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EVENTS B2

t

STEPHANIE WIEBI:

Face to face
with gravity

- JY HAT FOLLOWS is pretty much
for women only, Not that male
readers couldn’t find a little en-
lightenment in what lies ahead,

but most will lose interest right about here.
It has to do with skin care products,

Skin care has changed drastically in
recent years. Used to be, the items on the
store cosmetic shelves were fairly predict-
able. Why, I remember a time when the
phrase ‘‘skin care’? meant you cither used
Noxzema (if you were young) or Nivea
cream (if you were old).

Not any more, Today, the store shelves
are bursting with lotions, creams and
toners. Most of these products, it secms, are
aimed at an aging consumer market.

Or maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s just that,
since J hit my late thirties — my extremely,
severely, pitifully, terribly lale thirties — I
can no longer ignore certain sections of the
local cosmetic shelves.

Suddenly 1 see products I’ve never seen
before -—- bottles of fragrant, pastel lotions,
jars packed with tiny capsules, and tiny
vials of glittery fluids. They are labelled
with eye-catching words like ‘‘age-
defying’, ‘‘anti-gravity’’, and ‘“‘active-
regenerating’. ‘

Several things about this tick me off.
First, there’s the whole cruel psychology
behind the words ‘‘age’’ and ‘‘gravity’’ and
‘“regenerate’’. These are not-so-subtle hints
that we are all rapidly maturing,

Yep, you’re getting older, I’m getting
older. We’re degenerating, ripening like
blue cheese, practically composting as we
speak, right here in River City.

That’s what those labels are telling us.
They’re pesky words, aimed to make us
worry so we'll buy more cosmetics. And
they work. But heck, why not get right
down to the real screaming threat? Why not
label this stuff with direct, piercing threats
like ‘‘rot’’, ‘‘decay”’, and ‘‘death’’?

Open any women's magazine
and you'll see them: life-size Bar-
bie dolls who wouldn't recognize
gravity if Stonehenge felf on
them.

Because they’d never sell, that’s why nat.
Which brings us to yet another annoying
factor. These products, as with most con-
sumer goods, do not originale with regular
folks like you and me. They certainly do
not come from me, a crabby, middle-aged
broad who cruises drugstores in search of a
fountain-of-youth. (Sheesh, even /’d know
betler than to use the word “‘gravity’’.)

No, these products are brought to us by
another species entircly: sparkling, skinny
little 22-year-olds — perfect replicas of the
human female, molded of scented talc and
imported face cream. Open any women’s
magazine and you'll see them: life-size
Barbie dolls who wouldn’t recognize
gravily if Stonehenge fell on them.

The latest game of the skin-care Barbies,
il seems, is science. The science of beauty,
it’s called. Here’s where  laboralory
geniuses (ie. pouty-lipped babes in
eyeglasses and tailored Jab coats) rescue us
(the plain-faced, aging masses) from the
evil scourge of time by flogging Alpha-
Hydra Aeronautic Face Gel.

I see two things wrong with this: 1.
Science happens to be the same profession
thal once invented radioactive waste and
imitation whipped dessert topping. 2. They
are not scientists anyway, they are Barbic
dolls. Besides, everyone knows, Midge was
the smart one.

Which has me wondering if we shouldn’t
just skip the whole skin care thing and let
nature run ils destructive little course. After
ail, as the saying goes, you’re only as
young as you feel.

I don’t know about you, but I think I feel
like guzzling down a bottle of Oil of Olay.

From kids to kids

Peer pressure isn’t

DON’T DRINK. Don’t do drugs.
Don’t smoke. Kids hear this type
of advice all the time from
teachers and parents. And quite
often that advice is ignored, in
favour of the desire to look cool.

But when that advice comes
from an fellow student, just a few
years older, it somehow seems to
mean more. And the odds of that
advice sinking in is 20 per cent
higher.

Now a class of grade nine and
ten students at Skecna Ir.
Secondary are taking these mes-
sages to children in grades five
through seven at. Uplands
Elementary this week,

The students are part of a peer
counselling course offered by the
Jr. High. They’re presenting a
skit on smoking and marijuana,
and telling younger students
about how dangerous drinking
can be, Then they'll play a jeop-
ardy style game about drinking
with the children and tell truce
story about drinking. The point of
story and game is to Jet the chil-
dren know that they don’! have to
do something just because anoth-
cr student is pressuring them.

If grade five seems a bil young
to start talking about drug use and
drinking, that’s not what the
Skeena students say.

Some have brothers and sisters
in those grades and they hear
stories about kids in grade five
trying pot, smoking and drinking.

“They think it's cool to
smoke,’’ sald one student,

The Skeena students came up
with the idea for the presentation
when Catherine Chapman, a
nurse from the health unit, came

Benefit

ON NOVEMBER 4 a serious car
accident in Vancouver forever
changed the lives of a Terrace
family,

Blake Rossiter, the 21-year-old
son of Mike and Lori Rossiter,
was seriously injured, and was in
a coma for several weeks. He has
since come out of the coma, bul
can’t lalk or walk, and is just now
re-learning bow to eat. He has
suffered brain injury, but the ex-
tent of the injury is still unknown,

Since the accident Mike and
Lori have moved down to Van-
couver, and rented a basement
suite in order to be closer to their
son, They expect to have to live
there for a year, helping Blake
and supporting him while he
recovers. Their 25-year-old
daughter Wendy is also in Van-
couver with them.

Since the accident many friends
of the Rossiters in Terrace have
wondered how they could help
the family, Now there’s a way.

Friends and work associates of
the Rossiters have organized a
benefit auction and dance on Feb-
nary 10. A number of local
businesses have donated items for
the auction. ;

“TET was in that situation —
and I have been — it’s a terrible
strain on anybody,”’ says Nelson
McGinlay, one of the organizers
of the benefit. He went through a

cool

THESE STUDENTS IN A peer counselling course at Skeena Jr. Secondary put together a
Jeopardy-style game for younger children on facts about drinking. It’s part of a presentation the
class is making at Uplands this week, encouraging younger students not to give into peer pres-
sure and not to smoke and drink. Pictured here are Angie McRae, Amber Tooms, Stephanie
Leach and Alan Austin, ~~ os a | oo

into the class to talk about

government money available for
‘healthy schools’ projects. -,

The students decided to spend
the $500 they were given for the
project on t-shirts and materials
to make a display and the drink-

seeks

similar experience with a sick
child,

Mike, a part owner of Totem
Press, has been out of work for
two months now, and will likely
be busy helping his son for the
next year.

“T don’t know their financial
Situation, but this is a struggle for
anybody,’ says McGinlay.. The
Rossiters don’t know ‘about the
benefit auction.

Mike and Lori Rossiter are ac-
tive members of the community,
he says, and they’ve given a lot to
Terrace in the past. Mike has
been involved in the Lions, the
Rotary Club and has been a mem-
ber of the hospilal board. Lori is
active with the church.

“You don’t want to have those
kind of people leave.”* ~

The Rosssiters have been over-
whelmed with the emotional sup-
port from their friends in Terrace.

“So many people have been
wondering what they could do for
them.... But they don’t want to in-
sult or embarrass them.’

Many fricnds and businesses
have donated items to be auc-
tioned off.’ The list’ includes an
occan fishing trip for four people
on a 52 foot boat, a mountain
bike, a fishing trip.on the river
with a professional guide, skis
and bindings, wind - chimes,
framed acrial photograph of Ter-

ing game. © oe

The t-shirts.encourage students -

not to smoke and not to drink and
drive. 2 : ae
Peer counselling course teacher
Mary Papias is impressed with
the presentation the students have

developed.

“They've worked very’ hard,
and. have © gotten this~ together
quile quickly,” says Papias,

The students are giving their

presentation to four different
classes at Uplands.

to help family

if

THIS PHOTO of the Rossiter family was taken before the acci-
dent. That’s Blake on the left, his sister Wendy, and parents Mike

and Lori.

race, gift certificates, an Indian
blanket, a portable cd player and
more,

The hall and the music. have
been ‘donated for the auction and
dance, on Feb 10, If anyone else
wishes to donate items for. the
auction, they can contact Nelson
McGinlay al Totem Press. Dona-
tions can also be made at a spe-
cial account for the family at the

Bank of Nova Scotia.

The auction and dance will be
held at the Coast Inn of the West
banquet room. Doors open at 6:30
pm., with the auction at-7 p.m.
The dance will follow. Tickets
are $12 per person and are avail-
able at Totem Press, Ev’s Men’s
Wear and All Seasons Sporting
Goods. ~

Women’s film festival this weekend

AN ANIMATED FILM on
cellulite and a gritty look at ju-
venile prostitution are some of
the offerings at an upcoming
women’s film festival, to be
held February 2-3,

The film festival is a joint
project between Northwest
Community College and the
Terrace Women’s Resource
Centre,

The films were shown as
part of the Reel Change [esti-
val, held last December in
Vancouver, Now the films are
being made available in the

northwest thanks to the efforts

of Dawn Dalley of the
women's centre in Prince
Rupert.

Locally, Melissa Munn of
the Safer Campuses Initiate at
the college, organized the film
festival for Terrace.

The films cover a wide range

of issues, Some arc’ just six

minutes long, others a’ half
hour or more. -

The film fest begins Friday,
Feb. 2 at 7:30: pm. at the
women's centre on Park Ave,

That night features films on
cellulite, the women's monu-
ment project on a collection of
short productions on women’s
issucs.

On Feb, 3 the film festival
continues at the ‘women’s
centre and al the college con-
currently. The films begin at
noon at both locations.

Highlights of the afternoon
include a documentary on bat-

tered wornen who: kill, an cx- -

pose on how. the medi treats

women, ard the history of the

women’s rights movement as
shown through letters ex-
changed between a_ brother
and sister. There is also a
tongue-in-cheek exploration of
the issue of sex role stereotyp-
ing and its shaping of young
girls, and a- slory of one
wonian’s struggle with: addic-
tion, © * oe

_ The public is invited to come
by and watch the films [ree of
charge. A detailed schedulé of

the film festival is available at

the women’s centre,

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