Madame Gin's Labyrinth

http://postimg.org/image/jaqgm22il/

I came across this pic some time ago (the link above). At first I found it funny, but then it made me think. It’s an idea I’ve been around of for some time, but just now I got around to writing something about it.

It’s about the supposedly “non-discriminative” beauty standards.

Lately, I’m sure you noticed, there have been uncountable campaigns to create conscience about the situation of overweight people. You might have seen the “Fat Barbie”, or movies like “Phat Girlz”. Or memes like the one I just posted here (the original one, I mean, without the text below).

And though in a first look they may seem to leave a pretty good message about discrimination, things change once we look closer.

Let’s see, because though I deem campaigns against discrimination worth of attention, and admiration, in this particular cases there seem to be a tendency not only to stop discrimination, but to position overweight as something actually good, or not bad at all.

So we have this society telling you from one side that you should beware of overweight, look after what you feed you children, do exercise, and inviting you to see a professional to sketch you a diet which suits your body’s requirements, and then we have this other side telling you that fat = beautiful, that big girls are cool, and that you are a sick discriminative bastard for preferring to date a girl who’s normal, let alone skinny. Sorry, but, did I miss something here?

Last time I checked, overweight was a problem. Let me check again…

Aha…

Aha…

Mmmmh…

Aha. Well, looks like it’s still a problem.

Ok, ok, but don’t misinterpret me here. I support tolerance campaigns. In fact, I’m not slim myself. I’m quite overweight and, to be honest, I don’t think I’m any better than the girl in the picture… Well, maybe a little, but just a little because of my age. But, unlike her, I don’t go around expecting people to not consider it a defect. It is a defect, a problem subject to solution. That doesn’t mean people have the right to discriminate me for it, or that I don’t deserve to be loved, which is at what campaigns should be aimed at.

But instead of that, they are expecting people to replace an unhealthy beauty paradigm of the skinny, for an equally unhealthy beauty paradigm of the fat.

This whole “I’m fat, so what? I don’t give a fuck.” thing isn’t good. Because believe me, a fat person has as much of a problem as an anorexic does, and instead of just accept it and live with it as it wasn’t a problem at all, they should try to solve it. Not everyone succeeds, but it’s worth a try.

We shouldn’t aim for skinny, but we shouldn’t aim for the other extreme EITHER.

We should aim for HEALTHY.

Fashion changes. Beauty standards too.

The human body doesn’t.

Today, when I came to the blog section to see what was new, I found this awful situation: Almost half of the new blog entries were spam, offering to sell followers for twitter, instagram, vine, and other social networks.

This kind of spam, causes us real blogger's content to go down much faster than it should, and therefore depriving us of views. I'd like to invite you all to go take a look at this entries and report them. If enough people denounces them, then Ebaby will erase them, making space for real content.

Stop Spam. Support Real Content.

Lately, I'm getting really, really tired of anti-technologist people. It's like today it is fashionable to go around criticizing the advance of technology, as if it was an evil invent out of hell to enslave people by brainwashing them and making them forget to live their lives. Most ironic of all? They do it through their Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc.

At least Sideshow Bob cared to notice the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it; this people just seem to ignore it.

The worst of it all is that I used to somewhat agree with them, in a time when they were somewhat right. It is true that there are people wasting away their time and their lives in front of the computer, or cellphone. Same about videogames and TV.

But then I saw the truth: Don Quixote got addicted to books. The problem isn't the thing people gets addicted to, is the addict. Google it. Psychologists agree that this kind of addiction (not drugs, because drugs induce a chemical addiction and anyone gets addicted after enough consume) comes from a problem of the person (sometimes a denial of something, evasion), that they exteriorize by this kind of behavior, to evade themselves. So until they don't solve their real problem, internet is just one of the things they'll get addicted to, and if internet, or any other technological devices, didn't exist, they'd get addicted to anything else.

So if your kid is addicted to videogames, or to the computer, instead of blaming them, try to think in how are you raising your kid, so he’d get addicted to anything. And when you complain about him not grabbing a book for the life of him, just try to think: When was the last time YOU grabbed a book? When was the last time YOU called him to read something together.

So no old man with a stubborn generational pride will make me be less proud, less amazed, by the miracles that surround me today.

All I know is that, thanks to the advance of technology, blind people is seeing, the crippled are walking. People who couldn't get blood for a transfusion, today has artificial blood compatible with all kinds. A woman who needed a part of her skull replaced got a new one in the exact size she needed made by a 3D printer, and so on, so on.

Today, a paraplegic man could kick the first ball of the world cup. Someone whose life would've been ruined, who would've been condemned to a bed for the rest of his days, now is walking, seeing the sun, the world. Tell me that's not a miracle.

Now we can know what is in other worlds, and don't come at me with that thing of "if they spent less time looking for water in Mars, and more in Earth..." because they are doing so. And with success.

Now anyone, from almost any part of the world, has a device in their pocket able to access almost all the knowledge of mankind, and that is a miracle not everyone can see.

Wake Up People: Internet is a thing, a tool, and no tool has a moral charge until a PERSON comes by and uses it for something, that can be good or bad, depending of the PERSON. One can save a life with a bistoury or stab somebody with it, and the bistoury isn't responsible for either, nor the good or the bad. Same goes for all science.

Sometimes I feel angry at all this people who attacks the advance of technology, but then I feel sad for them, for all they're missing. And then I remember they're doing it voluntarily, having a world of wonders at hand-reach and refusing to acknowledge it, and I get angry at them again. 

To finish I'll leave you with a biblical quote: 

"He gave science to men, to be seen glorious in His wonders." Ecclesiasticus 38, 6.

Just think about it.

Note: The biblical reference is a translation of a Spanish version, which is the one I had at hand, so it may not coincide with one you may have. However, I’m sure the spirit of the phrase will be the same.