"America the Disconnected"

Today I was fortuneate to have the chance to see "America the Beautiful: Are we obsessed with beauty". This documentary, directed by Darryl Roberts, investigates the etiology of the North American obsession with beauty; its driving forces, motivations, perpetuating factors, and its victims. What really resonated for me in watching this film, was the theme of disonnection. In his film, Darryl Roberts focuses on the disonnect in our society between the healthy self esteem that every parent wants for their child, and the harmful messages in pop culture/media that are hampering this goal. However the theme of disconnection can be seen on many other levels in the film, which I will explore here.

In one scene, director Darryl Roberts is asking a teenage boy why he has to have six pack abs and a very slender girlfriend. The boy replies that he wants these things and adamantly states that they are important to him. However, when he is asked why, a blank look covers his face as he is unaware of what is being imprinted in his subconscious awareness 24-7. He is disconnected from his own morals, values and standards. America, a free society, is not choosing its standards of beauty. The multibillion dollar beauty industry is, with its unrealistic standards of physical perfection that are blasted at us through all popular media - internet, magazines, T.V. and film. It is not a far cry to call it brainwashing, as its victims are not aware of the determinental effect of such 24-7 advertising. The consequence being this paradox of total obsession with our bodies, in the midst of total disconnection from them.

This paradox can be seen in the case of an anorexic teenage girl who disconnects from her body everytime she starves it, denying her natural, internal hunger cues. Everytime she does this, she is denying an essential part of herself, leaving her less grounded and as a result even more vulnerable to these fabricated ideals. Our society is telling this girl that she will only be happy when she looks a certain way. The irony being that when she reaches this physical goal she will be more unhappy than before. I don't know what could better define a disconnect.