New range of cosmetics guaranteed to hide your repulsive face

You can celebrate without worrying about smile-wrinkles, Ladies: makeup giant L’Oréal has announced a brand-new series of cosmetic products guaranteed to “utterly and cleverly hide your various hideous congenital disfigurements and facial flaws”.

Researchers at the cosmetics conglomerate now say that their cutting-edge line of products has been custom-designed to hide any facial atrocity that makes society vomit in its mouth a little bit: whether it’s a small scar on your cheek or a couple of marks from skin problems in your teens.

The power of this new line of products is immediately apparent,

“We all know that every women – with just a few exceptions such as anyone you ever seen in a fashion magazine – is born completely eye-wateringly ugly,” said product R&D overseer Jeffrey Mandlesen. “But finally these poor 6/10’s will have a product that can make them actually worth something.”

“It doesn’t matter how bad your repulsive birth defects are,” he explained. “Below-average nose angularity, a slightly asymmetrical face shape, or uneven eyebrows – all of these can be swept away with a layer of make-up so thin barely anyone will be able to tell it’s there.”

Researchers behind the genius line of products now say that the whole concept was inspired by the strong, fearless women of the world who will go out and live normal lives even though they look like a baboon's arse got caught up in some kind of an industrial accident.

"We think it's so amazing that these courageous women have the guts, the sheer pluck to leave the pitch black of their dark rooms and let so many people see their un-model-like waist and totally average, representative-of-reality features," said one man with a clipboard and bunsen burner. "If it was me, god, i'd just board up the windows and kill myself."

And woman are beside themselves with joy at the news.

It’s so great,” said 18-year-old Jessica Hendersen, who obviously looks like a fugly homeless troglodyte if she’s not slathered in base and eyeliner. “Finally, I’m one step closer to those completely unrealistic and toxic standards of beauty that I’ve been working so hard to attain. Pretty soon, boys won’t be able to tell between me – a living, breathing human being with dreams and ambitions – and their completely delusional cover-girl fantasies.”

And that’s just the beginning: L’Oreal is now hinting at a brand new line of clothing that will help you to look slimmer and, more importantly, conceal that revolting above-movie-starlet-width waistline that you subject everyone to by having a normal eating plan and Body Mass Index.

“The early testing results are quite astounding,” said the company in a press release. “When you wear our upcoming line of corsets and tightening body-socks, no one will even be able to tell the difference between you and their porn-star ideals of what a woman should look like.”

“You’ll immediately feel results – and not just in your crushed ribcage and restricted diaphragm either.”

Men willing to overlook most women’s flaws, finds dating study

The common perception that men are judgemental partners was shattered today, after a ground-breaking new study found that the majority of men were “more than willing to overlook most of their potential mate’s flaws and faults”.

The study, which has examined thousands of cases across the globe, found that nearly 95% of men would “definitely not care if she had some kind of a personality flaw”.

“Racism, bigotry, a hugely irritating laugh, an unpredictable temper, contempt for everything you do and say – these are just some of the thousands of things that men are willing to turn a blind eye towards,” said the head of the research and development team. “In fact, often their only criteria is that the chick be stunningly beautiful with a great rack and amazing body. Turns out, men aren’t as picky as we think.”

And the data confirms this hypothesis.

“The media paints men as these judgemental, shallow, ultra-choosy dudes who want the perfect woman,” said data analyst Fin de Pattens. “But really, the statistics show that they’re really accepting and tolerant.”

“Take this case study, Mike, for example. Most people would say that his lingerie model cross-fit obsessed girlfriend is a Super-bitch who despises everyone and everything around her; most people would say ‘yeah, Jessica is gorgeous, but she hates Muslims, thinks homosexuality should be a crime, and believes that homeless people should be rounded up in camps and shot’ – but not Mike. He accepts her flaws as a part of who she is: a size-zero, flat-stomached, double-D’ed human being.”

Scientific research now shows that men will accept women like
Jessica (above) despite their numerous personal faults.

Her testimony backs this up.

“When I first met Mike, I was terrified that my bigoted opinions, my contempt for his dress sense and taste in music, and my obvious spite for his family and friends would chase him off,” she said in an interview earlier this year. “But not Mikey. He took one single look at me and accepted me for who I was - perfect ass, platinum-blonde hair and all.”

The study has since been confirmed by similar research – meaning that men could be even more accepting and non-judgmental than we think.

“There have been hundreds of case studies where the men – who, for some godless, incomprehensible reason – are dating women who are not physically attractive, have terrible personalities and are also prejudiced, unlikeable cretins,” explained De Pattens. “This new data suggests that men own Christ-like quantities of acceptance.”

“Megan isn’t that great,” said one case study. “She’s short, overweight and is a staunch anti-vaxxer and geocentrist, but hey... the sex is pretty good, so what can I say?”

Instagrammer comes to blindly obvious conclusion, quits Instagram

Gut-wrenching feelings of shock and betrayal persist today, after 18-year-old Instagrammer Tay Kasselfey came to the self-evident conclusion that Instagram is “contrived perfection made to get attention” and deleted her account.

Kasselfey, who had to this sudden and utterly self-apparently epiphany this weekend, has slammed Instagram, saying that despite the social media platform's devilishly misleading realism, the service is actually built on “carefully constructed lies that didn’t eat that morning and also had to suck in their belly”.

“Instagram might look totally real. If you scroll down it and see all the glossy, filtered and yet also hyperrealistic photos of coffee and stunningly attractive, thin woman dressed and made up to perfection, you could be easily tricked into thinking, ‘yeah, this is a totally realistic and accurate representation of the daily lived experience of every human being currently alive’,” she said. “But – brace yourself – it isn’t.”

She explained at length.

“Look at this photo of myself. Now, from this photo alone and no other information, you might easily think that I study in a skimpy bikini in the sun with books of different subjects all opened at the same time and strategically placed and turned to random pages while I pose in a super-uncomfortable yet sexy angle that accentuates my butt, flat, toned stomach and boobs,” she said. “But what if I told you that it was totally posed and took several dozen shots and careful post-editing to capture? It’s shocking and incredible to hear, I know, but that’s the truth.”

“And looking at any of the millions of photos on Instagram, you might think that every woman currently alive is a smokingly gorgeous perfect 10 with abs and boobs – but that just isn’t true. I mean, how is anyone supposed to figure that out on their own?”

And the disappointment doesn’t stop there.

“All those hashtags that we all think are there to accurately label and classify the images into neat categories that allow users to easily find content that suits their tastes and search criteria?” she asked. “Well, I hate to be the one to break this awful news, but actually they are just abused and piled up to try and get as many views and as much reach as possible, and often don’t even describe in any logical way at all what is in the photo.”

“I mean, I once used #goals #life #future #books #intellect #nerdy #dreams #workhard and #college on a selfie of me wearing glasses and holding a science textbook. How could anyone possibly have known that none of those tags actually meant anything?”

Kasselfey – who in real life is an overweight 42-year-old man who works in IT - has now sworn off the “narcissistic, self-obsessed, egotistical” Instagram, and has started a new campaign to try and create a more meaningful world that cares about other people.

“My new campaign features hundreds of photos of me in sexy poses that expose how shallow the whole thing is,” he explained. “We should care about things that truly matter, and not try to force the world to obsess about themselves or flood their spheres with endless pictures of themselves.

But despite this selfless awareness drive, public reaction has been mixed.

“I simply don’t believe it,” said one man. “You’re telling me that the vast majority of women aren’t oversaturated-colour-tinted models constantly wearing clothes that leave little to the imagination, and that all those photos weren’t taken in one spontaneous, off-the-cuff snap and hence don’t give a realistic depiction of real life? PSHT. Pull the other one.”

“I think it’s fantastic,” said a woman. “I’m not a size-zero supermodel, and so when I say that Instagram is fake and constructed, people just think I’m being a jealous, insecure hater bitch. I’m just glad that there’s someone much thinner and more beautiful than myself and thousands of other women who people will actually listen to about how women don’t look like that.”

But not all of the public is positive.

“She’s obviously lying,” said one angry commenter. “I mean, there’s no way it’s fake. Why would thousands of people spend hours on hair and make-up and positioning their Pina Colada very carefully on the edge of the table to get a perfect snap of the sunset, and dozens of minutes choosing the perfect filter to best exaggerate your image’s qualities? So that they can assuage their insecurity? So that they can garner more followers and possibly get asked to shoot a sponsored post that earns them thousands of dollars just to drink a cup of tea?”

“No ways – how gullible do you think I am? Next thing she’ll try to tell us that Wrestling is fake.”

Dear Axe Deo,

I use Axe. It doesn't drown me in women. I get angry.

Text reads:

Dear Axe Deodorants,

I am very sad to say that I am on the verge of giving up your line of Men’s deodorants for good. My experience with your extensive bodyspray products has been nothing short of disappointing, and is at the very least a gross waste of time.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me perhaps explain my angst, right from where it all began: as a thirteen year old boy.

Naturally, your product immediately appealed to me. It wasn’t so much that I was brainwashed by the doglike incessant smokescreen that followed all my seniors in an inescapable hormonal fog of Phoenix and testosterone, through which I had to walk on a daily basis and which now serves as an immediate PTSD-esque trigger to darker, younger days, but rather the scientifically accurate promises in your advertising that assured me that all it took to change my virgin life into one of abs and being Brad Pitt in a suit surrounded by literally fallen angels was one mere spray.

And so, I became an Axe User.

But if I’m a true Axe user, then why, please explain to me, am I not wading through a knee-deep sea of bikini models biting their lips and gazing with sultry desire at my rock-hard abdominals?

Am I perhaps applying my can of Axe Twist incorrectly? I have taken painstaking lengths to study, in minute, frame-by-frame detail, the exact techniques the subjects in your many short-length documentaries use to become inundated in female pudenda, but no matter how true I am to the original techniques and hand-flicks, I cannot get more than one girl at a time.

He goes across the body, diagonally down his torso towards his left hip and then snaps the can across his waist and groin area. I have done this repeatedly, sometimes even more than once, and still, I don’t have difficulty rolling over in my bed at night because the entire female population of the planet serves as my duvet. What is going on?

I’ve tried everything. Nothing works. It doesn’t matter if I spend half an hour and entire bottle of Axe Hair Wax to sculpt my hair into a kiff bedhair quiff like those okes in GQ. It doesn’t matter if I inflict multiple coldburns on myself by applying several dozen cans in one sitting. Hell, it doesn’t even make one smidge of difference if I empty all my Axe products into a blender, make a pasty puree of them and soak my entire body in it for half an hour or before I pass out from the fumes, whichever comes first.

I’ve had this problem before. A few years ago I gave up Radox Mens Xtreme Body Wash because it didn’t turn me into John Smit rappelling down a refreshing waterfall after just one mere sniff of the stuff.

Then, to make matters worse, Sky Vodka didn’t transport me to literally a club in the fucking sky filled with babes and disinterested looking gentlemen. Even after six years of drinking a bottle every day, I have yet to get anything sexier, more carefree and youthful than extensive liver damage. And I’m pretty sure we both know how much Michelle Pfeiffer and Scarlett Johansson I’ve gotten in the past months of using certain expensive colognes.

I demand a public apology and a full refund, or at the very least a step-by-step, full and detailed (perhaps even illustrated) explanation of how to fully capitalise on Axe’s female-getting prowess.

Some idiots have suggested to me that I’d probably attract more women if I changed my backwards, unrealistic attitude towards them and stopped treating them like sandwich-making dogs who give you the sex at the mere hint of cheap deo, but of course they are utterly wrong. Why would advertising exaggerate or outright lie about its product’s social appeal or woman-winning powers? It’s absurd to think that companies would ever put soulless profits over the respect and responsibilities that society has come to expect.

So please. Send me the secret technique, or give me back my money. I have just recently started a project to utterly eliminate all inconvenience ever in existence by buying every Verimark product I can think of, and I’ll really need the money.

Until then, I’ll be giving Axe my own axe effect.

Yours sincerely

Author, writer, recent Old Spice client, 13 going on 26,

Matthew de Klerk

PS: I've read in the local news that I'm not the only person you've let down. This is unacceptable.

www.to-muse-and-abuse.blogspot.fr/2014/06/tv-commercial-product-user-still-not.html

7 Reasons why I despise Promotion Girls (Revisited)

Ever since I posted 7 Reasons why I despise Promotion Girls almost three years ago, it has (much to my chagrin) constantly received pageviews and reader comments. Maybe it was the listicle format that seems to have gripped the world à la Buzzfeed or some people’s dislike or defence of girls women who work in promotion jobs (or maybe just the fact that my blog aggregates this post into the “Most Popular” category), but it irks me because I believe now that I have grown up just a little bit and that it’s no longer indicative of me or my beliefs. I believe I think more critically, and criticize and judge less quickly.

In the opening paragraph of the infamous post, I took a reductive Urban Dictionary description of the job and those who do it. I do not feel that way at all, nor do I believe breasts to be an important factor in a buyer’s decision-making process. And this was only the beginning of a post that embarrasses me even today.

And so, here are my 7 Reasons why you shouldn’t really despise Promotion Girls.

Reason #1: They’re basically just Walking Advertisements.

I still feel strongly about the ugly people not being promotion workers thing (although ‘ugly’ and ‘beautiful’ are highly subjective and constructed notions. I get flak from friends because I don’t see the big deal about starlets like Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansen), but you can’t really complain about promotion girls being walking advertisements selling a brand because that’s exactly what the job description is. Analogising this to Facebook or Youtube adverts is a weak, straw-man-esque argument that doesn’t really hold water. If you’re relaxing with friends in a bar and someone comes to sell you something, you can easily just politely decline instead of taking it as a personal affront. Besides, bars are absolutely filled with adverts for cheap drinks and different brands: why pick out this one fragment as any different?

Reason #2: Dress code

The internet isn’t a great tool to search for the true representation of almost anything. Boobs and revealing clothing would probably feature highly in a search like this because that is what sticks in the minds of those taking the photographs. If there was a woman (or man) walking around in a suit trying to sell you insurance or a place at their University, the average photo-uploading male probably would not take a snapshot of this.

A woman has a right to wear what she likes and do what she wants with her own body. Yes, you can easily get embroiled in the deep debate of Agency versus Socialised Norms in a Patriarchy, but wearing a miniskirt or heels or even a bikini on a night out should not affect a women’s right to do what she pleases with her body, nor should it affect her right to hold a particular opinion about skimpy clothing and anti-sexist discourse. Wearing a skirt doesn’t make you any less of a feminist, just as not voting doesn’t mean you can’t criticize government. Jesus, I mean:

“Yes, women should be allowed to wear what they want to wear fearlessly and without shame, but this is not one of those areas where this rule applies”

?

Did I really fucking write that?

Reason #3: Insincerity

There is a thing called intersectionality where something may not be due to one thing, but rather to several things at once. As I have learnt in the past few years, correlation does not equal causation.

Women who work this job probably do so having to wear short dresses and heels, pulling long hours of being judged (as I did) and leered at (as some other guys did). If they have the strength of will to pull on a smile when they approach me, nameless douche #326, then that is something to applaud, not to attack.

Reason #4: They can’t take no for an answer

I would be hesitant today to apply so vigorously the fallacy of synecdoche. One example of something does not make the rule, and we should be wary of creating false stereotypes that simply do not exist outside of one bad example. An Afrikaans friend of mine (“friend” is used quite tolerably here) is quite distinctly racist and refuses to engage in level-headed debate with me about why his opinions are completely unfounded, self-contradictory and just plain stupid. Does that mean all Afrikaaners are racist?

Reason #5: Last night.

I’m ashamed to think I took part so viciously in what is quite clearly slut shaming . I like to consider myself more rational and more critically thinking these days (thanks in some part to excellent, inspiring blogs like Tauriq Moosa’s Against the New Taboo which features on Big Think and followed on from his previous blog, The Indelible Stamp. Again, a woman has a right to do with her body what she wants. Even if she did take a “Mandingo” (*groans, facepalms and says “Jesus Christ, did I write that as well?”*), I don’t really find prostitution morally wrong. Hell, the blogs above challenged me greatly to rethink my views on everything from infanticide to abortion, and even heavy topics like incest and pedophilia. We should also be wary about terms like “standards” and “moral degradation”. These are constructed notions that rely very heavily on one’s personal biases and worldview. Even Socrates though his generation of kids was the beginning of the end.

Reason #6: Give them an inch, and they take a mile

Jesus, Matthew, it was a joke. Lighten up. Obviously you weren’t having too much fun in the bar with your friends if you’re taking all this as mortal insults. If you don’t want to buy more than one shot, just say so. If you want your change back, just ask for it. Gahd. Although you did use some clever references and metaphors there. High five! You should work for Cracked.com

Reason 7: It’s the shallowest job. Ever.

Perhaps not. I’ve never done promotion work, and so I can’t really make an adequate judgment on the skillset required to succeed, but I can imagine it takes a lot of strength to do it until 1am and much charisma and tolerance to be able to approach drunk people and have to deal with their bullshit and their ensuing blog posts like the one I wrote all those years ago.

You see, I have two sisters (very intelligent, talented sisters at that) and I’d like to think that they can do whatever job they want without men and society judging their every move and decision, be it taking off clothes in a strip club, or selling alcohol in a bar. To those reading this, I thank you for your time and I ask you to always be careful of knee-jerk emotional reactions to something. If something disgusts you (promotion girls, gay marriage, prostitution, etc), quell that reaction and think critically about why you feel that way. What disgusts you about it, and what is the empirical basis upon which to stand this feeling? 80 years ago, many would have found the notion of interracial love, equal rights, women voting and gay marriage utterly abhorrent, but it is only through full and deep consideration of these things using a very critical viewpoint and a consideration of modern ethics that we can decide on how we as members in society should react to them.

I would also like those who commented on the last article for taking the time to challenge such judgmental and baseless notions. Never be afraid to speak up, lest we damn that which we simply don’t understand. I decided not to delete the post as I have strong views on self-censorship. I don’t want to hide how I’ve changed since the beginning of my university days. If you want to hide the real you, go on Twitter or Facebook (lol). I have had many opinions change over the past few years (such as my views on the “friendzone”, for one), and I think I’d like people to be able to see that, rather than hide behind the idea that I was always considerate and thoughtful.

As we get older, we must also grow up.