In defense of normal

Media coverage of wellness and eating tends to focus on its two extremes — overeating and undereating. We’ll see it now especially with the holiday season’s focus on food. There’s an “obesity epidemic” and a “disturbing trend” of anorexia or bulimia, transformation stories of someone going from overweight to unbelievably thin or cut — and all the magazines on newsstands and declaring that the movie star du jour has gotten too skinny or too fat. Why is it so hard to find depictions of everything in the middle?

Maybe its because the middle is seen as mundane. It’s sensationalist headlines that lure readers — people don’t turn to media to read about what’s “normal.” Controversy sells magazines and fills comment queues on websites. Stark contrasts capture attention. This is the kind of journalism that makes money.

I was inspired to revisit society’s wonky ranking system of physical characteristics over personal accomplishments after reading some further insight from Tina Fey in her memoir Bossy Pants. After noticeably losing some weight, Fey ran into an old friend who complimented her “accomplishment” — not her successful TV show or new baby, but her slimmer figure. Tina Fey, being Tina Fey, saw it as indicative of a broader issue and launched a written campaign against the superficiality of the entertainment business.

Think about it — even for the most high-profile entertainment award shows, we can’t help ourselves but to indulge — we devote full gossip shows and magazine spreads to the best- and worst-dressed while the vast majority were unremarkable. As a result, the winners being honored for their talent and creativity receive a brief mention in an article with considerably fewer online page views.

Perhaps this is why we tend to focus on extremes; “normal” ultimately leaves us to set physical appearances aside and define people in other ways, looking for hard-earned accomplishments and signs of character that take more effort to notice or appreciate. We actually have to get to know a person — remembering that she or he recently created a prestigious creative work, or adopted a shelter dog. Yet personal connections, especially those left unfostered for a period of time, are quicker to reestablish over superficial observations of things we see before we speak: an instant-gratification media culture drawn into our daily lives.

It’s hard to imagine what media would look like if we as society began to reject the need to focus on extremes, settling for normal and learning to praise it a little more — in both our personal lives and pop culture. It would call for a massive shift of consumer trends, with readers and viewers diverting their attention from the superficial to the positive and uplifting. But we can’t just blame the media, which only gives us what we’ll watch or click on. Perhaps when we begin to demand a deeper insight from the media we’ll see results — I believe we can.

Kelsey Lindsey is Out Front’s beauty columnist writing from an affirming perspective on being your best you. See more beauty columns at ofcnow.co/beauty or contact Kelsey at kelsey.a.lindsey@gmail.com.