Image Is Everything

By Julie Beckwith

I have a confession to make.

I’m a huge college hoops fan. When March Madness hits, I am glued to the TV. That’s not my secret though. My secret is much worse. Inevitably, there are teams in the opening rounds of the tourney that I have never seen play before. How do I decide which team to cheer for? That’s my dirty little secret. I cheer for the team whose players have the fewest tattoos. Here’s why: when I see teenagers with tattoos, I make assumptions about them. I assume they are less intelligent, less mature, and less capable than their nontattooed friends. I know this is not fair. There are plenty of amazing people with tattoos and plenty of rotten eggs with nary an ink mark on their body. I am, however, not alone in my prejudice. A recent Pew survey found that 85 percent of employers would be discouraged from hiring someone with a tattoo. It is in our sinful human nature to make judgments about people based only on their appearance. The culture in which we live exploits this weakness.

While all of us feel compelled to follow societal dress codes, teenagers and young adults seem especially pressured to look and dress a certain way. I am reminded of this fact every time I visit the local mall. I meander by the piercing kiosk, stroll briskly past Victoria’s Secret’s latest display of thongs and cantilevering undergarments, and am jostled by the pulsing beat and vibrating floor to the storefront of Abercrombie and Fitch. I shudder, even as I peak through the glass at the scantily clad, and usually very attractive, models and workers, wondering what $50 T-shirt my fifteen-year-old niece is going to hit me up for at Christmas this year.

But even I was surprised when my niece told me that she drops $30 a month at the salon to get her eyebrows waxed. When I asked her why she does it (and where she got the idea in the first place), she just shrugged her perfectly tanned shoulders and said, “Everybody does it.” As a young person in America, you are encouraged to whiten your teeth, bleach your hair, tan your skin, pierce your navel, tattoo your ankle, and extend your tresses, all while having an iPod stuck in your ear and a cell phone surgically attached to your hand. In other words, there is a certain image that the culture in which we live entices you to measure up to.

Who created this false image, and who encourages you to pursue it? Well, the answer to that question requires that I let you in on another dirty little secret (drum roll, please): it’s adults. You may not believe it, but it’s true. Living up to an artificial image means spending money. The quickest way to separate you from your dollar is to make you feel like you are missing out on something that everyone else has. According to a recent Frontline program on PBS, “Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic in America. Last year, America’s teens spent $100 billion, while influencing their parents’ spending to the tune of another $50 billion.” So, when you get Abercrombie’s newest catalog or look at an ad in Teen People or find yourself at a commercial break during American Idol, ask yourself, “What are they trying to sell me, and do I really need to buy it?” (Because, let’s face it, you’re pretty great just as you are. God thinks so, and, frankly, so do I.)

You don’t need a makeover to measure up. You don’t need a tattoo or a T-shirt from Abercrombie to be cool. You are perfect just the way you are. Want to know why? Because you are created in the image of God. Here’s how the Bible puts it in Genesis 1:27 and 31: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them and blessed them...God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Although we no longer have the wisdom and righteousness that Adam had before the fall, we are by faith in Christ reckoned righteous and perfect before our God.

Image really is everything, but please remember it is God’s true image restored in Christ that matters, not man’s false one.You are God’s very good creation. Through your Baptism, God has claimed you as His perfect child. He loves and accepts you just as you are: pimples, generic jeans, and all. So, don’t beat yourself up trying to look like the latest cookie-cutter celebrity. Rejoice that you have been fashioned in the image of our almighty God. Don’t let peer pressure or savvy marketers tell you who you are or what you should be. Listen to who God says you are and who He has created and redeemed you to be. And please, have pity on your parents (and your aunts), and ask for a book for Christmas this year!

Julie Beckwith is Assistant Editor of Higher Things Magazine and the former director of marketing for the University of Notre Dame Press. Her e-mail address is higherthingseditorial@gmail.com.