The other day, I came across a most interesting article entitled A Power to Persuade: The deeper meaning of glamour. In it, Postrel explores historical takes on glamour and the question as to whether a genuine glamour [a kind of modesty in actions] persists today or not. Most normally think of glamour as fancy dresses and expensive things, but when I say "glamour," I don't mean glitz and shine...I mean mystery, grace, and charm [albeit, often accompanied by some kind of classy "glitz"]. Thus, for example, Paris Hilton would not be considered glamorous whereas Grace Kelley would. Ke$ha would not be considered glamorous whereas Aubrey Hepburn would [you get the picture].
Now, I'm not going to sit here and get into the nitty-gritty social and political discussion that Postrel takes on [it's very interesting, though...please read if you have the chance]. But what she was saying got me thinking: "Hm, there really is no glamour today. We just put it all out there." And this is true with respect to clothing and even details of our personal lives. Nothing is private anymore. We dislike mystery. We want to know everything and conequently want everyone else to know everything about us. The worlds of tabloids, reality TV shows, and immodest Britney Spears inspired clothing have taken over much of our pop culture and infiltrated the average-Jane's idea of how to behave.
If anything, we aspire to be known rather than admired. And where does wanting to be "known" get us? Nowhere. It gets us mothers [like Kate Gosselin] who are more interested in their appearance and possession of material items than they are in personal and familial development. It gives us pop stars who go for shock-factor [yes, I am thinking of you, Gaga] before cultivating talents and truly inspiring others. It encourages people to focus on the external and rather unimportant aspects of our lives. And, unfortunately, women appear to be fairly guilty [at least more overtly guilty] for taking on this incorrect vision of "glamour."
While women were once known and admired for their demure and graceful personas, it seems that there is an overwhelming push to lose all modesty [I find true modesty to be synonymous with the definition of "glamour" put forth by Postrel]. Like those "naked" girls on the lawn or those booty-short dawning chubby girls, many women feel they must put it all out there to be recognized. And I blame the media as well as a societal misunderstanding of that which makes one glamorous and admirable.
There is something to be said for maintaining dignity and privacy of both self and family; there is value in keeping certain parts of our lives personal and--it is a way of honoring ourselves and our experiences. Such ideals, though, seem to have been lost in a society dominated by compulsions to lay our lives in the open [Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.]. But we are fooling ourselves if we think that these lifestyles are at all glamorous, beneficial, or admirable--it's just the opposite. We are drowning in materialism and our own incompetence as soon as we put "being known" before being truly glamorous.
It is sad that characters like Grace Kelley have been "replaced" by attention-getting stars like Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton. Glamour is a concept that was once embodied by well-known women, and it now seems to have been lost by both women and everyone else. I sincerely think that if women were to again respect themselves and truly embody glamour, our culture might be able to regain some of its modesty [/glamour]. Thus, it's kind of up to the women to "save" us all from our own foolishness.
Will glamour ever become respected and admired once again? I certainly hope so.
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