Eating breakfast at I-Hop I found myself sitting across from a couple that resembled the swole grandpa and Glamma ads plastered all over the internet and social media feeds. The muscular man wore a gray too tight tee with American flags located across the chest and on the sleeves. His hat didn’t say maga–he was too young for that. It said King. He was bearded in the fashion of a TV special forces operator. At this point I need to reflect on some of the notes my editor hammered me with yesterday and point out that he has white skin (I only express skin color in what is, apparently, a faux pas or imperialist way). The wife was tanned to the point where it felt unnatural. Her long pink nails and yards of quaffed blonde hair felt out of touch with her age. Likewise her halter top and sweat pants looked like they belonged to her teenage daughter.
Now I am just being picky in my description. The point to all of this is to say what the Lady Talis explained to me. Some people are unimaginative. They reach for the idealistic look that is right there and easy for them to obtain. Low hanging fruit mistaken for self-actualization. I worry that more and more people in our reality are shifting towards this. I see it in my kids. I see it in my co-workers. I’d see it in my friends if I had enough to constitute a sample size. We are increasingly becoming disconnected from self, and as a result self-actualization is becoming an assimilative practice. This is as unhealthy as it sounds.
Some Thoughts:
- It occurs to me that in this era of targeted advertising, I may be seeing these ads while younger audiences are not. I still wonder why they come to me though. I’m not quite 50, I am not at all white, and my search history argues athletic affinity. My weight doesn’t. My activity level doesn’t. However, they ought not have access to those…