Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Pinterest Manifesto

I feel like I need to spout about this.

I am more acquainted with the operating principles of Pinterest than most people. And I understand that for many, this is a source of creative inspiration and delight.

So here's the thing. I refuse to follow boards that talk about food, or beauty.  Maybe this is touchy of me, but the food ones either make me hungry, and then guilty for feeling hungry, or make me wistful for the things I should not eat, and then guilty that I don't cook enough, and THEN I also feel bad about allowing food this power over me.  Yes, I'm in therapy. No, it's not touching this just yet. And this is to say nothing of the many websites out there pushing their own soapbox agendas: Gluten is evil, soybeans are evil, meat is murder, fishing is ruining the planet, agave is a killer, stevia is an a

Beauty is sort of the same. While I admire a lot of the creativity out there, collecting tips on beauty for me is tantamount to stapling pictures of other people to my psyche. I will never figure out how to have perfect hair or nails, or skin, or legs, or whatever, and I feel like Pinterest in many ways begins a whole new and considerably more dangerous grassroots and DIY realm of perfection-seeking objectification.  And again, this is to say nothing of the folks pushing their own beauty remedies (for all else, so much like Sir Kenelem Digby and Sir Hugh Platt that I just HAVE to laugh) - face cream made of almond oil and toothpaste? Cold cream made from coconut oil and avocado? I give you all your leave to try it, but I've done my reading and I know that sometimes an industrial process isn't a bad thing when we're talking beauty treatments.

Anyway, if you're a Pinterest friend of mine, and you see me slowly defriending you, it's nothing personal, it's just a sanity-related choice.

2 comments:

  1. Not to worry honey; I pin both food and 'beauty' stuff (which I tend to think of in the same way I see original period art pieces - lovely inspiration but nothing I am think I will be replicating perfectly) and I have no issues with people selectively following (or just not following) my boards.

    I don't 'all follow' anyone myself, I just cherry pick the stuff they are into that is closest to my own interests. And there are plenty of friends out there on Pinterest that I don't follow at all because I know we just don't have the same ideas about what is worth looking at. No big.

    However, if you ever start a jelly mold board I am going to be All. Over. That. Shit.

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What kind of nerd would I be if I hadn't already started one? ;)

      http://pinterest.com/contextsans/jelly-moulds/

      Delete