Beauty. We’re told its important. We’re sold a completely bizarre idea of what beauty means and what we need to do to achieve it. We tell ourselves it's important. I fall prey to it much more than I like to admit and it's a bit alarming to realise how long this weird idea of beauty had been influencing my life. I grew up with a dance teacher who told us all that a dancer is always on stage, and that means looking a certain way whenever you get out of bed. It's an idea that's stuck with me since I was seven. I’m sure she probably sleeps in her make up, just in case the house catches on fire and a firemen might see her without her face on. I had a friend who reminded me a few years ago that I did the same thing when I was in my pre-teens. I didn’t remember it at all (yay repression!) but apparently I told her that I had to wear makeup to bed in case I was awoken by a prince or some such prattle. I must have been pretty convinced there was a plethora of princes hanging out in suburban Virginia. I remember seeing it first on Spice World. I was probably around the same age- seven again? It’s amazing how inundated we are with what we think society wants us to look like, and it starts at a very young age. It's less hard to believe when you see it all over movies, magazines, and TV. Look at old photos and videos of the so-called illustrious SJP, back in her Broadway days when she looked like a human being, even a pretty human being! I don't really know why I picked SJP to be fair... she's probably a very nice lady. Too bad she looks a bit like an 80 year old scarecrow....plus I hate Sex and the City. Just saying.
SJP circa 1996
So how did she go from this:
.... to this?:
Oh.... South Park. You know just what to say.
And let's not forget crazy Madonna's steroid string bean arms!
DELICIOUS! "I feel decades younger than I am! Just look at my young, supple body! Now I can fit into my daughters clothes! Acceptable!"
The list goes on. Personally I’d rather look like Helen Mirren than have Madonna string arms. What it says about society is a bit frightening. But it’s not just about fashion, or celebrities. This bizarre beauty obsession has an impact on almost every single aspect of life. Did you know banana’s have been bred to be straighter and longer because some costumer somewhere said once that they thought long and straight banana bludgeons looked better than cute little banana shaped bananas? Carrots are straight, broccoli must have a certain density, and apples have to be a particular size- oh, and they’re not supposed to brown.
“Hold on a tick, my good man,” you might say. And I me being the hypothetical Shopkeep who somehow switched gender in a sentence would say back to you, “Why, my dear chap, you told me once that when you cut my apple it turned brown and you were displeased. So, as a loyal customer at Buy Apples Anytime Of The Year Apple Emporium [catchy, eh], I decided to genetically modify all my apples so they would stay beautifully white and pristine when you cut into them.”
After our wonderful conversation, you the customer would go home with your genetically modified ‘beauty apple’ without much hesitation. Why? Because you love pretty apples! On the website for Okanagan Special Fruits, the makers of the magical, wondrous non-browning apple, they explain that :
“Just about every person can identify with that apple that has been cut or partially eaten and set aside for a few minutes, only to find the flesh all brown and unattractive when you come back to it. This "browning" is evident in most fruits and vegetables, and is very active in most tree fruits. OSF patented Polypheunol Oxidase (PPO) technology is able to silence the browning reaction, to deliver a fruit that will not turn brown when cut or bruised."
Alack! Horror of Horrors! SAVE YOUR IMMACULATELY VIRGIN APPLES FROM THE TERRORS OF BROWNING!
The fact of the matter is APPLES BROWN! THAT IS WHAT APPLES DO WHEN YOU CUT INTO THEM! People age and apples brown, and spring comes before summer and so on and so forth. These are the facts of life. What the biotech companies like our dear friends at Okanagan Specialty Fruits forget to mention is that apple browning is mitigated with some good ol’ fashioned citric acid, aka lemon juice. If one were to buy pre-cut apples from Starbucks or Tesco or Wendy's or any other place that sells the incredibly tedious to cut apple in neat, handy packages, one would take a look at the ingredients and more often than not find citric acid on that list (among other things most likely.... mmm extra non-appley bits).
So what’s the point of genetically modified non browning apples? It the same idea as pumping a face full of Botox and collagen…. do you really want that in your fruit?
I'll leave you with a quote to think about until the next time I post. Let me know what you think.
“Any politician or scientist who tells you these products are safe is either very stupid or lying. The hazards of these foods are uncertain. In view of our enormous ignorance, the premature application of biotechnology is downright dangerous." ~David Suzuki, CC, OBC, Ph.D LLD, Geneticist
This post it brought to you by The Lemon and Our Word of the Day: Senescence.
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