Pinterest. When a 'Like' button on Facebook just isn't enough to express how much you...um, like something. It's a visually driven, delightful social media site where people go to tell the world that they are making three cheese penne that night. I adore this place. I don't pin as much as I want to, but love looking at what others are up to. Yesterday, a total stranger tainted Pinterest for me, Fat Jesse. And she got me angry on another level as well.
I admit that I was a social media rookie until I got a spiffy smart phone. Now I'm taste-testing all of it: turning mobile pictures in beautiful sepia toned works of art, sharing my thoughts in 140 characters or less, and posting videos of my kids. I'm having a lot of fun, but one thing I have found is that in all of these awesome sites are irritating jerks just waiting to spam people they don't even know. Which brings me to yesterday, when I received a notice that someone had mentioned me in one of their health and fitness pins on Pinterest. I was confused, and eventually irritated, when I realized that I had just been mass-tagged in an advertising scheme to get people to pay for the most unhealthy diet on the planet.
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| No need to go door-to-door. I can now bother you from my wireless device. |
And now for that higher level of anger I was talking about.
Fat Jesse, this woman has board upon board of only pictures of stick skinny women. They are obviously professional models and athletes, and obviously have nothing to do with the diet she's claiming helped her lose four tons in two days (come to think of it, where are your pictures, annoying spam lady?). And as a woman--no less, a fat woman--I am livid. Because I've come to the conclusion that not only are people like this trying to spam my Pinterest account, a sacred space of craftiness and dreams, but they are trying to spam my self-image.
Funny thing about women, F.J. When we want to lose weight, we have this nasty habit of looking at other women and saying Those are the arms/butt/thighs/shoulders I'm going to have when I'm through with myself. Oh, I've done it. I used to have a 'vision board' with pictures of fit people snowboarding and doing Krav Maga-- things that I'm too fat to do. But I've never really stopped to think about what an insane thing that is to do to myself. Forget the fact that someone staring at a collage of pictures of attractive strangers living their lives is the perfect beginning to a really creepy episode of Law and Order: SVU. The real problem is that another person's shape is probably the most futile and destructive thing we can kill ourselves trying to achieve. I mean, I would never see my friend's cute new car, love it, and consequently paste a picture of it on my bedroom wall to motivate myself to acquire it. And that's way more achievable than another person's musculoskeletal system. Well, maybe not in this economy.It turns out that a little spam was all I needed to realize my next step. You see, Fat Jesse, we all have self-image inboxes. We receive thousands of messages every day on how we look, what we're good at, and where we fit into this world. Just like the internet, there will be times when messages creep in that don't make sense with what we know to be true. And there will be those that look completely legitimate until we take a closer look. So I've issued a challenge to myself, F.J. I'm going to send those messages to the junk folder. But before I do, I'm going to report them to my brain. Reporting them ensures that they may not be able to spam me again. So every time I see an image that makes me think I want to look like that, I'm going to yell SPAM! Not out loud, Fat Jesse. Not out loud. That would get me a one-way ticket to a padded room. And while I learn to send those messages where they belong, I'm going to spend some time thinking about what I would look like snowboarding or doing Krav Maga. I assure you I will not forget my camera when those days come. Now those are some pictures worthy of hanging on my walls.
Suddenly craving Spam (not really),
New Jesse, -16 lbs
Skeleton Image: farconville / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Salesman Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
TA3FJFGATKUR
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