why i buy: the everyday journey of the typical american consumer

I buy Dove beauty products because Dove tells me I’m beautiful just the way I am – but I don’t buy it.
“Beauty is only skin deep.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
What a bunch of crap – at least that’s what the monster tells me.

I feed the monster when I buy Cosmo magazine so I can read all about being my best possible self (and the quizzes are fun, too), but when I see a size 6 next to a size 0 I tell myself at that very moment that I will never, ever let myself get “fat.” I hate it, though, when there’s an article about eating disorders. I know a lot of beautiful people, and none of them are anorexic or bulimic. I don’t buy that it’s a problem.

I feed the monster when I buy a month-to-month membership to the gym, because that’s what beautiful people do – but I don’t buy that I actually need to go to the gym. The key tag should be enough to let people know that I’m at least making an effort. I mean, who wants to see a fat guy working out?

I feed the monster when I buy a pint of Hagen Daz (butter pecan) and eat it all while watching “The Biggest Loser” on DVR because some days I feel so bad about myself for not actually going to the gym that the only thing that makes me feel better is a carton of frozen fat with a made-up name that I’m supposed to think means “Happy Days” – but I don’t buy that I could ever get to point I where I needed to be on a national television show in order to lose weight.

When I'm out of cash, I feed the monster when I buy on credit – but I don’t buy that that could eventually catch up with me and hurt me financially. It’s only 12.9%, and I’m worth it. Especially when I see the perfect jacket that goes with the perfect trouser or the perfect cashmere scarf, hat, and mitten set that costs more than a lot of most people’s entire wardrobe – my “friends” will be so impressed.

So I keep feeding the monster because every dollar I spend brings me one step closer to the cartoon version of myself that the monster promises me I’ll eventually become.