No Fishing Zone

Ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, you have entered a "No Fishing" zone on this blog.

Now I know what you're thinking, "What? It's too cold for fishing anyway! And Christmas is tomorrow, who goes fishing then?"

No no no. In this entry today, I'm talking about fishing for compliments. Nothing annoys me more or frustrates me more than blatant, obvious fishing for compliments. Well, that's not true; lots of things annoy me more than that. However, fishing for compliments is HIIIIIIGH up on the list of "Things That Annoy Me."

Case in point for today:

I still frequent a wedding planning message board from time to time, just to see what the girls who got engaged after I did are up to these days. There happened to be a post today that included a young bride-to-be asking for the board's opinion on her dress. Now, this is not unusual. We all ask/asked for opinions on different aspects of our wedding during the planning process, because, well, we get a bit tunnel-visioned after a while, and stress can make one lose one's sense of taste sometimes.

So I click on the post, thinking "oh, yay, I get to look at a pretty wedding dress!"

However, before the two links to the pictures was a paragraph-long disclaimer about how "don't worry the tattoo on my back is fake and i'm NOT SURE about the flower, so don't tell me the flower looks bad, and oh the dress fits on top but it is SO HUGE on me in the waist that it makes my hips look huge and DON'T WORRY those aren't my ACTUAL HIPS and please tell me what you think kthanksbai."

Wha??

So I click on the links and see a blonde girl with a waist the size of one of my thighs standing in front of a mirror in a BEAUTIFUL dress.

Then I get pissed off.

I mean don't get me wrong, I understand insecurity. Who here has struggled with insecurity?? ::raises hand:: That's right. Most of us who have any sense of humility at all have struggled with insecurity, but good lord. I have never seen a more desperate plea for compliments.

A tiny part of it makes me sad, what kind of environment did she grow up in, blame society and it's stick insect models, blah blah blah....but mostly I just get peeved. It took all my strength to not let the snark overrule me and post back "Yeah I like the dress, but not on you. Maybe on someone with smaller hips?" Give me a break.

It could perhaps have something to do with the fact that the mean age on that message board is somewhere between 19 and 23, and now, at 27, I'm finally becoming very comfortable in my own skin and really don't need the acceptance or validation of a bunch of strangers on the internets. I dunno.

Just know that, should you come around these parts with your "Ohmigod I'm so fat" and your "You are SO much prettier/more talented/smarter than I am," you will likely get a response similar to this: "Yes I know. You suck at life. And you should probably go on a diet, despite the fact that you are wearing a size I wore in 7th grade."

Yes I know. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Self-Confident Night!