Friday, December 30, 2016

Take Your Top Hat Off And Sit Down: Wishing There Were More Of James Dean Still

I was thumbing through a picture book the other day and it had all of these actors and actresses of the 40's and 50's. (save your snickering at the stigmas please) There were all these photos of James Dean, Cary Grant, Monroe and many many more. 

The one thing that caught my eye was the classy style of dress. Men wore top hats and their waist lines were around their belly buttons. They had this rugged sort of feel to their faces, weathered is a better term. I feel like if you took black and white photos of men today in the same dress and same camera and compared them to the men of the 40's you would be able to tell which one was from the 40's and which one was from today.

I think that part of that is skin cream's perhaps...I don't know? I do know that James Dean was hot and so was so many other men in that era. Though, it wasn't so much the men that rev my motor so much as the dress style. Even when they were just undershirts and torn up jeans, especially the jeans. They seemed more confident and secure in exactly what they were doing. I need that.

But that brings me to today's modern man. We have become obsessed with physical appearances and so many of us (yeah, I'm included in this as well) are seeking the type of body that perhaps for some of us is unobtainable. I say this as I sit here in my jogging sweats and music ready. I think that my confidence and likeability is directly tied to my image. My weight in particular.

I could have the biggest acne problem in the world on my face and still have confidence (though I am not diminishing the problem of acne, it is terrible to have to go through) but as soon as I gain 5 pounds all I can think about is getting rid of it and then let the barrage of self-insults begin. Many of us are maybe not so vain, as we are unconfident in ourselves and we associate confidence with our waist lines.

Perhaps we can simply move our waist lines back to our belly buttons and throw a top hat on...

With Love
Jeff Utnage

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