You Can Be Whatever You Want, As Long as You Look Good Doing It.

Fact is Dolly Parton had it right in Steel Magnolias.

With the help of a lot of four and six letter words Jenna Marbles offers us a tutorial to help out. I don't know about you, but after all that effort I wanna cuss too. Guy Tip: This is why acknowledgement of our effort is kinda mandatory. If I've tricked you into thinking I'm good-looking, I expect at least a high-five.

Of course we’re not allowed to put too much effort into looking good either. Effortless beauty is the goal. But who appreciates an effortless beauty?

Case in point, and does anything underscore the importance of how you look better than the obituary of The Thorn Bird’s Author Colleen McCullough?

The Australian's Colleen McCullough Obituary

Please keep in mind that being a novelist, a neurophysiologist, a best-selling author whose books were made into a wildly successful television series, AND being 77 does not exempt you from the societal expectation to look good while you do all that other stuff. 

The obituary sparked an outcry on Twitter, resulting in some amusing tweets under #MyOzObituary. Of course I had to play too.

Possibly it’s hardwired into us all to appreciate beauty and surely that’s not a bad thing. It just comes in many forms, and if you can only see one kind you miss out on so much. Once I read that a person of average intelligence was capable of any career if they had enough tenacity and drive. I would like to submit that a woman, plain of feature, and certainly overweight can also have a wonderful life. What they write in her obituary after that wouldn’t matter a diddly damn, don’t you think?

S. R. Karfelt

What’d you think of that obituary? I’d haunt that writer. Like follow him around singing Sesame Street songs or something. How do you feel about the pressure to look good? Think you’ll be able to maintain it for the obituary photos?