Oscar Wilde, author, social critic, and all-around bad boy of the Victorian age, wrote his novel THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY to illustrate the ancient adage: "When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." I have repeatedly foundthis to be true in my own life. And it has prompted some personal observations about our cyber-community which I would like to share here.
The fabulous success of S.G. is displayed in the fact that a generation of young women have come to identify with S.G. as the kind of beauty they want to have, and the type of woman they want to be. Hundreds of them apply, and many of them are hopefuls right now.
At the outset, I think there are certain allowances members have to make for the realities of the world we live in. Some of us, like yours truly, have time to spare, and this is a wonderful place to spend it. The models, however live their lives in a whirlwind of activity. Many are students, most have jobs, some have more than one job-in addition to modeling here, and elsewhere! The most P.M.s I ever had was 12, and that was only because I chose to let them pile up over several days. I can only imagine what most models face,when they log in. I'm sure the P.M.s must be in the hundreds, not counting all the blog comments, set comments, home page comments, and group comments. Therefor, I always allow at least 4 weeks before deciding that some one has not answered me, and is not likely to in the future. Also, members should realize, if we get our jollies from "talkin' dirty", the models do NOT! They have a right to be treated with respect, and if we don't do that, they will not reply, and will block our future messages, and rightly so!
Many of us have hopeful friends that are simply breath-taking, and we can't believe they haven't gone pink. My dear friends @ZEPHI, @STORMYENT, ,@ROGGEN, and @ADENAH are just a few that I could name. Recently, I discovered @HUNO, who can only be described as one of the most gorgeous creatures on this, or any other planet. She has been a hopeful since 2009(Oh, the humanity! THE HUMANITY!) How, in the name of all that is horny, can a woman who looks that good die on the vine for over 4 years? And these ladies want it so much, because S.G. means so much to them!
The organization I worked for (which shall remain nameless) had a very rigorous process toward employment. You couldn't just decide you wanted to work there when you grew up. You had to have several recommendations to even apply. Next, you had to pass an interview with a blue-ribbon panel, submit to exhaustive medical psychological, and aptitude testing before being invited to take up the requisite graduate studies, at your own expense. It was only after passing a second series of interviews, by an even higher panel that they began to consider assisting you financially. And, no matter how well you did in your degree program, you had to pass board exams which were prepared and graded by experts from around the country. It was anticipated that at least 80% of candidates would wash out before completing the program. This was done so that those of us who did complete the program would be an elite group who would represent the highest values of the organization. But I soon found that many of my colleagues, realizing that, once you were in, it was practically impossible to get you out, reverted to mediocrity and worse, in the job they tried so hard to get.
I must confess, I don't try to follow many S.G.s and about half that I do follow, I knew when they were hopefuls. Perhaps, my friend @LEWOLF knows some kind S.G. who would suffer a well-meaning loser like me. But my experience has been that, when I P.M. a hopeful, about 70% of the time, I get an answer; it's about 20% from S.G.s When I make a comment to a hopeful, I get a reply about 40% of the time, compared to about 10% for S.G.s Although, the one and only time I made a negative comment on an S.G.'s photo set, she answered me within 10 seconds of my posting! All this tells me that a lot of beautiful women are trying hard, maybe too hard, to earn the title of S.G. while investing WAY too much of their self worth in the effort. And, apparently, many of the "Pinkified" find that climbing the mountain meant more than enjoying the view the from the top. Perhaps the system should be changed to make it less painful to become an S.G. and more fun to actually be one?