Thursday, July 14, 2005
Still Sick.
So I have entered phase 2 of my lovely flu... Losing my voice.

The drugs have made it possible for me to function at almost full capacity, was able to go to the library for 3 hours, but I'm still really tired and dizzy. no fun.

For those of you that enjoyed The Corporation, I would like to recommend a book..

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This book takes a great look at the advertising industry and how it distorts our view of the way our lives should be. Her main focus is how the cigarette and alcohol industries target women, but she looks at how children and men are used and abused as well.

I've been thinking a lot about how advertising shapes our lives (women especially) when it comes to marriage. Image hosted by Photobucket.com
We are trained to believe that if we don't:
get the biggest ring
have the prettiest dress
an open bar
weigh some unholy and unnatural weight
pick the perfect "first dance" song
have the best menu
have the biggest wedding
long expensive honeymoon
the perfect huge cake (I hate wedding cake)
Invite family that we hate
the perfect, prettiest location
the perfect, attractive husband.

then why bother getting married at all?!?!
These magazine, bridal shows, tv shows, all geared to make us expect a wedding we can't afford. We are trained to believe that marriage is not about a union with the person you love, but instead about how many people you can impress or "show up". Would we even care about having a big wedding if we weren't trained with our "Bridal Barbies" and magazines?

It all makes me fear the day I join someone as crazy as me in unholy matrimony.


Peace, Love, and lots of codeine
-LMK


6 Comments:

Blogger still_figuring_out said...

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Blogger still_figuring_out said...

"weigh some unholy and unnatural weight".

oh how true!

Blogger Jaded said...

I got married just before I turned 30, and my hub was 30. I decided that I did not need to invite every human being I'd ever met and pay for their dinner just so they could wish me well. I had a very small family wedding. There were 25 people there including us and the minister. We went to a restaurant for the reception. They had a small private room for us, with 2 waiters, and a menu we'd chosen in advance. We just picked 3 things from their regular menu, which was cheaper than catering prices. I wore a beautiful cocktail dress, he wore a great suit. I'm a fat girl, so I didn't need to be in bright white with extra stuff hanging off me. The rehearsal dinner was at my parents' house. The whole thing cost me less than 2000 bucks, which we paid for ourselves. That was in December of '95.

In June of '96, we had a big BBQ for our friends. Hamburgers and hotdogs were much cheaper than a wedding buffet, and we could sit around till the wee hours in the back yard for free.

I don't regret a single thing about it.

Blogger Knitty Kitty said...

sounds wonderful!!
See I'm Italian, so if I don't invite every distant cousin, every random ass persom my family is somehow related to, then I might as well write myself off!

Blogger Ubermilf said...

First, my husband's in advertising and reported disturbing news about the future of it.

Regarding weddings, there are so many things that anger me. The rings? What am I, some sort of monkey who needs shiny things to keep me interested? Or am I a whore who's love's for sale to the richest guy?

And why are we trying to recreate some imaginary Victorian wedding? Dresses weren't white until then. And who invented these "customs"? Most of them are barely a decade old!

I do respect genuine ethnic traditions. They make a wedding lively, fun and meaningful. Unfortunately, the typcial wedding these days is none of those things.

Incidentally, I loved our wedding. My dress was 100% silk and floor length, but it only cost $99 (American) dollars. We had tapas in a Spanish restaurant with a flamenco guitarist playing, then a jazz band for dancing afterwards. No limo. No crazy engraved this or monogrammed that. We did have wedding cake (in addition to Spanish desserts) because I LIKE wedding cake. Not because someone made me.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm bragging, but I had a smaller (80 or so people) wedding with what I like to have at a party: Great food, drinks, and music. But we both had small families without complex family politics to maneouvre around.

Oh, and how's the virus? I hope you feel better. That's what I stopped to say in the first place, but I get crazy angry about wedding crap.

Blogger Jaded said...

I'm Italian too. I just figured since I was payin' I could pick and choose. If my family wanted every person they'd ever met to be there, they could foot the bill.

My sister's sister in law makes wedding cakes for a living. She made me a beautiful cake as a gift. We have a friend who is a photographer, so we bought him dinner, and he did the photos for the cost of the film only. There was a high school reunion in the next room over at the restaurant. The reunion was hosted by my mother's good friend, so they invited us in to dance for free if we wanted. It all worked out perfectly for us!

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