I've been thinking a lot about vanity and egoism, especially contrasting their prevalence between FL and Olympia. Firstly, let's define the word and they we can take it from there.
Vain: having or showing undue or excessive pride in one's appearance or achievements : conceited.
I would say that overall, citizens here are less concerned about their physical vanity, in the mainstream sense (labels, brands, new clothes). But, people seem to be a little too concerned with contrasting popular culture. Example: I was riding the bus out to Evergreen and two female students behind me were seemingly competing to see who was the least mainstream. Eventually the firl who shopped at Forever 21 with her 9$ jeans won, but I wanted to turn to her and say "If you're so worried about being "thrifty" and "conscious" of where your clothes come from, do yo ever stop to think about the labour that goes into making those clothes or where they originate? But that would have opened a can of worms that couldn't be cleaned up in the 10 minutes we had left before getting to campus.
Continuing on that note, I've notice a lot of "alternative living" vanity, verging on elitism.... Yeah, it's just straight up elitism. I encountered it today, as a matter of fact, and it was allllll I could do not to roll my eyes and scoff. Our site director who took us to the field for gleaning and then to the Food Bank was so blatantly anti-consumerism, it was offensive. She complained about the cookies, with their sugar, the soda with its sugar, and the "mainstream" radio stations. Unfortunately if I want to do anymore harvesting with the Food Bank I will have to go through her, but maybe I can meet another coordinator who is less... judgmental.
The climate here is definitely different, though not exclusive, because I know plenty of those type of people in Orlando.
I'm writing this piece because I feel I'm reevaluating my position on vanity. I've always thought I was a little more vain that is necessary, but I am my harshest critic. Now, however, I'm thinking I may be coming back to the center of the spectrum.
The people I currently find myself attracted to aren't pretty in the conventional sense, meaning they wouldn't grace the cover of People or Glamour. I always assumed there was something wrong with me because I always looked to the physical appearance to determine whether or not I was interested in a person. But now, I find I wait a moment because it's the personality that really grabs me. I wonder if it's the new environment or if I was heading in this direction anyway, or if I was just surrounded by really attractive people in FL. Probably a combination of all three.
I don't think my judging the book by its cover was aided by the fact that nearly everyone I meet comments at some point or another on my thinness. I've always been the slimmest in my family and growing up with remarks about my physical appearance is wearing. The off-hand comments when I was a kid and the barely concealed envy of young adulthood have led me to be suuuuuuper conscious of what I eat, how I dress and generally my appearance. I realise that our culture idolises the thin, but for the longest time I hated my body, just because it drew so much attention.
Vanity has many origins, is multi-faceted, and is thankfully fluid. I feel like the weight I place on physical attractiveness is lessening, but it's hard to be judgmental when nearly everyone here is rocking a different and completely un-Florida like style. But it's all good. Change and newness are good. :)
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