055 - What Men (are told to) Want

055 - What Men (are told to) Want, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

The suit - the uniform for those not in the military.

Wear a suit enough and one day you will discover that you have forgotten what it is to wear something different. Ever seen those sad individuals with three button tee shirts, socks with sandals, socks with shorts, or, perhaps worst of all, the man on the beach wearing a short sleeve shirt obviously designed to be worn in the office.

The suit - one more nail in man's coffin of confidence.

The suit, like any uniform, is a way of showing that you belong to a group; however, it is also a means of defence. Any external means of defence used over a long period time erodes the mind's or the body's ability to defend itself, even drinking coffee to boost awareness soon replaces the body's natural equivalent. Carry a gun in public to defend yourself and evenetually you will fear to go out without one - even if a gun is one of the quickest ways to escalate a bad situation and another way to avoid learning other effective eans of defence that support the mind and body.

A family vacation for the long-term suit user can be a confusing affair, and an easy way of embarrasing one's own offspring. A short-sleeved shirt is many suit wearers limit of variation from the mean - the suit. A short sleeved shirt is not beach wear, it's not cool and, most importantly, it marks you from a distance as someone with narrow views on the world.

058: Me Man

Me Man, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

My Pet Peeves.

Well, with such a challenge, where should one start? To be honest, the most long-running thing I get annoyed about is the way people assume that because they see you as a man/English/white/etc. that you must fit whatever mold they have in their heads. Great, it saves them from thinking, from treating one as a human. Eventually, these classes they assign become more important than the people themselves, and from there it is a short walk to there being blood on the floor.

I just want to be me, not a dog that responds to the commands of the so-called leaders of society without question.

You will find that it is not the classifications of what you are that is important, you are not a set of classes, you are an adhesive body that you can stick classifications to, and change them if need be. Changing these classifications, these labels that one applies to oneself, or allows society to to, can be hard to change, but the process will never get easier unless you practice. That means putting yourself in new situations deliberately, not waiting for life's wiles to force you to change. No matter what you are or what you become, the essential you will remain, holding together with the force of life itself.

044: Old Magazine

Old Magazine, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Magazine Portraits

What do you see when you look at the model on the front cover of a fashion magazine? Yourself inside? Many people never understand how destructive it is on one's sense of self worth to repeatedly view idealised images, especially if one perceives one's image in the mirror to be far from that of the cover model.

These images are not the ideal, unless you let the contiual parade of such images program your mind to accept them as such. Different societies in different times have valued different things - it is nothing more than social programming.

My Sony camera is dying, and I was too tired to take enough shots to get the view I wanted without the pink lines that mar so many of the images the camera now often produces.