| TEEN SCENE |  | |
“HEALTH BEFORE FASHION” | |||
by Jackie Klapak Ooh, ooh-ooh, oooooh…HEATWAVE! Hello, everyone, this summer has been sizzling so far! I hope everyone’s Fourth of July happenings and events turn out to be safe and, most importantly, loads of fun. My July Fourth plans have remained constant my entire life, but I still enjoy all of the parades, carnivals, and fireworks. Although the summer is a very opportune time to spend time out-of-doors, swimming and to wear more revealing and laid-back clothing, there are a couple of issues I would like to address: fake tanning and extreme dieting. Countless teens, primarily girls (but more and more guys have these issues too), are absolutely obsessed with these “highly fashionable” trends. For teenagers, it has always been about image, however unhealthy or pointless the “acceptable” standards are. First of all, I would like to “go off” on a tangent about the extreme dieting. So many of my friends want to slim down for the summer and they go through un-godly measures of starving themselves or following the ridiculous guidelines of fast-working diets, such as the Atkins Diet or the South Beach Diet. I can’t stress how bad it is to try to take the easy way out to lose weight. When following these diets, people end up depriving their bodies of vital nutrients. Sure, you lose weight, but it’s water weight. And once you break that strict eating pattern, the weight comes back to haunt you. In the case of people starving themselves, they lose weight because of malnourishment. Also, their metabolism slows, and a person can’t live on rabbit food forever. Once the religious salad-goer chomps into a juicy hamburger, he or she will gain weight like never before. Sadly, society has ingrained into our heads that size-two bodies are ideal, and in some cases, the only acceptable images. The media has glamorized the look of collar bones popping out, knobby knees, and ribcages jutting out above an acutely concave stomach. So many people get depressed and down about their weight, and seeing the 5’11”, 102 pound Abercrombie and Fitch models don’t make it any better. Is society ever generally right anyways? I know that it is important to be fit and healthy, but there is a difference between being in shape and being a twig. If you want to lose weight, reassess the reasons for which you want to. If it’s solely to be able to fit into that cute pair of size “0” Levi lowriders, you may want to think again—is it really worth it? The average American woman is a size 12-14. It may also be comforting to know that Marilyn Monroe, the preeminent sex symbol of the 20th Century was indeed a size 14. I believe that the most important aspect here is that you are comfortable with yourself... If you are, then who cares what other people think? (And here’s a plus for girls: most “good” men in this world don’t like their women to snap in half!) I think that most of the guys who are reading this will agree. My next spiel is on fake tanning. Both men and women are flocking to tanning booths to give themselves a “healthy glow” for the summer. Those booths are basically like cancer boxes; just think of all of the high penetration of the unhealthy rays enclosed in a space the size of a coffin. From talking and hanging out with lots of my friends, the appeal of tanning is growing, and a number of teens who go tanning almost get addicted to it—they just keep wanting to get darker and darker. Just please be careful. I would say that your best bet is to walk down the street to your nearest drugstore and buy a bottle of self-tanning lotion. Companies like Coppertone and Neutrogena have formulated lotions, sprays, and gels which give an extremely realistic effect that lasts for about a week. Isn’t that better than dealing with premature wrinkling and the higher risks of developing cancer? So those are my two issues to prattle on about. I just think that society and its standards are getting people too self-conscious and worried about unnecessary things that really shouldn’t be tampered with. Remember that it’s good to stand out in a crowd usually, and if we all looked the same and acted the same—which is essentially what is taking place with all of these set “guidelines”—this world would be way too boring to handle. Agreed? THIS TEEN TURNS ON...Now, onto music... As readers of this column knows, each month I try to “turn on” to a new album or new group, that I have hitherto been unfamiliar with... This past month, I listened to Echoes, by Pink Floyd. I had only been familiar with a few Pink Floyd tunes before this month, and I loved every minute of Echoes. Each song had a distinct quality of an overall sense of being laid-back, and the words to the lyrics were very soul-touching and poetic. I don’t think anyone would actually be able to detest music like this. The time just seemed to fly by while I was listening to the two-CD album. It was absolutely magnificent, and I would like to thank my dad, Paul Klapak, for letting me steal one of his all-time favorite CDs to review and enjoy. I’m afraid I’ve kept Echoes for longer than he can handle! This coming month, I have decided to wrap my ears around Compact Jazz: Stan Getz, a jazz CD by the extremely popular saxophonist, Stan Getz (Verve Records). Many people don’t realize that we would not have the pop, rock, rap, country, or punk music that we have today if it weren’t for the jazz rebels. Jazz set the basis for nearly every genre of music today. We’ll see how Stan’s music Getz to me next month in Midwest BEAT. That’s all for this month. Email me your thoughts, comments, music suggestions and ramblings to: Jackie@midwestbeat.com. Ciao! | |||
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