Advertising is everywhere.  I was listening to a podcast and the program challenged the audience to count how many advertisements they saw in a single day.  I have not accepted this particular challenge because I am not sure that I can count that high.

I know that everywhere you look companies are trying to trick you into buying something. This is a fact that I accepted a long time ago, and I can say that for most of the time advertisements don’t really work on me.  Not only because I don’t have extra spending money, but also because I know its a trick.  And mostly I don’t want extra stuff.  I like my space to not be cluttered and I hate getting rid of something that I spent money on.  Blame it on my Dutch heritage, but I am a true penny pincher.

The worst part of advertising is the unreal portrayal of female beauty.  So much of your worth of a female is based on your looks.  For men, it is based on how much money you make in life, but for the female, it is about weight, makeup, skin, boobs, hair, jewelry, fashion, and shoes.  I know that the images are photoshopped, I know that the models are teenagers, I know that a lot of women get boob jobs- but my knowledge does not matter.  I still compare- I still look at myself naked in the mirror and pinch my fat, lift up my boobs, consider spray tanning, I want to dye my hair, I need to stay on my diet.

I am lucky though because these are passing thoughts, then I get dressed and remind myself that I am hilarious, charming, and one of a kind.  I don’t need a certain pant size to make an impact in the world, I don’t need the perfect body to find love.

It’s not because I am more mature than women around, it is because I am a realist, because I live in the world and I look around.  This is one reason that I am glad that I live in a city, it gives a larger base of comparison.  I look around and I see how women actually look, and I see very few models.

But what about the ladies who live in smaller towns, who don’t have the comparison with the world at large?  These are the women who I feel for, who only have ads as a base for their self-worth.