens and a lot of black on my own time, tough 
venus is in aries. trine saturn. trine neptune.
I voted ‘mildly’ because I am VERY influenced by head-hair trends. Clothes, yeah, whatever. Body? FORGET IT! I do not care about being tanned, thin, bleached, or hairless.
But I look at some hairdos in the media and I SWOON! I love me a good hairdo!
Venus in 5th house Sag., mildly influenced. Plus which, I am way too old for it to matter how I dress, I just try to keep everything clean and pressed.
Venus in Aries in the 5th. Of course I’m influenced. But I also have my own beauty standards, and sometimes I think the images the media pushes on us are just not that beautiful. They’re rare and therefore hard/expensive to attain, but not beautiful.
I blame Barbie. And the kind of man that wants me to look like a 7 year old with 40DD i find very dubious. I am a woman, we have curves and we have hair and i’m so tired of this constant pressure (which is really all about money and more ways for you to spend spend spend)to conform to a standard. Venus in (h)aries.
Venus in Scorpio in the 8th sq Jup, sextile Saturn, I keep it simple, mostly black and sexy, if the situation is right. I stick with what fits and looks good on me, too many of the current trends just don’t look good on me and when I try them, I’m always disappointed.
I’m a woman that has a similar lanky but curvey outline similar in proportion to the models in mags sans the humongo breasts, but I’m happy with what I’ve got. Never really wanted to be someone else or have what someone else has..it’s not going to happen. I like what doesn’t fit in. Just me. So not ‘hugely’ curvy but curvy and I just enjoy my body for doing what a ‘body’ does: work, walk, eat, have sex and goof off as I like. As a person, of course you do more 
I did start out majoring in fashion in art school, so it’s a warm spot for me. This was many moons ago and I still doodle designs. I look at models as clothes hangers, so they just wear the art and set the mood for the garments. At least for me. I think there are more people with weight issues at both ends of the scale and moderation is the best. Just be who you are and look like how you are supposed to look–irregardless of anyone else. Such silly things to obsess over.
Leo ruled sun, mercury and mars in 5H. Wammy!
Venus in Pisces in the 9th. I don’t pay any attention to the media/fashion industry - unless it’s to laugh at them. It’s the same thing every day - jeans, tee’s, sneakers. Dress up is jeans, blouse and shoes 
I don’t care, I’m comfortable.
Oh, venus in gemini and 3H! And I do not starve myself, pretty health conscious and active though.
ta ta!
Venus in Gemini sextile Mars and conjunct Uranus. I’ve had my hair the same since high school, long and straight. I buy my clothes at the thrift store. I try not to look like everybody else. I care how I look when I think of it, but I forget sometimes and go out without looking in the mirror with some surprising results, including forgetting that my daughter had “styled” my long hair with several dozen barrettes of various colors. I get some strange looks. I just shrug. I do color my gray hair, but that’s because I hate the “half gray” look. If I could just go all at once, I’d do it in a flash. And I’ll never be skinny - I have hips and boobs - always been an hourglass. I dieted when I got too fat, but quit at a “normal” size, meaning I’m still heavier than I “should” be. I think girls like Paris, Lindsey and Nichole are a bad influence on my granddaughters. Who can live up to that?
I like to see what the major trends are because sometimes they are interesting. I don’t feel the need to follow them all, or even most of them. Anyone who looks at dressing themselves as a form of artistic expression has to be influenced somewhat unless they sew their own clothes. Because the companies that make clothes for the masses get their inspiration from the concept clothes on runways. I take bits of what I like and do my own thing. I centainly don’t feel that my body type is influenced by the media, but I’m not a huge fan of most actresses or models these days. That makes a difference.
Living overseas taught me that fashions differ with the culture and I’ve found some pieces of some cultures that I really like to wear. Like skirts instead of shorts - why? They’re actually more comfortable and more classy. I’ve never been able to follow fashion trends and shop exclusively at the thrift store. I walk down the aisles and feel for cotton, wool, or silk. Sometimes I’ll break down and get a bit of flax but for the most part comfort rules. yes, venus in a dream, pisces.
I pay some attention, and it does interest me a bit to know what’s current and to see how it relates to previous trends. I might sample a few because I’m a curious gemini, gotta know what everything’s about, but following isn’t my thing. I’ve always gotten in trouble for not following social rules and not fitting in, so… might as well keep going my own way. but I do notice what people are doing.
venus in taurus. apex of a yod/boomerang, 8th house.
I´m moderately fat, *lol*. Corpulent. Over the years, I´ve not only obtained my own style of clothing (I don´t buy firsthand usually, but pick up clothes at the Welfare store or in thrift stores, or from friends, the “i´ve seen this and just knew it was yours!” way) but some kind of anti-trend “big is beautiful” attitude. I incorporate that… sure enough. In my younger days, prettyness - or lack of due to an obnoxiously abundant shape - used to be a big issue, and those magazines were part of it, until I got sick of having to adapt, chance and starve to be likeable.
Later on I worked as a nude model in Art school, which was kind of life-changing since beeing seen and looked at as some piece of art and inspiration has a huge healing factor. A completely different kind of reception of one´s outward appearance. Who´s Heidi Klum compared to a Nana by Niki de Saint Phalle?
So, I consider myself a piece of organic art most of the time…I still read those magazines, to me it´s more like “messages from the skinny planet” nowadays, but here they have a great recipe section, and THAT i like being influenced by.
Jupiter in Taurus in 5, Venus in Cancer in 8 (sextile Uranus, trine Moon-Saturn)
Like you June, Gem/Sun Taurus/Venus. I may play with a trend or two now and then but I always try to do me and not follow the crowd (like a classic black pantsuit paired with “ethnic” jewelry, scarf and sandals — instead of pumps and a white button down shirt and “tasteful” gold jewelry.” I find boldness works for me and I am more confortable putting my own outfit together with pieces I love than trying to copy the layout in a fashion mag. Most of the stuff they put together makes me gag anyway. Like last year with those huge furry boots with a tank top and shorts? UGH! 4 real. And those huge bug eye shades? I know some of us will be looking back in a few years wondering “what in the heck was I thinking?!” (I know I do when I look back at photos I took in the 80’s! AHHHH!!!
Venus in Libra. I have always, since childhood, had a terror of looking manly, boyish, or unfeminine. I hate short hair on women and think most women look better with longer hair. I am somewhat influenced, not so much with fashion trends as with what is out there to get the look that I want, what might work for me. I could not care less about looking hip, artistic, reserved/smart or like a porn star; I just want to look classically gorgeous. I love beauty products, real jewelry, shoes always with a little heel, and a little bit of scoop/cleavage, always. I love vintage clothes because I think the best way to build a wadrobe is to find styles that look good, no matter what is currently popular. And I feel good when I make a visual impact.
Also, I would never spend more money on landscaping than I would on my appearance; I only mention this because someone I know spent a fortune on her yard, and we were talking about facials and laser hair removal and she was shocked at the cost, like it was unthinkable.
I was so glad I don’t have some crappy husband holding the purse strings for my beauty endeavors
Venus in Libra, 8th house. I said I’m mildly influenced, because I don’t think I can totally avoid it, but I mostly don’t pay a lot of attention. I know none of the stuff that looks good on stick-thin models is ever going to look good on me (I have hips and boobs) so I just don’t worry about it; I pick my clothes for comfort. I don’t wear makeup and I don’t dye my hair, either.
I don’t give a shit about what’s trendy. If it doesn’t appeal to me, or if it’s completely uncomfortable, then I don’t do/wear/buy it. I can’t be bothered to spend as much time, money, and effort as other people think I should on hair, makeup, clothing, blah blah blah…
Venus in Aries, 8th house bordering on 9th.
venus in virgo…..i believe in inner beauty.
Hullo Kundrie– Niki de Saint Phalle? Who’s that?? I love your posts so much…who’s the Saint you speak of??
I wear what looks good on *me*. I don’t like “trendy”. I like classic with a twist.
I’ve been a steady J. Crew customer for 15 years.
Sun in Leo, Venus in Virgo.
…Venus in Aries…
I used to care, like I dressed preppy my freshman year of high school, because I thought the other (older) teenagers would think better of me. Nevermind that I wasn’t preppy by a long shot…;-)
But now, I pretty much buy and wear what I like, and as I am fluffier than 95% of the media darlings, anything cute they wear would be terribly uncomfortable (not to mention hideous) on me. And I’m fine with that, cos I have my own sense of style.
Which drives the fashion police at work nuts!!
@kashmiri:
Thank you *blush*!
Niki de Saint Phalle was a female french artist that became famous first for her “shooting paintings” (That was when she discovered that her father had abused her when she was a child. To express her emotions about that, she created a series of paintings by sticking balloons filled with paint to the canvas, then shoot at them with a rifle. There´s a film about that, and one can literally feel her anger, her sorrow and the healing coming out of being able to express them in an artistic way), later on with her “Nanas”, multicolored figurines of expansive women, which express the power, the energy and the joy of womanhood. There´s one in Sweden, I believe, that is really a building, to be entered between that Nana´s legs. Her last work was a tarot garden in Italy, where she rebuilt the classic figures of the Higher Arcana in her own style and created a landscape to fit them in. She died a couple of years ago from a lung disease she got due to working with some kind of poly…whatever plastic in the 70s. I really do love her work!
So, this just in short but if it got you -and others- interested, which i hope, you´ll certainly find lots of information plus some Nana pictures in the net. (Just ask Dr. Google ;-)).
Venus in Virgo, Leo sun. I love fashion, and I love looking good, but what I wear has less to do with what’s in the magazines than what I personally like, which is influenced by a wide range of things (I particularly love the relaxed 40’s silhouette in dresses). I hate looking like anyone else (Aquarius rising).
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Venus in Sagittarius + Sun/Moon trine Uranus, so I’ve always pretty much gone my own way where the latest fashions go. However, I do like to look at fashion magazines occasionally. Guess it’s a combination of having an artist’s eye and being interested in fashion trends as an observer of social trends(Pluto/Leo in the 9th). Hey, I’m old enough to have seen several fashion trends such as wedge-heeled shoes go out & come back! There is little new in this world, just different takes . . .
As for fashion extremes - it’s the same thing as playing dress-up only more expensive.