MinnPost writer Christina Capecchi, one of this blog's few but esteemed readers, has an interesting piece today on wedding trends that reveal our society's obsessions with celebrity, its stunning lack of self-esteem and its amazing gullibility: "Here comes the bride -- picture-perfect, thanks to the likes of Botox, veneers and stunning makeup."
About to become a bride herself, Capecchi has interviewed providers and pushers in the "personal services" industry who aim to make brides (and their mothers, mothers-in-law and little dogs too) feel not quite good enough to walk down the aisle without having a little "work" done. Now I don't know about you, but just the thought of a Brazilian wax makes me catch my breath a little. If you think anyone's gonna stick a needle in my face, you have another thing coming. And if my teeth are crooked, old and not bright white, well ... that's what photo retouching is for. As Popeye said, "I yam what I yam." I'll be a mother-in-law, with gray hair and a girdle, I guess. (Unless, of course, I can wean myself from wine except on weekends and get to the gym a few more days a week.)
I do hope, however, that my soon-to-become daughter-in-law doesn't get sucked into all of this self-flagellation and knows she's beautiful just as she is, inside and out. I'm reminded of a line from a song in the 1965 TV version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella": "Do I love you because you're beautiful or are you beautiful because I love you?" (Nostalgia alert: You can swoon over the dreamy prince here. I used to pretend I was the princess, played by Lesley Ann Warren, who, I might add, has crooked teeth and a funny smile and is breathtakingly gorgeous just the same.)
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Thanks for the plug! I couldn't believe my eyes when I first read BOTOX INJECTION on one magazine's timeline of recommended cosmtic treatments leading up to a wedding day. I thought perhaps it was just a vice for a certain ilk of New York brides, but down-to-earth MN brides are succumbing to those pressures, too.
I know I have to guard myself. I asked my dentist about getting my teeth whitened -- just because I thought I should -- and she held up the color strip and said my teeth were the very whitest shade, urging me to save my money. What a refreshing piece of advice. I took it!
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