madness

i keep seeing this status on facebook: "Saw the craziest unibrow on a girl at the playground. her parents won't have to worry about teen pregnancy, so that's kinda nice."

you know people are fucked up when they're making fun of little girls.

a central focus on yesterday's presentation was how to stay sane in a world that is so insane about women's looks, about losing weight and dieting and hair removal and hair dying and makeup and yadda yadda. how do you maintain recovery when everyone else is seemingly disordered?

well... i can only share my experience. i am pissed off so much, i'd say every day. i am pissed when a diet commercial comes on, whenever someone in the media or in person comments about weight or calories or being fat. i am pissed when i'm just surfing the net and there are all these weight-loss ads. i'm pissed when i want to get my celebrity news but it's just all about bashing women for what they weigh, what they wear, and what they say. i get pissed every time i see these crazy messages from the world morphing into eating disorders, implanting themselves in the brains of lovely men and women who think they NEED to lose weight and that they are worth nothing if they're not beautiful.

i'm able to deal with and rise above ALL of this awful shit because i KNOW it's nutty. i don't accept it and i don't incorporate it into my life; i reject, reject, reject. i rail against all of it. and it's tiring and irritating but so is giving in and hating yourself. at least doing it my way, i retain my integrity and my health. i keep my body.

you can improve the state of affairs in your own little world. don't read certain magazines; hell, don't read any. don't watch mtv or e! television. don't watch or read anything that bothers you. don't let the people around you fat talk and body bash without hearing a complaint from you. you need to tell them to cut it out; if they respect you, they will. have healthy role models, preferably someone you know in real life, and not someone in the movies. connect more with people face to face. when you spend most of your time on the internet and watching tv, you can forget that that's not the real world, and not everything is about the media. there's a whole other world out there.

you can't get away from this superficiality crap. you will always have to react to it for the rest of your life. but you choose your reaction. you are in complete control of your actions. you can internalize it, believe it, and punish yourself; or you can use your voice and bitch about how this is all fubar and stupid and totally insane and overwhelming. many other people feel the same way- surround yourself with them. make your environment a safe place. love yourself enough that you can laugh at billboards with women that have legs thin enough to play pool with. i shouldn't say "women" because they aren't people, just fabrications. laugh at this shit. oh my god, someone is trying to sell you a diet pill again? fucking dickwad, preying on people's insecurities. he needs to eat a milky way and get a fucking life. you are hot shit and he'll never know it. his loss!

"i only know that i can change
everything else just stays the same."
- staind