Paris, between David and Goliath

Sitting silently in the bus, putting her make up on, Paris is on her way to school. Her pale skin is hidden under foundation, her blue eyes circled by heavy black, her pink lips covered by gloss. During the 10 minutes she sits in the bus, she checks herself in the mirror and combs her hair a thousand times.

Paris looks at the face of the other passengers. They all look distant, sad or tired. She wonders why they are not taking more care of themselves. The clothes they wear, the way they tie their hair or put make-up on. She opens her fashion magazine and relaxes. There, are the people who do things the right way. They look happy. She wants to be like them. Then, she’ll feel like them.

On the way back home, she takes out her mobile and start socialising with her friends. She knows that all the information she puts online are used to turn her into a consumer, a two-legged advertisement. "What can I do against it? Nothing!” she quickly answers to herself. She wonders if she’s going to be happier when she’ll get the next top item she has order online from the "recommended list". Although she knows that once she'll have it, she'll just want something else. She always does.

Sometimes, she thinks about her granny who fought against convention, for women and individual rights. "What happened?". She hopes that someday she'll meet somebody she can be herself with, without the smoke screen. The more she looks around her, the more she doubts it. She's loosing touch with privacy. Nobody leaves her alone, neither does the big marketing guys who are following her every move nor does the CCTV.

Paris is only a teenager, still growing up. "How can I be myself if they don't let me build myself?". She knows she looks like a product, a doll nicely sitting on a shelf. She can see the looks of pity from others.  She turns away from them, faking indifference. But in her head, is always the same question: "if my parents can't protect me against the system, how can I protect myself?".