oh so fleeting thoughts

I was shopping today when I saw one of those young girls who walks arms straight down at her sides, back perfectly straight, eyes preternaturally wide open, hair braided absolutely immaculately like a doll from the fifties and a doll like smile on her unmoving face.

She was probably 12 to 14 years old and with her adoring parents who were asking her opinion. She turned on one foot, never loosing the pose that spoke to me of a doll attached to a stand hidden under her arms from behind. Reaching with her left arm she pulled a picture frame from the shelf and pivoted back, presenting it to her parent.  Smile brightly pasted on her strangely emotionless face.

She was perfection.  Frightening perfection.  Animated doll-like perfection. If she had been older I might have thought she was over-botxed and  maybe even a Stepford wife, but she was a child, infinitely more terrifying than Wednesday Addams and yet, very like more and more girls and women I have been seeing lately.

When did plastic girl become popular?  This calculated look and lack of unconscious movement is more disconcerting than the usual self conscious actions of teens in the past.

I wonder if it is possible that she looks normal to her parents? Of course I didn't have time to watch mom or dad.  I was so taken aback by her I was afraid of looking too nosey, so I breezed on by looking for a fake Christmas tree and trying to decide if I wanted a real looking fake one, or an outrageously fake-fake one.

Maybe that's what the world is coming to.