The constant pressure to 'look good'

What is it about this day and age where everyone is under constant pressure to look “hawt” as my lovely young chav ‘friend’ told me the other day? Bearing in mind that this is a girl who is not likely to win any noble prizes any time soon and thinks that the epitome of achievement is to sit and beg off the government for scraps instead of getting off her ass and doing something. Ok I get that I like to look good for my gentlemen, but that’s not why I spend about 2 hours getting ready. I do it for me, because I would feel less than professional and more than likely a bit embarrassed if I turned up in my jogging bottoms and my vest tops. (Which I relax in at home.)I also find that I wear little if any make up at home, and constantly get those looks from the other people that “I’m letting the girly team down” Especially, from the girls who work in my local store, the words “ Oh dear” “OH! MY GOSH” and “OMG” come in here (so in my fakest accent, with the fakest attitude I can muster, not to mention sounding like the worst chav ever.)… “ OMG I mean serioooously, hunniee did you see that OMG I can’t believe tha she jus di-ent get up 4 hours early and put on so much make- up that she needs a chi-seel to get it off.” And in English translation, the girls in my local store found it extra-ordinary that I did, not get up in the morning and cake on ten layers of foundation and ten layers of mascara just to walk to the shop for a pint of milk and a paper. I like my skin to breathe. When I was old enough, (aged 16) my mother took me to one side and gave me some invaluable advice…“Tammy you have lovely skin, don’t ruin it with make-up, let yourself be natural and only use what you need to, (as in no foundation) and only ever highlight what you naturally have.” Well I followed that advice and still do, so unless I have a reason to have mascara on I don’t wear any make up, and I don’t wear foundation. So why has the world suddenly become cosmetic mad? As I walk out my local shop most mornings I value the advice I was given about make-up, because I realize these young girls are hiding, they can’t bear the thought of people looking at the real them that they have to hide from the world at large. I love that at the age of 24 (well 25 this month LOL) I have nice enough skin to be able to not wear make-up. And the joke I find is on those shallow young ladies, (who are ages with me, god I feel old.) who strut and preen like peacocks, because I realize in not being indoctrinated into the shallow make-up era at 13 and having a mother who said “No! You’re not old enough yet!” My skin never had all the problems caused by being unable to breathe for 12/16 hours a day. I never had the spots or never felt like I had to hide who I was. I value the lessons that the older generation managed to teach, as it seems, the Era of Chav’s has begun.