Miss and Mister Lebanon

I think that the more I am around my relatives, the more observant I am. And as of late, I have come to the realisation that my family is surrounded by gender constraints from television viewings of their choice.

There goes by not an evening whilst seated at my grandmother's house along with my family where I do not come across a negative comment aimed at the restricting of individuality. These comments are sprayed from the mouths of my parents, my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. Their sprayings fly at the television screen and bounce off, flying to the faces of my younger cousins who are, despite their mature ages, still rather impressionable. 

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It is almost ritualistic. It happens the most when Mister or Miss Lebanon is being televised. My father begins the ritual, spitting into the air, literally. He spits in order to show his appreciation of the physical appearance of the females presented on the screen. My mother, against all relationship odds, spits along with him, and as far as I can note neither seem concerned at their actions. Neither seem concerned that they are constraining their own daughters and nieces to conform to the looks being presented. They do not seem concerned about how horrible that is.

It is worse when Mister Lebanon is being televised. I still remember when it happened - my father sent my mother a text message informing her to hurry home with me and my sister because Mister Lebanon was on. So we did. Me, involuntarily. He may not realise it, but in his viewing of this show he is constraining himself as a male as well as my sister and I as females. 

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It was alarming to see packs of men with no bodily hair to be found on them. It was alarming to see their beaming white smiles, their tan, toned bodies gleaming from the spreading of oil, and their falsified answers that underpin the necessity of winning. Are you an exemplary figure if you are televised, toned, fit, and make no verbal sense? Or are you an exemplary figure if you perform good deeds without the need for them to be broadcasted all over the world? The status quo prefers the former.

My family is not aware of the unsightly visual and verbal messages that they are confronted with when they press the 'on' button on the television remote. This frustrates me because I am, and it worries me because they are not. Why cannot humans thrive in the comfort of their own natural skin without the application of status quo pigeonholing?