General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Women's feet are a mess (not so with men's feet) [View all]MineralMan
(146,262 posts)They are now badly deformed and painful. The cause was too-small, badly-designed high heeled shoes. On the other hand, my wife, who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, never wore high heels. Her feet, now that she's in her 50s, are just fine, look like normal human feet, and cause her no problems. I guess it was OK during that period for young women to wear shoes that didn't harm them.
When I look back at my own youthful period, in the 1960s, I cannot recall a single case of anorexia in my high school. Not one. Then, as I look through my collection of Sears catalogs from that period (I have dozens of old ones, dating back to the 1890s), I see that all of the models in those catalogs are more or less of normal weight. The depiction of extremely thin women also did not appear in the many magazines I read in my high school years. I truly believe that contributed to a more healthy body image for adolescent girls during that time, and helped to prevent most of the cases of eating disorders.
Fashion has always troubled me, as I follow my hobby of looking back at popular culture in history. It often seems to do harm to women.
My ex-wife, to whom I was married for 17 years, starting in 1972 was another example of fashion and advertising causing harm. When I met her, and in the early period of our relationship, she was always troubled with facial complexion problems. Applying an almost endless stream of products that were supposed to cure those problems did not do anything to help. One day, after hearing about her dilemma again, I read the label on the current "moisturizing" product that was supposed to be helping. The principal ingredients included several types of alcohol, along with some mineral oil and other ingredients. Understanding chemistry, I realized that those alcohols in her product did exactly the opposite of what the product was supposed to do. The mineral oil in the product gave an immediate effect that was beneficial, but the alcohols soon took over, drying and irritating her facial skin even further. The solution was to use more of the product.
She had no skin problems anywhere else but her face. None. In fact, she had beautiful skin. So, I explained the chemistry of the products she was using, and why they were causing her skin not to improve, but were actually exacerbating the problem. "So, what am I supposed to do?" she asked. Here's what I suggested to her, all based on chemistry. I suggested that she wash her face only with Ivory soap, and that she switch to Ponds Cold Cream as the only product she used on her facial skin. She tried that, and within a month, her facial skin looked as smooth and healthy as the rest of her skin.
I tell this story, because it was the advertising for those skin care products that had convinced her that they were necessary for her skin to be healthy-looking, so she went from one product to the other, hoping for the results they promised. It was only when she stopped buying those products and cared for her skin in a way that made sense that her skin problems went away completely.
Ignoring the fashion and cosmetic industry is the answer, I think. Wear what you (general you) think looks good on you and causes no harm, and care for your hair and skin in ways that do not involve long ingredient lists and things will go well, both short term and especially long term.