When I was a young girl, I wanted to be beautiful. Clever. Successful.
Oh to be pretty. To be as wonderful as my mother. To marry a man as great as my Dad. To meet a boy as strong as my older brothers.
I have to wonder what young children grow up to aspire to be in today's age of confusion, gender politics and exaggerated fake body parts?
The first time I thought of myself as an " emerging woman " as opposed to a girl was when I saw the movie " Dr No " with Ursula Andress emerging out of the water to a rather gorgeous James Bond played by Sean Connery.
My heart was a flutter. I desperately wanted that bikini. While the film was made in 1962 I did not see it until some years later when I was a teenager.
Chaucer you will love this - a bit of Mango love.
In those days, we were not permitted to see such things. Unlike children today.
As it transpired, my parents took me to a big chain store in Auckland, New Zealand and the bikini that had inspired me was on sale.... I was allowed to have it as my Christmas present.
No, it was not exactly the same. But close enough.
I got home and popped it on. Did I look like Ursula Andress? No. But boy, did I feel like her!
There was a place in Auckland, some years later, where I went to have " tea. " I think it was called the Ceylon Tea House. Young and old would gather to enjoy different blends and wear their best clothes and put on their best behaviour.
I always felt I had to be a bit like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys. The sunglasses, the hair, the dress!
Those masks look a bit familiar...
My props, back in my youth were all external.
Me? I was all natural.
I have thought about this preoccupation with body image, plastic and cosmetic surgery and I have come to a conclusion.
I am more of a Popeye kind of gal.
I am what I am.
Today, people try to change who they are. False eyelashes, false bodies, false everything. And then tell us that they are trustworthy for being " real. "
I personally prefer reality. You know, before fake news. fake government and fake history. I am a bit old-fashioned in that respect.
The days when men were men, women were women, news was news and government actually did a good job as our servants, not our masters.
We live in a world where a fake health crisis shut down the planet to turn us into fake people.
Life has become a sick joke. Civil liberty is fast becoming a thing of the past and Dr No is taking over the world.
Hiding in his bunker is no longer the thing of the day..... he is happy to announce that population culling is the big and latest thing.
Our James Bonds are long gone.
Our Ursula Andress is a distant memory. Her perfect female body has been replaced with something that Artificial intelligence could have created.
The Audrey Hepburn woman of elegance is now having a cup of who knows what and James Bond is now wearing a man bun.
James Bond wasn't fake. He actually existed in Ian Fleming and in Paddy Mayne and in Ben Roberts Smith.
But one thing that resonates with me is that Ursula Andress and Audrey Hepburn were REAL women.
As am I.
Getting old is a bitch. I remember being able to mow the lawns, do handstands and carry my kids on my fingers all while dancing on the head of a pin and juggling 6 phone calls, bathing my daughters and cooking tea while singing along with the Corries or Simon and Garfunkel.
I feel like this so often these days
It is extraordinary to remember when I didn't need makeup to look pretty.
When running was a pastime, not a memory and a sore hip was because I fell on the squash court.
When a bad government was a distant memory and not a given.
I have to wonder.
Really?
When fake people with their fake bodies and fake gender identities take over the world, is it time for the real people to take control?
I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous.
But is it worth a thought? Because, let's face it, what is the truth anymore?
Breathe deep the gathering gloom
Watch lights fade from every room
Bedsitter people look back and lament
Another day's useless energy is spent
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one;
Lonely man cries for love and has none
New mother picks up and suckles her son
Senior citizens wish they were young
Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey is yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion
Thanks to my fellow posters for the inspiration and the images.
BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS
