What you see is not what you get

Campus Times
May 9, 2003

by Jaclyn Roco
Editor in Chief

I get angry sometimes when I watch television. There has to be more to life than trying to live up to the supposed trends and images shown by flashy women.

One of the things I get sick and tired of hearing from my friends (although I admit I have also complained) is: "Why can't I look like that?" or my greatest peeve "Damn Jacky, why can't you look like that?"

Okay, I know that the latter remark is usually made in jest either by my boyfriend or one of my stupid male friends, but hearing things like that just doesn't lap off me; instead, these remarks hit me and sticklike ice on the tongue.

It unnerves me that females 16 and under have better figures than I do; well maybe not when it comes to my size one waist, but rather the fact that they actually have a better and bigger upper torso than I do. Oh, yeah not to mention a better rear extension.

And what gets to me most is the fact that I never really cared about what I saw on television until everyone else started pointing it out to me: "Gee, Britney Spears sure looks healthy," or "Wow, for someone younger than us, Hillary Duff sure has a nice chest. What size are you, Jacky?"

So what if I'm extremely skinny, and so what if everyone likes to call me "stick figure?" I do eat, if you didn't know, and when I choose not to, it doesn't mean I'm starving myself to look a certain way; it just means that I was too busy doing something else. (And of course I'll make up for that by having a big meal later.) You'll also never catch me sticking my finger in my throat to throw all my insides up.

I heard someone doing that once; it was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard, mostly because I heard the strange noise of someone sticking something way into the back of their throat.

I felt that I should help that person, until she looked me up and down and said, "Wow, it seems to be working for you."

Is that what everyone else thinks?

I was talking to one of my friends, and she told me that some guy was making fun of me.

He had told her that he was attracted to girls that had meat on them, not girls that looked like the "anorexic" girl in the corner - which I supposed was I.

It seems like today's superficial world is never satisfied with what is real. I have friends who complain that they wished they had my waist, and I look at them and say, "Are you kidding me? I have no waist!" I can't even find jeans to fit me.

I blame this never-ending struggle to look a certain way on television.

I worked in the modeling and movie industry for a little while, just to see what it was like, and it was amazing the sort of things agents would tell people.

"You're mouth's too wide. Get it fixed," or "You have a great body, but your face sucks."

And these full-time model/actresses would walk away with a determined look on their face that seemed to say, "I got to fix myself so that I can get this job."

Isn't that disgusting? Why should you fix yourself just so that you could look fake on television?

One of my best friends now looks at her chest critically just because her boyfriend told her how fascinating it was that Victoria's Secret models had cleavage even without push up bras. He was referring to the newly popular Victoria's Secret commercial that airs ever so often on television.

She felt doubly uncomfortable because her boyfriend had compared her to a popular model, saying, "I think she's just as pretty as you are, only she has a bigger chest."

I looked at her straight in the eye and said, "Honey, our kind doesn't have big chests. We'd fall over if we did."

Although she laughed, I could tell she wasn't convinced, and again I blame television.

Doesn't anyone know that what you see isn't what you get? (Nothing is real!)

There are things computers can do, and as a former part-time model, I could tell you straight out that often a girl's chest (legs, rear, face) really isn't her own.

Jaclyn Roco, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at rocojax@yahoo.com.

What you see is not what you get

by Jaclyn Roco Editor in Chief

I get angry sometimes when I watch television. There has to be more to life than trying to live up to the supposed trends and images shown by flashy women.

One of the things I get sick and tired of hearing from my friends (although I admit I have also complained) is: "Why can't I look like that?" or my greatest peeve "Damn Jacky, why can't you look like that?"

Okay, I know that the latter remark is usually made in jest either by my boyfriend or one of my stupid male friends, but hearing things like that just doesn't lap off me; instead, these remarks hit me and sticklike ice on the tongue.

It unnerves me that females 16 and under have better figures than I do; well maybe not when it comes to my size one waist, but rather the fact that they actually have a better and bigger upper torso than I do. Oh, yeah not to mention a better rear extension.

And what gets to me most is the fact that I never really cared about what I saw on television until everyone else started pointing it out to me: "Gee, Britney Spears sure looks healthy," or "Wow, for someone younger than us, Hillary Duff sure has a nice chest. What size are you, Jacky?"

I heard someone doing that once; it was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard, mostly because I heard the strange noise of someone sticking something way into the back of their throat.

I felt that I should help that person, until she looked me up and down and said, "Wow, it seems to be working for you."

Is that what everyone else thinks?

I was talking to one of my friends, and she told me that some guy was making fun of me.

He had told her that he was attracted to girls that had meat on them, not girls that looked like the "anorexic" girl in the corner - which I supposed was I.

It seems like today's superficial world is never satisfied with what is real. I have friends who complain that they wished they had my waist, and I look at them and say, "Are you kidding me? I have no waist!" I can't even find jeans to fit me.

I blame this never-ending struggle to look a certain way on television.

I worked in the modeling and movie industry for a little while, just to see what it was like, and it was amazing the sort of things agents would tell people.

"You're mouth's too wide. Get it fixed," or "You have a great body, but your face sucks."

And these full-time model/actresses would walk away with a determined look on their face that seemed to say, "I got to fix myself so that I can get this job."

Isn't that disgusting? Why should you fix yourself just so that you could look fake on television?

One of my best friends now looks at her chest critically just because her boyfriend told her how fascinating it was that Victoria's Secret models had cleavage even without push up bras. He was referring to the newly popular Victoria's Secret commercial that airs ever so often on television.

She felt doubly uncomfortable because her boyfriend had compared her to a popular model, saying, "I think she's just as pretty as you are, only she has a bigger chest."

I looked at her straight in the eye and said, "Honey, our kind doesn't have big chests. We'd fall over if we did."

Although she laughed, I could tell she wasn't convinced, and again I blame television.

Doesn't anyone know that what you see isn't what you get? (Nothing is real!)

There are things computers can do, and as a former part-time model, I could tell you straight out that often a girl's chest (legs, rear, face) really isn't her own.

Jaclyn Roco, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at rocojax@yahoo.com.

by Jaclyn Roco
Editor in Chief