Robert’s Blog

the above photo is a comparison of an original photo and a retouched photo from from the ann taylor website. a former student (thanks lanee) posted an article on her facebook profile from new york magazine concerning above image and a website glitch that accidentally displayed the unretouched photo on the ann taylor item page. ann taylor has received a huge amount of flack over the extreme manipulation of the photo and the model’s physical proportions.

one of the books that has challenged me a great bit is jean baudrillard’s “simulacra and simulation” – though i found it a difficult read. in this work baudrillard challenges symbols, reality, and society. baudrillard discusses a progression from seeing truth in reality, to simulating reality, to dismissing reality and seeing truth only in it’s simulation. if you can’t tell this book was one of the main sources for the movie “the matrix” (the first one – not the two other let down sequels). part of what challenged me from baudrillard was his argument that often in an attempt to further the experience of a natural good or beauty we develop a simulation of that natural item and then often slowly move to the point that we consider to the fake experience more real that natural one. here are a couple of examples. 1) real food doesn’t look “real” enough in photos so photographers often use fake food to photograph and then people wonder why their food doesn’t look like the photos. 2) ever meet someone who thinks of herself as a rock climber but has never actually climbed in nature – instead she climbs walls with brightly colored plastic “nubs” screwed into it (something originated for practice) and never goes out into nature.

we live in a fake society that actually believes the fake/plastic items are more true than the real items.

so back to the above photo.

according to bobbi brown (a cosmetic artist) supermodels are freaks of nature. yet many believe them to be perfect examples of beauty. of course, few consider that they might actually be real good examples of an unhealthy body (way too low of bmi’s). supermodels shape themselves to convey feminity. in doing that they actually become less female – such low bmi’s lead to a cessation of fertility. the above untouched woman is probably such an example. she is quite skinny in the untouched photo. the untouched photo is almost assuredly already fake. the models has probably been “padded”, taped, and made up to make her look more “perfect.” yet this fake image of a woman is not fake enough to represent the reality beauty that is wanted. the already unnaturally thin woman is not considered thin enough and the company decided to photoshop her image down to unreal proportions. it is literally impossible for anyone to look like the retouched photo, but that is the image that ann taylor is selling.

we could blame this all on the company (and the should be ashamed of themselves) but the reality probably is that we have willingly given up truth for simulations. we have exchange the “realness” for what is fake and we now believe that the fake is reality. what is fake around me that i am choosing over reality? what simulations are you choosing over reality?

it would be great if we would all “take the red pill” a little more often.

i have posted before about my fascination concerning the journey of earnest shackleton and the endurance. i read everything i can get my hands on and i watch everything i can find concerning the journey. last night i started watching the endurance and was struck by a statement concerning thomas orde-lees made by one of his grandsons. orde-lees’s grandson said:

my grandfather always wanted to be someone. this is why he would refuse to row. that was something everyone did. yet when the need for bailing was reached my grandfather bailed like a mad man for the entire night. of course, everyone would remember that. gentleman don’t row but they will do whatever is necessary to save everyone else.

the grandson’s statement is said with a wink and a nod because he obviously recognizes the absurdity of not rowing when it is needed because it is “common” while bailing like a madman because it is uncommon. at least at this point in his journey orde-lees was apparently only interested in serving others when it would be lauded but not when it was in anonymity.

i wonder how many times i do things just when others will see it? or how many times i avoid serving when it will go unseen? how often do i believe and behave like orde-lees?

i think gentlemen do the menial things that never receive the glory and allow others to chase after the meaningless credit. i hope i usually live like it.

mike penza (along with his wife kaylyn) is one of the people who GOD used to start tapestry. he is now a student at gordon-cromwell seminary in boston. today he pasted a blog post on my facebook profile that he said reminded him of tapestry. here’s part of the post:

As I sat here, drinking coffee and thinking about my life and ministry it dawned on me that there are more reasons for coming to Panera than just food. Yes, they have good coffee and breads and desserts that aren’t that good for the waist line but it hit me that there’s more to it than these.

In fact, I think the food is just icing on the cake. Deep down and not so deep down, people love community and the blessing they get from contact with another individual, especially friends that share a common interest in life.

it is a really good post concerning the community that the author is experiencing at panera bread and the “what if’s” that arise when a church opens itself up to strong webs of relationship with no focus on a building.

i was thrilled and honored that mike immediately thought of tapestry when he read the post. he would know from personal experience if it is true of tapestry or not. i was also pretty pumped that i was at emy j’s drinking coffee – it’s much better than panera.