Admire, don’t imitate

Her fuller lips continue to trend higher upwards even after enticing several teens who pouted their way to imitate her and got disfigured beyond repair. Does imitating somebody make one more beautiful? Precisely, what does one gain by trying the most unsafe way to ape a celebrity?

At the outset, I must unashamedly admit to be an ardent fan of Miranda Kerr and do read her tweets whenever possible. This in no way means that I am afflicted with the much disastrous celebrity worship or obsession with celebrities: neither do I believe in imitating them by any means, nor do I harm my body to emulate. But unfortunately, we have a startling number of youth in our society who suffer from the stead-fast desire of acquiring the looks of their favourite stars by hook-or-crook, irrespective of the immense levels of risks involved. While celebrities are beauty and style inspirations for many, they indirectly dictate the lives of several others who remain obsessed with public figures. These insensible fans often pick cringe-worthy means to ape their favourite stars. Apart from attires and hairstyles, there has been a wild-fire-like passion for cosmetics and artificial looks, an increasingly contagious trend that often extends to absolute nonsense levels, when brain-dead fans blindly line-up to transform themselves into some badly-made copies of their favourite stars. A worthless, hopeless, and dangerous pursuit to justify their delusional worship!

As celebrities apparently undergo their body and style transformations in the recommended manner; their fans often take the most harming routes to imitate their favourite stars. But how far can one go to mimic one’s favourite celebrity? From similar attires to fancy hairstyles, the options to try out are endless. However, the other day, I was shocked to read about a much dangerous, and unquestionably the utmost dumbest, act of a few teens who used shot glasses and bottles to artificially plump their lips and emulate a reality TV star. Simply put, it turned out to be a challenge gone bonkers! While the Ice Bucket Challenge had a genuine cause to mention, and hardly left anyone with permanent harm, much against the medical advices of numerous experts from all over the world, this newest and stupidest trend, or a dangerous stunt, went on irrespective of the stern warnings of possible permanent damages. It makes me wonder about the brain quotient of those who impulsively jump to try out something as stupid as the do-it-yourself lip pouting craze, which can lead to permanent disfigurements. Despite being aware of the medical impacts and the possible chances of getting the blood vessels burst, several brainless teens tried to emulate the lips of their favourite star by adopting utmost unnatural and unsafe methods, and ended up in having weird swellings on their lips, which in turn looked far from the much-talked-about lush-lips that they hoped to have. While the entire antic was named as a “challenge” that took the social media by storm, in their desperate effort to get the 'pouty' lips that resemble their favourite star, our teens didn't think twice to use thrust and suck empty bottles and glasses to plump their lips, and later share disturbing results on social media. More shocking news came in soon, and it read that some of them even used a vacuum sucker to make their lips 'pouty', which I feel is the height of silliness and insensibility. After continuing the entire catastrophe and ending up with bruised and swollen lips, most of them soon found that their pouts were oddly sized out of proportion, leaving several injuries around the mouth, and letting them mourn for the disfigurement and pain.

I am not a fan of bee-stung pout, nor do I believe in calling it a sign of enviable beauty. After watching the widely disturbing images on social media, I cannot help but pity the youngsters who were keen on injuring their lips to secure the ‘famous pout’ or ‘create’ the supposedly 'enviable' ‘fuller lips’. Irrespective of being aware that this seventeen-something celebrity might have gone under the knife, used lip-plumping devices/injections, or generously spent hours every day to create her pout, our supposedly educated teenagers risked to mimic her and suffered severe facial injuries, only to find a strange response from their star that she never forced anyone to participate. So the bottom line is, what exactly was all the risk-taking for, or what on earth did they gain by using glasses and vacuum suckers for the most dangerous cosmetic transformations ever heard of? Such ultimate steps to get uncanny resemblances and that help earn the tag of a close look-alike of a movie star or a TV celeb are to be considered akin to insaneness, and not adoration. Good looks are hardly about having celebrity-like skin colour, nose, or lips, but about having high self-esteem and self-confidence. However, there is an increasingly huge number of people around who are not comfortable in their own skin, and are desperate to alter it and emulate a TV or movie star.

Celebrity worship is a kind of addiction, and becomes potentially dangerous when the level of imitation extends beyond the contours of safety. Yet, many in the society often get fooled by the wrong facades of beauty. Cute or not, the mega mouth and the much-celebrated pout that has been trending for months can easily be created with ample use of lipsticks and lip liners. But, many teenagers didn't think twice to jump in and use unhealthy shortcuts to feverishly imitate their star, thus raising concerns over the upcoming generation of men and women who are preoccupied and fancied about celebrities and reality stars. Admiring the rich and the fabulous to a reasonable extend is in no way harmful, but an overgrowing affection as well as a blind and irrational admiration rings the warning sign that we are crossing the borderline, and should step back right away.

The entire billion-dollar industries of movies and television shows in fact revolve around our indefatigable obsession with celebs, which in a sensible amount can be a boost to our self-esteem. However, akin to this dangerous lip pouting stunt, the burning desire to resemble a celebrity might soon result in lowering the self-confidence, spurring terrible insecurity, thus ending up in a series of psychological disorders. If left unattended, the obsession would soon turn out to OCD and paranoia to adopt irreversible and invasive methods that might do unfathomable harm, instead of helping emulate the looks of a matinee idol or a TV star.

PS – Puckered lips can no way be called a yardstick to define one’s beauty. Try not to risk your body just to get a duck-like lips, which can hardly define your personality. They belong to someone else and not you!

Celebration of ‘adultery’

A lot has been written, spoken, and discussed about women’s rights, freedom, the ongoing struggles against misogyny, and several other issues of relevance in today’s knowledgeable yet regressive society of ours. However, here is a news story that drove me into a chain of thoughts on what can be called the downside or misuse of the freedom that women have been craving since ages. Irrespective of being happily single, I have always looked upon the institution of marriage as a sacred unison of two individuals, the reason why this news story of a woman who has had an open marriage for a year, and proudly bedded more than a dozen of men and women, almost shocked me to death. Adding to the jolt is her memoir and proud revelations of the yearlong escapades that forced her and her husband of 18 years to part ways and never look back. While I do agree on her right to live her life on her own terms, the disagreement lies in her way of exalting her 12 months long shenanigans in the pretext of freeing herself from a disastrous marriage.

While she happily savours the bygone moments on her memoir and in the entire set of interviews on print and visual media, I cannot help but wonder what exactly she is trying to glorify through penning a chronicle on her yearlong sexual adventure. In spite of having several other reasonable options including an amicable divorce which could have been the easiest way to bid goodbye to someone who mercilessly dashed her hopes of motherhood by doing a vasectomy, much to my surprise, she has no reason to say on why she failed to choose a legal separation, and instead opted for an open marriage, or in plain words, cheating on her partner with his permission, while living her weekends like a dutiful wife. Boredom of routine sex life, the miniscule list of lovers, and the unquenchable urge to have a child, the reasons to justify the morality depletion are many. Though I am no one to question her need for an exceptional sex life, I find all her reasons to be hypocritical and pretentious, no matter whether it’s the loss of opportunities of bedding more men, or her unwillingness to go to grave with no children. An over the edge decision, a yearlong flings with strangers, and a handful of experiences to cash on, she did make it big with her reckless living, but could have avoided reasoning it as her yearning for motherhood, as she could have embraced parenthood even without the uncontrolled living she has had, and is proud about.

The narrative and the author’s perspective of spicing up or bringing energy and excitement to marital life have been narrowed down to having sex with random men and women, which I believe is downright ridiculous and absurd. While I do admit that I lack the real-life experience to authentically argue on the state of a mind of a woman who is robbed of her chances of motherhood, I can undoubtedly say that that neither was this woman keen on embracing motherhood, nor was she interested in getting pregnant with a stranger’s baby, as she has openly described her sojourn as finding the passion for living. Then again, rekindling the innate connection with one’s own feminine self can hardly be defined as having several one nightstands with random men and women. It only quenches one’s carnal hunger and never ends the quest to rekindling the bondage with one’s own womanhood.

As her hook-ups, steamy sex, and intimate encounters are getting sold as hot cakes, I wonder what she has achieved in return of the risk her marital life through an over-the-edge decision. Her marriage sputtered out, her motherhood dreams failed to metamorphose, and yet she calls it an exciting year go by. I might be ridiculed for my old-fashioned rationale; however, the entire story looks completely irrational to me, mainly because she has badly failed to successfully flaunt her reasons in the much-needed perfection. Her explanations are more like self-praising and self-congratulatory narratives, than her longing for motherhood or self-fulfilment. The story even fails to extend to the contours of feministic perspectives, the reason why I cannot fathom the exact reason why she wanted to publish a memoir on her sexual escapades as well as the men she slept with outside her marriage. Rather than calling it a passion-filled tale of physical gratification, I am tempted to call it a cautionary narrative that has to be re-titled as ‘How to wreck a marriage’. She is keen on cashing on a bunch of sexually explicit stories, yet describes herself a die-hard feminist. But I believe she has terribly failed to reach the realm that a true-blue feminist deserves to be in, because, with a bunch of reasons-for-reasons-sake, she embarked on a midlife infidelity for a year, and is now on a deliberate attempt to glorify the adultery she has committed.

With an entire range of verbal juggleries that she desperately embraces to unfold and justify her unorthodox living, the story never empowered me but instead left a feeling of absolute blankness. Neither can I fathom how sleeping with many people make her feel good about not having a kid, nor do I understand the name and the page dedicated for the baby girl she hoped to have. If that was what she has always wanted, options that she could have chosen were endless.