If authenticity were a slab of ancient oak, burnished and polished to shine with royal splendor as it served as a magnificent table in the great hall of the mountain king, our generation would be able to point proudly to our version as a paper-thin blonde veneer on top of a rickety yard-sale table in the front entrance of a double wide in east Houston somewhere. As I understand it, the prophet Isaiah used to rely on metaphors also.
We like the word authentic, but we detest the reality. Bruce Jenner is an authentic . . . what? The only thing authentic about that man is the intensity of the emotional spasm that is driving him right this particular minute. Unfortunately, intensity is a beam that you can shine on pretty much anything.
We like the word authentic, but we detest the reality. A fading beauty in Beverly Hills walks into an upscale bistro, her skin stretched out with botox, her breasts as fine a pair as DuPont could make them, her hair the color of nothing found on earth, and yet she double checks with the waiter (twice) to be sure that her salad will have hormone-free chicken. Why? Either because she is committed to going all natural, which would not seem to be the case, or because her table is only big enough for one hormone queen. She is insisting that the chicken be the authentic one.
We like the word authentic, but we detest the reality. Being a woman is extraordinarily special, but anybody can become one? We are told that we need to be careful not to parade false standards of Photoshopped beauty before our thirteen-year-old daughters, lest they become discouraged by the impossibility of it all. But if the powers that be decide to go on a jag in the opposite direction, they have somehow secured our permission to parade a former shot-putter named Bruno on the cover of Vanity Fair — “call me Lily” — in front of our thirteen-year-old sons, because, my boy, nothing is impossible. Wait a minute. Which is it? Are we going for realistic standards, or are we shooting the moon? And besides, why wouldn’t the thirteen-year-old daughter have a head start in dreaming the impossible dream?
Look at me, child. If you truly set your heart on it, there is nothing you can’t become. What’s that you say? You want to be a seven-hundred-pound sea lion sunning yourself on a large flat rock on the coasts of Nova Scotia? Ummm . . . let me talk to your mother.
Let us be frank with one another. The only difference between Jenner’s headlong flight from his Y chromosomes, pursuing him like something out of a nightmare, and this kid’s flight from insignificance among people to greatness among the sea lions is that at least in Nova Scotia you would probably get a bracing breeze off the sea. And also the kid probably has people who love him enough to keep him and his impossible dreams off the cover of any deranged magazines.
We like the word authentic, but when it comes to our ability to reason with sincerity and grace, our generation is as hollow as seventeen jugs in a row.
We like the word authenticity, but we detest the reality. A big shot worship band leader from a mega church walks out at the end of a service that was so “authentic” that it left his factory ripped and faded skinny jeans with big Jesus tears on them, and proceeds to live a “Christian” life that is less authentic than his “Country certified” flannel shirt.
Over at Public Discourse, link below, there is a similar perspective to your sea walrus example from a black author challenging transgenderism (and its affirmation) as being akin to and worse than the error of some blacks who want to be white. As much as the LGBT movement likes to equate their efforts to black civil rights, this article seems to be a nice judo take down using their own momentum.
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/06/15108/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=36a0f0aea8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-36a0f0aea8-84151377
I sometimes wonder if breast implants will be as common for young women as braces are for kids now, they no longer even spark gossip here…but of course, I live in California
My understanding is that in parts of South America, it’s exactly that way among the affluent. Getting plastic surgery (facial as well as to alter the figure) from the teenage years onward is almost like getting haircuts for men and women alike.
I first heard about it via this NPR story:
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/10/07/353270270/an-uplifting-story-brazils-obsession-with-plastic-surgery
My great grandfather cut off my grandmother’s college funds for wearing lipstick, my mom freaked out over earrings, my sister had her son sign a no tattoo or no college money contract…what will it be for our grandkids? Keep all your limbs or buy your own textbooks?
On the other hand, I have known three young girls who have had breast reduction cosmetically. Sometimes that is medically necessary, but sometimes it is to have a better shape or lose fat over all. I think that cosmetic surgery is addictive.
Pardon my unjustified derail. I don’t intend to change the subject, only to hold up a thought for a moment of consideration (only a moment and nothing more). “If authenticity were a slab of ancient oak, burnished and polished to shine with royal splendor as it served as a magnificent table in the great hall of the mountain king, our generation would be able to point proudly to our version as a paper-thin blonde veneer on top of a rickety yard-sale table in the front entrance of a double wide in east Houston somewhere. As I understand it, the prophet… Read more »
I like what my former pastor said: Authenticity is over-rated. Prison is full of authentic people.
I imagine hell is much the same.
I have always noticed that if you want to identify a person who is a complete fake, look for the guy who makes a huge deal about how authentic he is. Kinda like the guy who tells you how humble he is–five will get you ten he’s got an ego problem the size of Pike’s Peak. And why is it that all those “authentic” pomo pastors and worship leaders are wearing jeans that are “authentically” ripped by some poor guy at a factory in Bangladesh with a sandblaster? (where the management won’t even spend the twenty bucks to get him… Read more »
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/04/i-went-to-church-with-bruce-jenner-heres-what-caitlyn-jenner-taught-me-about-jesus/
Also webmaster, please check for comments in moderation. Thanks.
Comments hanging up in moderation.
As I said on the other thread, make-up can get expensive. In the end, many women are convinced through advertising that they actually “need” make-up. That somehow without it, they are incomplete. And if they work within certain professions, the implication is that they must have a certain ‘look’ that is presentable to the public. Hence, they must wear make-up to look acceptable. I’m glad I raised my daughter differently. She wears no make-up and works in higher education. Maybe I’ll start a support group: Women Without Make-up. We can talk about being confident without dependency on Maybelline, Max Factor,… Read more »
I actually replied to you in the other thread. There is more than an implication; there is a demand that young women in acting and modeling look gorgeous and made up. It certainly isn’t what I would have chosen for my daughter, but I like the residuals!
Jillybean, I agree that is the case in acting and modeling. It’s not really a demand in all professions, although it is expected in some in order to look presentable. Having taught in the public school system, female teachers weren’t expected to wear make-up. You could be who you wanted to be – make-up, no make-up, dress up, dress down, – quite flexible. That suited me quite well.
The problem with authenticity is that it is saying that I act how I feel whereas it seems that we often feel how we act, for good or bad. Or, as Elizabeth Goudge put it more eloquently,
Creative love meant building up by quantities of small actions a habit
of service that might become at last a habit of mind and feeling as well
as of body. I tried, and I found it did work out like that. Feeling
can be compelled by action not quite as easily as action by feeling, but
far more lastingly.
So once again, is it a case of we love to create, being made in His image, but we go too far when we turn our creation into an idol? Ourselves, our faces….does The poor sinner, who called himself Bruce, believe that if he creates the perfect look then his soul will stop that insatiable gnawing? And we are blessed to know that there is only One who can authentically/really stop that empty feeling in our soul. Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly…poor bruce.
The sad thing here is that Bruce believes that if acquires all these trappings, surgical, cosmetic, sartorial, and behavioral, he will succeed in becoming a woman, at least to the extent that will satisfy whatever conflicts and longings he feels. But he will not be a woman. Granting that there may be some kind of malfunction in his brain chemistry or thought processes that inclines him in a more female direction than a man would normally be (though in the case of someone who managed to become the champion of the premier male athletic event in the world, this is… Read more »
Yes, I agree that the sad thing is by doing this he believes that the longing will leave, and we know that there is only one Way for that longing to leave. I wonder if he believed it would leave earlier in his life if he became the amazing athlete he did become? Maybe he thought life wouldn’t seem so futile and he wouldn’t have that empty despair…I think this is what motivates/plagues most unbelievers. If they can just come out of the closet, they will be happy. If they can just get married, they will be happy. If they… Read more »