Posted on January 22, 2009 - by Amanda

No More Princesses

This post is intended to set out some of the underlying philosophy of our website.  We do not have any kind of a handle on perfection but we do think that we see pretty clearly some of the problems that plague us.  Let us all work to become better, more charitable, women.

If modern American men tend to be weak and selfish then modern American women tend to be strong and selfish.  As a whole we tend to act like the world is supposed to be at our feet and get indignant when it gets up and walks away.  We tend to be content with our weaknesses, wearing them as badges of honor, and we are terribly impractical.  The average American wedding costs close to $30,000, many women get a $30 manicure weekly and color their hair every month or two and somehow we seem to think of all of these things as a birthright, not as luxuries.  We drink $4 coffee, eat $3 muffins and have $40 a month gym memberships. Whatever our particular indulgences are, we each justify them in our own minds as necessities.  We at The Complete Woman say that enough is enough. The economy isn’t doing great right now and we think that we women need to get our attitudes in order before the economy does it for us.

Weddings

The American bridal industry continual tells women that their wedding day is “their day” in the sense that everything that happens begins and ends with them.  This means that women everywhere behave in an atrocious manner to their mothers, their sisters and their best friends in the time around their weddings.  Somehow we have given ourselves a free pass to be completely and totally selfish and petty for months on end.  This must stop now.  We need to call ourselves and each other on this nonsensical behavior.  A wedding is a big party and the point of a party is to celebrate with other people, not to pretend that you were born the daughter of a wealthy Medieval lord (who probably would have married you off to some scrofulous old goat anyway).  It is never your place to control, manipulate or boss other people. Ever. Especially not at a party. Knock it off now.

Mommy Wars

Some women work at a job. Some women work inside their homes. Some women have kids. Some women have none. Some women breastfeed and some formula feed. Some feed their children organic food and others feed them Oreos. And then we fight about these choices like they are life and death issues. We should just be grateful that we live in such a lovely period in history where we have options. The vast majority of women alive today and essentially every other women from the beginning of time has had to work non-stop from before sunrise to long after dark just to keep her children and herself fed. It’s time to be grateful for the blessings of our modern way of life and grateful for the options we have about how, when, where and how much to work and eat. Stop judging and stop criticizing. Do it now.

Fashion

There is a multi-billion dollar industry out ther dedicated to convincing you to buy more stuff. Especially clothes. Clothes that it will then tell you six months later are completely worthless and need to be thrown out. The vast majority of advertising is manipulation designed to make you feel worthless if you don’t buy what they tell you to buy. Unplug from this nonsense and set reasonable limits for yourself. Find a few things that are classic and simple and wear them all the time. Don’t shop unless you need to replace a completely worn out item. Buy the highest quality you can afford and take good care of it. No one needs more than ten or so sets of clothing. No one really needs more than two but even within the framework of our society ten should do it and you probably already have most of that now. So stop wasting money. If you really want to shop and you really can afford it then go shop for someone who can’t and give them the clothes.

That is all for now but that is probably enough.