You're So Vain

As the famous Carly Simon song could have said:

"You probably think this thread is about you!"


The world at present seems hugely overpowered by incredibly immature vanity obsessed people.

Whether it's Essex boys and girls all parading around like sheep with the same copycat look, or celebs with boob and ass jobs or just the myriad of fitness freaks desperate to flaunt their (frankly absurd looking) bodies in gyms across the country.

What has suddenly turned this nation into a land of moronic sheep all obsessed with how they look?

One can not walk down a high street without seeing young girls following the defacto "dummies guide to being a mindless moronic sheep" visage . . . .

Pair of tight jeans. . . tick
Jeans purposefully ripped at knees . . . tick
Ridiculous fake eyelashes installed . . . tick
Ridiculous long fake nails installed . . . tick
Obligatory fake spray tan . . . tick
Obligatory tatoo on feet . . . tick
Obligatory tatoo on arms and neck . . . tick
Smart phone protruding from back pocket . . . tick

I do wonder what these fools think they look like

Similarly the fitness freaks. Obligatory lycra vests covering as little as possible to expose the monstrosity of the body they have created. Everything out of proportion, little more than a circus sideshow. Really what on earth do they think they look like.

Joggers in tight lycra with huge smart phones strapped to their arms as if to say, "no I just can't manage to just go out and simply run, I have to have stats and readouts otherwise it just isn't fun or worth it!"

You look at people like poor Carol Vorderman, once a hugely popular, beautiful and attractive woman, now reduced to little more than a fake bimbo freakshow. So hugely sad to see.

Did all these people miss the simple lessons of life? Have they been so badly brought up that they really do think that life is all about them? Are they so hopelessly shallow that they think how they look is all that matters? It's like they never grew up from teenage life in many cases, never progressed mentally, never matured.

Some of the sad fails imo:


Felicity Kendall, former British sex symbol, had her own unique allure in the 80s, now reduced to being a ripped jeans sheep:




Vorderman, just totally lost the plot:




Steroid &Synthol Freaks:








Maybe it's just me but I can't help but feel that these people all need a healthy dose of humility and realism.

Re: You're So Vain

have you seen the price of those ripped jeans?, ridiculous some of them, but they have to be designer, no ordinary jeans will do, I suspect. if the members on here had to have ripped jeans, then we’d buy the cheapest we could find and rip them ourselves , I saw a young girl with more rip than jeans, the other week,

Re: You're So Vain

Living with a weight lifter I'm not sure vanity is his problem, he started wanting to not be stick thin and look more able to take care of himself. Just to stay safer and I think it works as not too many mess with him these days. Better than having to learn to fight. He hasn't quite gone to the extent some in your post have thankfully.
I think some people have always followed fashions some to extraordinary extents, difference now is they can change their bodies not just their clothes.

People are looking for happiness and looking in the wrong places IMO they don't have enough worries they look to their bodies as problems to be fixed.

Re: You're So Vain

It seems the bigger the bodybuilders body gets, the smaller their heads look. Pinheads!
They all look like Michelin men!

Felicity Kendal could do with some trout lips!

You could have a backie on Carol Vordeman’s bottom. (Like you do on a bike)

Re: You're So Vain

Interesting. In 50+ years I have never had anyone "mess with me", at least not to any significant extent. That's probably because I am an empathetic guy who listens to people and am generally understanding. I don't act in ways that provoke people such that they would want to be physically abusive, I don't put myself in situations where there is likely to be physical violence. If it ever did happen then my Jiu Jitsu and other training would be employed and as anyone so trained knows, you most certainly do not need to be a weight lifter or gym freak to be able to efficiently defend yourself and put a larger violent thug to the ground in short measure. There are plenty of stick thin individuals who would dispatch a well built grunt pretty quickly. Such opponents tend to have very weak joints. Big muscles but very weak joints and are slow and cumbersome opponents.
Really they are not the kind of opponents you actually want because the swift movements and strikes of the art would deal very permanent damage to their knees and other joints and key target areas (eyes, nose, throat etc). Nobody really wants to deal such life impacting damage to anyone but it can become unavoidable if silly people persist in, as you put it, "messing with people".

Swimfeeders would have plenty to say here. I don't know him personally but I would confidently say he's unlikley to be a weight lifter or a muscle man of any sort. He is simply well trained and knows how to end a fight in an instant with minimal effort via carefully well chosen and placed strikes. Dirty they may be, but hugely effective they are !

Re: You're So Vain

Along with everything else.

Re: You're So Vain

Oh dear I don't feel very well

On the other hand, previous generations had:
flappers with flat chests (often strapped) and boyish figures
Teddy boys wearing brothel creepers, long hair and sideburns
Mods with their long parkas
Beatles hair
60s dollies a la Twiggy. Platform shoes, knee high white pvc boots
Punk, all peircings and spiky hair
Goths, all black, even black lipstick
Eighties Big Hair and ridiculously huge padded shoulders

There have always been body builders, I don't think that's a fashion.

The way I see it is that these days instead of it being simply a youth thing, older people are so desperate to keep up and not appear to grow old, as our parents were comfortable to do so (or were they?!) they risk looking ridiculous.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

(Great thread Realist!)

Re: You're So Vain

Haha yes. They do look quite ridiculous.

Somewhere it must all harbour some kind of deficiency and lack of self confidence. It's like men driving flash sports cars because they are sexually deficient or lacking elsewhere.

It pains me to see Felicity Kendall trying so desperately to bow to the prevailing trends and media pressure. She had a lovely innocent unique way about her in her prime but time takes its toll on all starlets and I guess inferiorty complexes kick in and they get desperate.

I wonder if, like the sad Vorderman, we will ultimately see Felicity end up on I'm A Celebrity ? The end of the road "I'm desperate" rail terminal for aging past stars ! I hope not.

Re: You're So Vain

Lots of folk change their bodies to feel better about themselves. Unfortunately some are never satisfied and it becomes surreal but they don't notice.

As for "celebs", I think they get to a point where they will either try anything to stay young and "attractive" or they have so much money they don't care what people think.
Best not to worry about them, if it makes them happy

Re: You're So Vain

Very true though nobody was suggesting it was "fashion" as such but rather just pure vanity in some cases.

You're quite right of course about past trends. MOds, Rockers etc. People wanting to be accepted by the society around them and so conforming to one of the predefined sets of fashions and trends.

Perhaps the problem today is that the "trends" are just so puerile and uninspring.

Past trends were vivid and "alive" and different as you say.

Girls in ripped jeans and fake eyelashes and fake nails just look ultimately trashy and lame and sheep like. Just not great looks, and yet they all follow moronically one after the other.

People like Madonna I seem to remember set their own uniqu trends which many then copied.

Now come on girls, be honest, who amongst you followed Madonna's unique style in the early years wearing scrunchies and other bits and bobs?