The Taxman Cometh: How We Pay For What We Watch

The six-year-old Darling Son comes up to me yesterday and says, "Mommy. We have to talk."

Really?

"Yes. We have to talk. About the Mommy Tax."

Oh. Ok. I know what's coming. He feels it's unfair of me to levy what I call the 'Mommy Tax' on his food. I've been known to snatch a bite of something yummy he's eating. I figure I gave him life. I cook and/or procure the vast majority of his treats, so I feel quite entitled to tax him for it. (I also take a Wife Tax. I feel justified in that, too. The Darling Husband doesn't seem quite so aggrieved.)

But the Darling Son is an American, and we don't like taxes. The American Revolution was really all about taxation. The Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party, etc.

A Tax on TV?!
When I moved to Scotland many years ago, I was surprised to learn that the British pay a TV tax.

Read more about the TV tax here

Yup, you have to pay an annual tax to own a television, and let me tell you, the TV taxman is quite zealous about taking his bite. Even though I did not own a television, I regularly received threatening letters and phone calls to pay my tax, which they call a 'licence.' I finally became quite exasperated and slightly yelled at the nasty person on the phone, telling her with my very hard American r's that I was a foreign graduate student and for the umpteenth time, did not own a TV. That seemed to do the trick. (By the way, the French pay a TV tax, too, but it's much lower and they don't harass you to get it. Their TV isn't as good, though.)

I did still manage to watch some delicious British TV over at friends' places. One of my faves was a home decorating show. I can't remember what it was called, but the premise was a designer and carpenter would come to your home and make over a room or two using only scrap stuff you had on hand--bits of lumber, old fabric, paint pots, etc. It really appealed my thrifty-don't-waste-anything-if-you-didn't-know-better-you'd-swear-I'd-lived-through-the-depression mentality.

Recently I was telling someone about this little gem of a show, and I realized it would never fly here in the Land of the Free TV. We don't pay anything for it, so it's paid for by advertisers. Home Depot, Shewin-Williams paint and Target aren't going to advertise for a show that is telling you NOT to buy things; one that's encouraging you to use up your basement bits and satisfy yourself with what you have. No, they want you buying new lumber, paint and furniture.

It made me realize that we really do pay for our TV. We pay in dissatisfaction, discontentment and affluenza--the disease of always wanting more, better and new. Blogger Glennon Doyle Melton wrote a fabulous post about loving her kitchen, which you can read here. It pretty much says it all.

But dissatisfaction does not stop at the threshold of our homes. Many of us carry it around with us wherever we go. Numerous studies have linked television viewing (both the shows themselves and the advertisements sprinkled throughout) with body dissatisfaction, especially in adolescent girls. But I'd suggest that adults aren't immune. What we consume affects us.

When I returned to America after five years of living in Europe, teeth whitening had become all the rage. I was surprised by how critical I became of my teeth. My perfectly fine, orthodontistly-straightened, lovely, functional American teeth all of a sudden seemed not-so-lovely. It didn't take me too long to snap out of it and recognize the fact that my teeth's state of whiteness had never bothered me before, so why now? But I saw how vulnerable I was marketing.

I don't mean for this to spark a debate about taxation or politics. That's not what this is about. I only suggest that we need to self-regulate, consider what we view and how it affects us.

One way or another, we pay.

I Have a Skin-over-Bone to Pick with Lindsey Vonn

About a month ago, American skier Lindsey Vonn participated in a benefit fashion show for cardiac health. Vonn took to the catwalk in a fetching red frock. On crutches.

Vonn was on crutches, because last year she fractured her tibia, among other owwies. She exacerbated those injuries in December, rendering her unable to participate in the Winter Games at Sochi. Which is very sad for Vonn and I feel for her. To put in all that work and not be able to go the Olympics... That's a wicked bummer.

Vonn's appearance made headlines, not for the crutches, rather because of disparaging comments she made about professional fashion models. She said,

"It may look good in a magazine but it's not actually healthy. And girls who are that skinny are actually fat. You can see the cellulite on their legs and on their butts," she said. "You know I have cellulite too but I go to the gym and I try to eat healthy. I think that's a better model for girls to look up to than skinny people who need to eat more."

Oh dear.... where do I start? {clearing throat... Rant: enter stage left} I see her point, but I get really frustrated when women pick on each other. Vonn's comments reminded of a Middle School girls' locker room. "OMG, did you see that skinny girl's cellulite?!" It's just not kind. It's not helpful. And it's not fair.

She added, "I've been to a lot of photo shoots and I see these girls that are just really thin. They're not healthy. They don't work out. Health — that's one of the reasons I am out tonight. Just in general staying active and being healthy is important," Vonn said.

Umm... is anyone else finding it ironic that a woman on crutches, who has enough hardware in her body to set off the airport metal detectors from the parking lot, is really the best person to be getting preachy about health? Yes, there are different ways to define 'healthy,' but a big reason I exercise is hopefully to avoid having to install one of these when I'm old:

I would find it hard to believe that Vonn's myriad injuries from her physically punishing sport aren't going to have long-term consequences on her health and well-being. I recognize there's a difference between skiing hard and trying to whittle yourself away to almost nothing (assuming that's what models are doing), but it's the fashion industry that needs to take the heat. I can't get behind slamming the models themselves.

Indeed, there are some alarming reports coming out of the fashion world--stories of models thinking it's perfectly normal to faint from hunger, editors admitting to having used Photoshop to plump up hollowed cheeks, soften visible ribs, add color to wan skin. This is what best showcases designer clothes? Really??

I wish the models would all say, "Bag this, let's get a pizza," but many of them won't, because they know there are thousands of eager, hungry girls (and yes, I mean girls) waiting in the wings to take their place. They're just doing what they have to do to be successful.

In the same way, winning skiing gold medals at the Olympics requires a certain all-out-leave-nothing-on-the-slopes kind of performance. And that can spell injury. I get that. She's doing what it takes to be successful at what she does. Which is skiing. And the 'skinny fat' models are doing what it takes to be successful at what they do. Which is modeling. 

I'm not justifying starvation, but why not call out the industry as a whole, instead of the models? If the editors, the designers, the Fashion Week organizers said, "Enough. We're not doing this anymore. We're taking things in a different direction," there would be change. But until then, the models are just doing it what it takes to win runway shows and magazine spreads. Just like Lindsey Vonn does what it takes to get down the mountain as fast as she can. They may have more in common than they think.

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Ok, so those are enough deep thoughts for the day. In other news, I'm travelling to NYC on Saturday, March 15th to participate in Physique 57's Barre Crawl! Yes, people, a class at each of Physique's three NYC studios. Before you (and I) completely freak out, the last one is a stretch class. Still, I'll be doing a Mat and Mixed-level back-to-back.

I'll be Instagramming photos throughout the day, so follow me @momsatthebarre to see my first ever selfie!