Hey folks! It's me, Michael Bach, your Diversity Dude, and this is Monday Morning Musings.
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Happy Monday!
I hope this finds your well, safe and healthy.
If you are new to my channel, welcome.
Thanks so much for taking some time.
If you're not, welcome back.
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Could be up, could be down, I don't actually know and I should figure that out, but ehhh...
It's been five seasons of me not knowing, why now?
Why start now?
Anyway, remember to subscribe to find out whenever I post a video which is *every* Monday without fail,
except when I forget or I'm on vacation or it's a holiday Monday...
I'm relatively consistent, but...
But do remember to subscribe.
Now, I hope you also had a nice weekend.
It was Easter, it was Passover.
I hope you had a nice long weekend.
I got a new hairdo.
This is the new do because I'm 50 and I now look like I'm rocking a combover, so buh-bye.
This is the new look, hope you like it.
I want to talk about something that came up a few weeks ago, but it has been gnawing in my brain
and I haven't done a video about it so I decided today was the day.
And that is...
beauty standards.
Stay with me for a second.
So, a few weeks ago, might've been a month, I have no sense of time,
Mike and I were watching -- Mike's my husband, if you don't know -- were watching a video, it was a CBS Sunday Morning.
They were doing a piece on Love Story, the movie Love Story.
Love Story celebrated its 50 year anniversary on December 16, 2020, and so they were interviewing the two stars, Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.
If you're not familiar, this was a huge movie in 1970.
It's a romantic drama.
I'm not going to...
I'll just read you the quote.
It says: "A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing and then tragedy strikes."
(dramatic voice) Duh-duh-duuuuuuuh!
(normal voice) You can watch it.
I actually have never seen it, largely because it came out about two months before I was born
and so it wasn't exactly something that I would 've seen when I started watching romantic dramas in the mid-80s.
But apparently it's great, I should watch it, you should watch it, everyone should watch it, not the point.
So they did an interview with the two stars, Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, and...
I...
(chuckles)
Mike and I both commented about how Ryan O'Neal looks.
So I want to show you a picture.
So here's a picture of Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw in the original Love Story poster.
So as you can see, they're young, they're gorgeous, they were at the time, they were like 30,
and... perfect, right?
So now, here's how they look today.
Now, keep in mind that Ryan O'Neal is 80 and Ali MacGraw is 82 or 83,
so they're not young people.
But as you can see from the photo, particularly Ryan has had some alterations to the face,
and as we were watching the video, both of us said "Whoa... he has had some bad work done."
And it got me thinking about these standards of beauty and how we apply all this pressure,
and you know, Ryan O'Neal has spent his life in the spotlight.
He's had that pressure of looking good.
And *I* feel it.
I'm 50 now and I'm looking in the mirror going "Uhhhh... Just a little, maybe a little touch up, maybe a little filler..."
It's a lot of pressure to look old.
It's a lot of pressure to get old.
It's even worse when you live in the public eye.
And it got me thinking about this horrible standard that we have around beauty
and this need to look a particular way or be a particular way and just how really awful that is,
and I just felt bad.
So I wanted to talk about it and I think we as a society need to let go of these beauty standards.
We do this with all sorts of people.
Women, when it comes to make up, and God forbid a woman should be without make up.
Or people who have bigger body types and the pressures to look thin.
It is so much pressure to fit into a tiny little stereotype that the vast majority of the planet do not fit into,
yet we continue to do it.
And why?
Ryan O'Neal is 80 years old, he looks pretty damned good.
I'm just sorry that he felt the need to get plastic surgery to alter his face to keep up with a completely unrealistic beauty standard.
That's all.
Love to hear your thoughts on this.
Why don't you post them down below in the comments box?
It would be great to start a dialogue and really have a tough discussion about beauty standards.
Thanks so much for joining me.
Remember to subscribe if you haven't already, and like and share the video on your social media platforms.
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Click it, like it, thumbs up, whatever.
And remember to connect with me on social media, I am @diversitydudemb.
Oh, and if you haven't already picked up my book, my bestselling book,
have I shown you it here?
My bestselling book?
There it is.
Birds of All Feathers: Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right.
It is available now wherever you get books as long as they're selling mine,
or you can go to MichaelBach.com and click on "The Books" to find out where you can get your copies.
That's it for me.
Have a fantastic week,
and I'll see you next week for another episode of Monday Morning Musings.
Bye!
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