Let’s face it, the whole advertising world is based on the fact that people feel inadequate and inferior and will spend money to make themselves feel more socially acceptable.
Hence the advertisements of the geek who uses the right aftershave and finds himself surrounded by women who would never give him a second glance under normal circumstances.
Advertisement
And the ads of women who have, with the help of some no doubt expensive powder, pills or potion, lost the equivalent in weight of four primary school children. They are holding up an old ‘fat’ dress in which you could slipcover Mpumalanga. The bikini model in the after picture usually bears scant, if any, resemblance to the women in the before picture. Or am I the only one who notices this?
But enough about advertisements. What are those assumptions about other peoples’ lives that we buy into so willingly?
Other people always have lots of money. Most households have cash crises regularly. An expensive school outing two days before payday is a problem to most parents, but this you will never see on soapies and very seldom in advertisements. On TV happy people with bulging shopping bags emerge from shopping centres and get into expensive cars. No one is ever shown happily discovering a tin of tuna in the back of the cupboard the day before payday. Or a R20-note in the pocket of an old raincoat.
The party’s elsewhere. Many people have the idea that others’ lives consist of a constant social whirl. It’s party, party, party. Think again. While many people have active social lives, even they find themselves now and again in front of the TV on a Saturday night. All dressed down and nowhere to go. Most people spend a lot of time by themselves and much time at home alone is probably the norm for the majority of South Africans. Friends’ tales of their sexual exploits can also usually be divided by five to get to the truth.
Other peoples’ homes are tidy. The only way to keep a house tidy is to have it hermetically sealed after the domestic has been. But people live in houses and living can be a pretty messy business. There are people out there who, like you, leave the dishes on occasion and who have to go on an archaeological expedition to find their green T-shirt and who don’t vacuum for a week. All peoples’ houses do not look like the sets in sitcoms. On the contrary. And if you don’t believe me, speak to census enumerators or estate agents.
Other people cope in crises. Right, so your husband is having an affair and your parents’ money was all invested with Fidentia and the kids came home from school with head lice. You feel like screaming and throwing things, but instead reach for your tranquilisers or the gin bottle. Other women, you think, are strong, and would know what to do. Wrong. All people go through times in their lives when they really don’t know where to turn or what to do. But that’s usually when they withdraw, which is why you think everyone else always copes.
Other families are always nice to each other. The slinging match at Sunday lunch or the slamming door of your teen both make you feel as if your family somehow falls short of what a family should be. Learn to live with it – families fight, sometimes viciously. And often, a lot more viciously than yours. Sometimes fights result in people not speaking to each other for three decades. Look, there are some families who are always nice to each other – and both of them are currently considering appearing on talk shows.
Other peoples’ underwear is always new. Think again. What’s more, they’re also not always clean either. There was a reason why Grannies instilled the fear of God into children by painting embarrassing scenes in trauma units with a team of nurses and doctors staring aghast at the holes in your panties. (By the way, would you want to be left in the hands of a trauma team who was more interested in the hole in your panties than the hole in your head? – Just a thought).
Other people have cool jobs. Some of them do, but even in cool jobs, people have to cope with working hours, the secretary who looks like a snoek, 1-ply toiletpaper, greasy canteen food and hovering retrenchments. Jobs entail work – and if it was all fun and games, your friends would be paying their employers, not the other way round.
Other peoples’ spouses play things by the book. Dream on, girl. Even that apparently happy marriage gets very unromantic at times. Your friend’s husband, that gorgeous hunk with pots of money, snores, leaves dirty underwear on the sopping bathroom floor and pretends not to notice that the company merchandiser is all over him like a cheap suit. He also forgets birthdays and wakes up with halitosis in the mornings. And doesn’t always listen when his wife is talking.
Bookmark with:
What are social bookmarks?