"One of the reasons why I never let my girls see a Barbie is because I don't want them to think that Barbie is beauty."
-Mr. Wade Varieur, Cerritos High School AP English Lit teacher, 2008. Roughly quoted
I read a poem a long time ago that still sticks with me, in an unpleasant way. I remember this poem so well because of the imagery and the meaning behind it. It's a poem called "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy.
"This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending."
-Poem courtesy of www.poemhunter.com
We do not have to be English Majors or PhDs in English right now. The poem described a girl who was normal, but to the eyes of an omnipotent narrator. However, to the society around her, she was way less than perfect. She was raised in any way a little girl would be, there was nothing wrong with her. However, these "defects" soon came to be evident through her own eyes and made her "cut off her nose and her legs." Later, she would end up worked on to get "cosmetics painted on" and a "turned-up putty nose," and then she would became a "happy ending" to "every other woman," even though she laid dead "in the casket displayed on satin."
I might have missed a few things but the imagery is grueling. Barbie was the standard of beauty for girls, and Barbie was inhumanely thin. So thin that anyone who was that thin would be dead. If girls don't look like Barbie, the world rejects them as "fat."
What people think is cool is only toxic. More people will know what's cool over what truly matters. Girls have been dying to be like Barbie over learning that Christ loved them. Boys have been calling girls fat because they aren't thin like Barbie instead of accepting them over insignificant (and often unnoticeable) flaws.
Think of Acts 17:21 when Paul visited Athens: Now all the Athenians and the foreigner who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. The people, Paul suspected, were in some form of idolatry worship. Paul also said "Do not be conformed to this world" in Romans.
Some trends may not be harmful, one might say. The world listening to "Gangnam Style" for example, may not have been so dangerous one may say. It's just a silly-sounding song that people thought were cool. However, in the world where Satan is the prince and ruler of this world (2 Cor 4:4), Satan has the power to do anything. He could blind the lost to church and make them think of Jesus as "culturally irrelevant" or "uncool." Then there is something else I wanted to ask: how many people know Gangnam Style compared to how many people know that Jesus loved them? How many self-professing Christian students Instagrammed doing the Gangnam pose (or got involved in their own version of "Harlem Shake") over a Bible verse?
The trends of today, when used by Satan, only blinds the lost further away from the greatest news of all.
This is not saying that you can't do things as a follower of Christ. I understand it is important to have a hobby and do stuffs here and there that are fun. However, this is a matter of the heart. What are we filling our hearts with, desire to do what everyone else does, or desire to reach out to lost souls?
Does your heart break for lost people?
Have you been affected and so into popular culture? Are you affected by the culture you are in? Have you been told that you're fat and worthless? Are you trying to reach perfection in the eyes of people? If this is you, I urge you to stop and choose to be free from that. The world will not love you forever, period. One day you'll be the beauty queen, the next day you'll be a reject. It's just how this world works. However, there is good news. Jesus loved, loves, and will love you the way you are. God had sent His son to die for us while we were sinners so that no one will perish but have life everlasting (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). He loves everyone, those that are "fat" or those that are "rejects" or anyone. It's time to stop letting everyone control you, and to live free knowing that you are always precious in the eyes of God.
Lord, I thank you that you love me.
I know the world doesn't accept me.
God it can be so hard to know that people don't love me or like me.
But God, today I want to let it go.
I want to accept your love.
I know I'm not perfect but you love me as if I was.
God, in the end, I want to know that it's all I need.
Thank you for sending your Son to die on the Cross for me.
Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, please click here.
-Mr. Wade Varieur, Cerritos High School AP English Lit teacher, 2008. Roughly quoted
I read a poem a long time ago that still sticks with me, in an unpleasant way. I remember this poem so well because of the imagery and the meaning behind it. It's a poem called "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy.
"This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending."
-Poem courtesy of www.poemhunter.com
We do not have to be English Majors or PhDs in English right now. The poem described a girl who was normal, but to the eyes of an omnipotent narrator. However, to the society around her, she was way less than perfect. She was raised in any way a little girl would be, there was nothing wrong with her. However, these "defects" soon came to be evident through her own eyes and made her "cut off her nose and her legs." Later, she would end up worked on to get "cosmetics painted on" and a "turned-up putty nose," and then she would became a "happy ending" to "every other woman," even though she laid dead "in the casket displayed on satin."
I might have missed a few things but the imagery is grueling. Barbie was the standard of beauty for girls, and Barbie was inhumanely thin. So thin that anyone who was that thin would be dead. If girls don't look like Barbie, the world rejects them as "fat."
What people think is cool is only toxic. More people will know what's cool over what truly matters. Girls have been dying to be like Barbie over learning that Christ loved them. Boys have been calling girls fat because they aren't thin like Barbie instead of accepting them over insignificant (and often unnoticeable) flaws.
Think of Acts 17:21 when Paul visited Athens: Now all the Athenians and the foreigner who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. The people, Paul suspected, were in some form of idolatry worship. Paul also said "Do not be conformed to this world" in Romans.
Some trends may not be harmful, one might say. The world listening to "Gangnam Style" for example, may not have been so dangerous one may say. It's just a silly-sounding song that people thought were cool. However, in the world where Satan is the prince and ruler of this world (2 Cor 4:4), Satan has the power to do anything. He could blind the lost to church and make them think of Jesus as "culturally irrelevant" or "uncool." Then there is something else I wanted to ask: how many people know Gangnam Style compared to how many people know that Jesus loved them? How many self-professing Christian students Instagrammed doing the Gangnam pose (or got involved in their own version of "Harlem Shake") over a Bible verse?
The trends of today, when used by Satan, only blinds the lost further away from the greatest news of all.
This is not saying that you can't do things as a follower of Christ. I understand it is important to have a hobby and do stuffs here and there that are fun. However, this is a matter of the heart. What are we filling our hearts with, desire to do what everyone else does, or desire to reach out to lost souls?
Does your heart break for lost people?
Have you been affected and so into popular culture? Are you affected by the culture you are in? Have you been told that you're fat and worthless? Are you trying to reach perfection in the eyes of people? If this is you, I urge you to stop and choose to be free from that. The world will not love you forever, period. One day you'll be the beauty queen, the next day you'll be a reject. It's just how this world works. However, there is good news. Jesus loved, loves, and will love you the way you are. God had sent His son to die for us while we were sinners so that no one will perish but have life everlasting (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). He loves everyone, those that are "fat" or those that are "rejects" or anyone. It's time to stop letting everyone control you, and to live free knowing that you are always precious in the eyes of God.
Lord, I thank you that you love me.
I know the world doesn't accept me.
God it can be so hard to know that people don't love me or like me.
But God, today I want to let it go.
I want to accept your love.
I know I'm not perfect but you love me as if I was.
God, in the end, I want to know that it's all I need.
Thank you for sending your Son to die on the Cross for me.
Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, please click here.