[Monolith]

Originally posted by EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro:
Those 18 year old girls will do alot of growing up all the way to 30. People tend to get less shallow, less conceited as they get older. When I was 18 all I wanted was a busty blond. Well a few years later I settled for a nice little goth girl and years after that my tastes changed even more. Society is however putting more emphasis on peoples buying power now. There is pressure to buy the sexy clothes younger, Drink the drink everyone loves. Consume, consume, consume. That's what makes people shallow now.

Well, for those susceptible to marketing pressures, that's pretty true, but I think the majority of folks are still pretty down to earth once you get them to open up. The people who actually believe drinking the right beer will get them laid are hopeless to begin with, but that's more a personality set than an intellectual one. I think the biggest problem is that people in relationships have forgotten that 1) they are founded on respect, 2) require a real commitment and most importantly 3) they require work and maintenance to succeed. I am going to sound very sexist here, but I think this problem is more of an issue with women than men. Why? Because men for the most part have to work to establish and maintain a relationship with a woman to a greater degree, while they (women) are the responders to such. I'm not absolving men of having many of the same perceptual problems... but women are certainly less inclined to "stick it out" if they think they aren't getting what they deserve. Unfortunately, as you said, the whole marketing set of images that have become part of the American psyche have gotten rid of things like hard work, respect and so on in relationships, and replaced them with idyllic scenes from romance novels. (Some) women lock onto this as very attainable... and then are constantly unhappy, especially when they compare hubby to these images.

That being said, the sheer number of guys who seemed to genuinely think Brittany Spears was the epitome of feminine beauty confounded me to no end; cute yes, but no more than many women you run into at the mall, but pop society painted her as the ideal and the sheep bleated in unison for her.

[ November 11, 2003, 18:51: Message edited by: Monolith ]