Our Fashion From the Capitol

I recently finished rereading the series Hunger Games. In the books, comparisons are often made between the common, natural people from the districts and the freaks from the Capitol. 

Freak: "a person, animal, or plant with an unusual physical abnormality."

The books describe the green tinted skin, gold tattoo designs, unnatural rose scent, neon orange hair, cat whiskers, unnaturally tight stretched skin....

All of these being ways people have altered their bodies.

They are portrayed as vile and repulsive and something entirely foreign.

But... that point of view comes from the districts' perspective.

Of course to them any such alteration is disgusting.

Have you ever noticed that a good portion of the United States (and other countries) follow the fashion sense of the Capital?

Lady Gaga. Enough said. 

You may have just thought, sure... there are crazies out there. There's Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and Pink and the hundreds of people in celebrity magazines that wear those hideous dresses that are anything but attractive.

But news flash... the Capitol's fashion trends have been adopted by most people in one way or another. 

This occurred to me during a 3-hour hair appointment I took part in a couple weeks back. 

It was the first time I've had my hair dyed at a salon and it really could go without saying that during those three hours I had plenty of people to observe. 

And ya know what? I was disgusted with myself. 

I looked at all the people that came in that I've spent my life criticizing and judging and I realized I was allowing myself to become like them.

There was a man who got a simple hair cut and frosted tips who spent the entire time on his phone with various people including a conversation about how he could either have a 2-bedroom apartment with no garage or a 3-bedroom apartment with a garage. 

There was a woman who I'd guess is in her late 60's who was very precise in her instructions because if the length in the back wasn't exactly right her hair got poofy. Oh, and add some more highlights.

There was a teacher who has beautiful naturally curly hair who had her hair straightened and then spent the next half hour kindly requesting a half inch change in length here, and a few more layers there...

I wanted to jump out of my chair and dramatically throw my arms up and yell, "Don't you get it?!!!! There is SO much more to life than THIS!!!"

But I was silent and returned to reading the final Hunger Games book, ironically enough.

Can you see how our fashion trends can be so completely repulsive? 

Can you see how spending hundreds of dollars on your hair or diet pills or designer clothing is so completely wrong? 

Can you see how focusing your time and efforts on making yourself "attractive" whether it is getting the perfect hair cut or dye job or perfectly filed nails or the right curve to your eyeliner or working out for the purpose of looking like a model rather than health or bleaching your teeth 3 shades lighter or finding the perfect shade of blue to match your eyes is somehow wrong?

 

I think this girl is down right hott. Its not a secret that I'm absolutely taken by emo styles. I love the color and cut of her hair. I love her simple black finger nails. I love the gentle fade of her eye shadow that gives her eyes depth and opens them up and gives her wings to fly.

But she is from the Capitol. She is the enemy of everything good and pure and from home.

She's hott, but not beautiful.

She's sexy, but untouchable. 

She's not what anyone really wants.

 

But this woman, is beautiful. 

Guaranteed, her face is still covered in makeup to smooth out her skin, but she is, for the most part, natural.

She is the woman that someone would love rather than wear as decoration.

She's beautiful, not hott.

She's touchable, and still sexy.

She is who we really want to be.

So why take on the fashion sense of the Capitol?

To be noticed.

To gain attention.

To be coveted.

But those are the steps that Capitol fashion models take to become a beautiful woman.

The want someone to see them as beautiful, so in order to do so, they jump through these hoops to get someone to notice them.

They want someone to love them, so they attempt to make themselves irresistable. 

"Love is an irresistable desire to be irresistably desired."

I'm not sure how true that quote is.. I've always loved it. I actually just bought a plaque with that written on it to hang up in my home. Is wanting to be irresistably desired, love?

I don't know the answers.. I don't know why so many people find it necessary to adopt a Capitol fashion sense. I don't know why it is so widely accepted. I don't know if it is truly wrong to adopt that fashion sense. I don't know where the line is between simply taking care of yourself and being attractive compared with taking it to a repulsive point. I just know that right now, I am repulsed by my highlights and yet everyone else loves them. Not that they're necessarily bad.. but they're the Capitol. 

I just don't know.