For those of you who do not watch Nip/Tuck, there was a deviant character called "The Carver" who was going around town slashing up beautiful people's faces. At every scene of the crime he would say to his victims, "Beauty is a curse on the world." He started with the slashing and then moved onto adding rape and murder to his slash fests. His victims were primarily people who are obsessed with their looks like actors, models, plastic surgeons, and beautiful detectives trying to catch him. All season we sat on the fringes of our seats trying to figure out who the Carver was.
The TV studio leaked that the criminal was a major character. It turns out that the most obvious pick turned out to be The Carver. You always figure that the obvious choice isn't the one because we're supposed to be thrown off. In Nip/Tuck's case, the suspected Dr. Costas turned out to be the deviant criminal, BUT they did add in some freaky twists and turns to the story that made it quite entertaining.
Anyway, in his concluding speech about why he goes about slashing beautiful people, he states that his purpose in life is to free people from the bondage of beauty. It's all ironic because he himself is a skilled plastic surgeon working in beauty obsessed Miami. Despite the fact that this guy is a vicious, sneaky, villain, he does have some kernels of truth in his message. We as a society are held bondage to our looks. It's true. Why else would we spend billions of dollars in cosmetics, weight loss programs, plastic surgery, fashion, and expensive things to one up the Joneses.
Everyone, male or female here in the US has something they hate about their body, and has something physical that they fixate upon. Why, so we can look good to others. I can't think of one human being I have ever met who doesn't care about their looks or is completely happy with the way they look. I'm sure there are people out there who do, and one day I'd like to meet them.
Personally, this is how beauty has been a curse in my world. In the workplace, whenever I was thin, I would be attacked and ostracized by jealous female co-workers, or constantly hit on by male co-workers. I'm at work to work, and don't care too much about this petty stuff, but others do, and they try real hard to get at you. It's one of things about Corpse-rate America I despise.
At tradeshows and events, every guy is looking at you like he wants to get in your pants, or he is actually trying literally to get into your pants. When I would gain weight, and be on the chubbier side, the guys would stop trying to sleep with me, and the women would back off. Why, because I am no longer a threat, and they can be prettier than me once again. It's rather fucked up, but all of you know what I am talking about because you've either experienced yourself firsthand or you have inflicted your jealousy on others. But nonetheless, you're safer when you're fatter, but miserable because you're fatter. I want my skinny jeans back. So, back and forth just like the NordicTrac we go.
Beauty is power, but power in itself is neither a curse or a gift.
