Americaaaa

Ashley Nesseler
Advanced English III
Ms. Duyvejonck
26 August 2010
“The Mirror, Mirror Era”
America has an obsession with appearances. Physical appearance is only one illusion Americans work to keep up. Most of us also try to appear smarter or wealthier in an attempt to impress those around us. Perhaps if as a country we spent more time looking for solutions and less time looking in the mirror , we would be in a better place as a whole.
It seems that in the United States, what kind of person you actually are matters a lot less that what kind of person you act as if you are. Take politicians for an example. As a group, they are notorious for being dishonest and yet we are still prone to vote for whichever candidate paints the prettiest picture, even if we are quite sure that what they are promising must be too good to be entirely true. Researchers have even done studies which have proven that voters are more likely to vote for a candidate that has a good facial appearance.
It is not just our government officials or politicians that work hard to keep up appearances, however. We have all been taught by media such as magazines and television shows that there is a certain look that is much more readily accepted as “normal.” Generally models are skinny, much skinnier than the average American woman. If there are eight women who do look like supermodels, there are another three billion who do not. Yet, many Americans feel as though they should look like the woman they see in magazines which can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. [continues]

Read full essay