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The Cadre

‘he Island Yankee

By Suzanne Williams

It has taken me over a month to sort out the reasons why I travelled six hundred miles, across the US/Cana- dian border and the North- umberland Strait, to attend school here at UPEI.

Having come froma sub- urb in New Hampshire about the size of Charlottetown where fads and popularity were all that mattered, I was struck by the notion that I had to get away. This was not the typical I-need-to-get-away- because-my-family-is-driving- me-crazy, but it was because I was slowly being killed by others’ ideas.

In the first semester at my previous college, I was scared away by many things, including analleged rape inmy own dormitory. The president and his staffcouldn’t care less about the students, some stu- dents couldn’t be ruder, and it was necessary for students to live on campus.

I finally got sick of the - rules and the rudeness and the general carelessness toward one another’s feelings, so I up and left and found things not so different here.

Which, in a roundabout way, starts my story.

I attended a high school of about 1400, where there were couples locking lips in every hallway. I have noticed that one fact remained clear in every instance: all of these couples contained a short girl with a skinny body.

What is this saying? Do tall girls or girls with “not-so- perfect” figures matter? Why did these couples have to flaunt the fact that they have rela- tionships in other people’s faces? Why were these boys piling up, tongue-tied, for a cheerleader when there were girls who never had a boy- friend, girls who wanted one but never had a boy ask her out? Having been the outcast for years, | have done much pondering over this. It comes down to one primary thing: the media.

On television, is there ever a pimply girl advertising any product, let alone a face cream? Have overweight women ever been depicted as anything but flighty and moody? Does the uglier woman ever get the man?

Of course not! Why try to make everybody happy? It’s impossible!

It’sno wonder why many sitcoms are cancelled after the first season.

Beautiful women, skinny women. Nobody wants a fat, unattractive pimple-faced woman.

These many stereotypes, cranked through the TV waves, are slowly helping to increase eating disorders, sui- cides, and divorces.

To the “moody”, “ugly”, “fat” person, most of her hope by now has been shattered by numerous men who refused even a slow-dance for five minutes toa simple song. Life

seems not worth living for a girl of nineteen who has never been on a date considers her- self an ugly old maid. She will crawl into herself and will away the only existence she has ever known. She will day- dream about the perfect world, where people are practically robots because all is happy. She will lose all her dreams, do poorly in school, exist merely on the fact that she hasn’t killed herself yet, though she may have tried numerous times before. Does this sound crazy? Unfortunately, it is true, for I am that girl.

What has happened to the saying we have heard all of our lives: “Don’t worry; you’ ll soon be noticed by what’s on the inside”? All that is on the inside by now is self pity and unshed tears. The people speaking have survived and been noticed for who they were, but what about those of today, who have been treated harshly all their lives because of what is on the outside? People seem to be so disgusted by what is on the outside that to see what’s inside wouldn’t be worth the time of day.

Some people have dated since before they were teen- agers, which makes me won- der: did they ever havea child- hood? Sadly enough, with the help of a little electrical box with simple dialogue and pic- tures, many of us have not.

October 28, 1997