THE LOWER 48 vs. ALASKA (BEAUTY EDITION)

“Honey, if you’re a 7 down there, you’ll feel like a 10 up here!”

In my old stomping grounds and birth state of AK, 13 years after my “Were you in 17 Magazine?” moment, a very flattering question by a very clueless villager women. Never before (and never there after) has there been such an ignorant remark so dearly held as a memento. 

I‘ll never forget when I was about 19 years old in the waiting area of a tiny village airport on the Aleutian Peninsula. I had just left a “neighboring” village called Chignik — about an HOUR’S plane ride away — where my family fished out of the past 4 generations. These village airports are frozen in time — as are so many of its people, like this one:

“Were you in 17 magazine?”, a lady quipped as she walked by me.

I laughed nervously and said something really lackluster for a comeback, “Umm…haha! Noooo, I‘ve never been in there — but thank you.”

Clearly that women had not left the village in a long time if ever, to allude that I was a model. I dispelled her curiosity quickly (but I should have milked it — heck, she could have asked for my autograph and that would have been hilarious). Nonetheless, everybody has that one remark in life that remains an ego boost and that one was mine back in 2010. What a memento. I never considered myself a 10 — more on a sliding scale between 7 and 8. But it’s all relative when you are in Alaska.

That sentiment has been magnified even more over the years as I have personally dubbed it at the “relative-beauty quotient” in Alaska. That quotient reflects contrasting beauty trends between the Lower48 and Alaska. So, I started reassuring my friends who are feeling down about all the competition out there: “Hey, if you are a 7 down here, you’ll feel like a 10 up in Alaska.” It’s like a big fish in a small pond as far as beauty goes, not to mention the ratio of men to women: The total population of Alaska is estimated to be 734,821 with 386,649 males (52.62%) and 348,172 females (47.38%). There are 38,477 less females than males in Alaska. With that sweet ratio imbalance and the fact that Alaska filters out a lot of “soy boys” from coming here due to the rugged lifestyle, a Lower48 woman on the 7 scale can feel good about being complimented by a 10 guy up in the Last Frontier.

Small towns/villages breath a wholesome hardy life into the essence that is Alaska which contrasts with the abundance of cities in the Lower48 — all dominated by the XX chromosone. Yes, most cities have more women in them. For example, NYC is 53% to 47% women to men ratio, but account for probably 10% of them being gay and, so, you are left with a measly 37% men for what oft makes for an even thirstier set of women. Not to mention, they have to keep up with other women through a this modern filler-plastic-gym-going-lifestyle trope in order to get the attention of a Simple Straight 7 dude. You men have no clue what most women are doing behind the scenes foryou, for other women and for ourselves. Just to wake up and be pleased with the person in the mirror in the silence of 10 pm before we crawl into bed. “She still has it”, we whisper to ourselves in 3rd person, as if we are becoming another person — frozen in youth — outside of who we naturally were to progress as.

Here are a few reasons why women might be able to feel better about themselves up here…



ALASKA HAS BEEN DOMINATED BY MEN SINCE THE GOLD RUSH

Unlike Aspen, this is not a place where the women “instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano” but rather the men are the salmon — swimming upstream, just a whole country of testoserone who migrated to northand. I think every man I have dated had it on their bucket list to explore Alaska — and that made me feel cozy inside, after all, I was born up there into a 4th generation fishing family, the most rugged of them all. So the whole “AK bucket list” became almost a litmus test of their manlihood and an initiation of them into my life becasue why woudn’t a guy want to visit the most masculine country on earth? Whether you are at sea or on land, you can not escape the stereotype: since Alaska’s Klondike Gold Rush days in the late 1900’s this is still a man’s favorite playground (whether they are making money or not) and they will gleefullly settle with a 7 like she’s a 10.


My little sister is a next-level photographer, here she does a series with her Alaska friends and muses https://www.photobymemry.com/lifestyle/fashion-portraiture/2cdb4ajrthqdfce8veficakv0rrfa6


THERE ARE FEW PLACES LEFT IN THIS WORLD WHERE YOU CAN FEEL UNASSUMINGLY BEAUTIFUL

Alaska is the opposite of, let’s say, Denmark the most crisp clean tall demographics of people (not to mention, largest sperm bank in the world). And I didn’t find this out through Google pics — I went there IRL, baby. Last April and just 3 days in, my friend and I started to feel pretty insecure about all the beauty around us. We half jokingly said things like: “We need to get out of here — I’m starting to feel pretty ugly.” “Same here!” Oh the wieght of not having so many beautiful women around you ((AKA competition))) is a burden lifted when you go to Alaska. Not to say I have not seen beauties — because there are both diamond in the roughs up there and polished diamonds — either way, there are absolutely striking beautiful NATURAL women in Alaska which leads me to my next proclamation…

ALASKA IS THE LAND OF PLASTIC SURGERY VIRGINS

An ALASKAN IN FLORIDA: Natural born me (except for my bonde hair), I was just another 27year old “8” in the crowd of beautiful women back in Florida, meanwhile I would probably be like a “12” walking into a men’s locker room up in Alaska.



I might just be the best PR person for Alaska right now, because, think about it: how inundated are we with plastic surgery IG reels, Tiktoks and Youtube videos on how we can morph our faces to contend with our AI filters? Dammit, we created this problem — it was never a problem before. So, how do we escape? ALASKA.


Where the men are men and so are the women, YOU are sure to stand out, my friend. But mind you, don’t take that in the literal physical sense of a women looking all burly like a man. No, no, there is a caveat to that catch phrase with Alaska having some of the most breathtaking natural beauties, like I already said! My family and I know some of these ladies and Bristol Palin is an example of what most people see in the media (more on her, below). Even my 90 year-old grandma’s skin so smooth, thanks to the lack of sun up there most of the year. They do dude stuff but still look like feminine women. And then there is a secondary way of viewing that phrase: the women who are doing the dude stuff and look very tomboy and masculine doing it (that is also a big chunk of this state). So, you will be a breath of fresh air to these boys (but if you are from Smog ANGELES, then of course you are getting the breath of fresh air).



BRISTOL PALIN’S FACE CHANGED WHEN SHE WENT SOUTH

Veneers, chin impact, upper bletheroplasty,… and a sprinlkle of something else I’m sure

One could see the changes in the naturally-beautiful face of Bristol all the way from Russia. Alaska’s first daughter (named after Bristol Bay where her dad fished out of) is what I call “lower48-erized”: plastic surgery seized her psyche as most women in the contigenous states are a victim of such warped beauty culture down here. I think she settled in Arizona years ago and that’s things started to…shift around. I mean, there is just no way she would get allthese surgeries and other modifications in Alaska if she was still living full time up there. Alaska is like a fermament against the harsh realities of the Kardashian culture down south: natural is cute when you are preteen but, after that, an inadvertent quest to change your looks at the behest of a multi-billion dollar beauty culture takes hold in the minds of girls. But heck, now women don’t even have to leave Alaska to be tainted by this beautification culture — it’s on their iPhones (thanks to social media).

WHERE DO I STAND?

I think I have a unique perspective on Alaska as I spent almost half the year up there ever since I was born and then in the Lower48 during the school season. It was always refreshing for me to go up to Alaska every year, not because I needed the validation of feeling more beautiful, but because I already knew I was. Alaska was just affirming my reality, as down south has been out of touch with reality for years now.

I was spared a lot more comparision than I thought I had already endured in my young tender teenhood and I’m glad Alaska could act as a buffer. For example, I was alway more demure compared to my fishing girl peers and I lived between two highly contrasting sentiments (or adages have you): “where the men are men and so are the women” (Alaska) and “where she’s not ugly she’s just broke” (Lower48). Both of these sayings irk me: they are short fringe commentaries on two different areas of America that stereotypes us woman. On one hand you got the rugged woman liberated from the chains of feminine beauty standards and on the other you have this competitive woman forever climbing the ladder of beauty with her deep pockets. I side more with my Alaskan culture but I think there is a healthy pride to how a woman upkeeps herself — the question is, how much is too much? and that is a personal journey for most women. But the Overton Window for plastic surgery normalization has almost passed and now it is no longer a unique thing that a woman does this to herself — it’s commonplace.

CONCLUSION

I would love to say my motherland of Alaska is where plastic surgery dreams go to die because — why need it? The natural look is always in, ladies! If you are on the fence about getting that [insert latest trend surgery or filler] then you might do a paradigm shift when you visit my great state.

Just a small caveat though: Women trying to strategize their dating odds by moving to a whole other state or city, don’t bank on it. The saying “wherever you go, there you are” is true — and so are the men you have been meeting. So, just because you might want to visit Alaska because there are more males up here, may I remind you, “the odds are good but the good are odd.” But heck, all be damned if you don’t at least go back to the Lower48 with more confidence because (well, you know what I already ;tell my friends)…..

The other Theory of Relativity: Natural born beauty (except for my bonde hair), I was just another 27year old “8” in the crowd of a lot more beautiful women back in Florida, meanwhile I would be like a “12” like a woman entering a men’s locker room up in Alaska. 

ALASKA IS THE LAND OF PLASTIC SURGERY VIRGINS

I might just be the best PR person for Alaska right now, bc think about: how inundated are we with plastic surgery IG reels, tiktoks and youtube videos on how we can morph our faces to contend with our AI filters? Dammit, we created this problem — it was never a problem before. So how do we escape? ALASKA. Where the mena are men and so are the women, you are sure to stand out, my friend. But mind you, don’t take that in the literal physical sense of a women looking all barely like a man. No no. Let em caveat that catch phrase with Alaska having of the most breathtaking natural beauties! Me and my family knew some of these ladies. They do stuff but still look like a women. And then there is a secondary way of viewing ht phrsez: the women who are doing the dude stuff and look very tomboy and masculine doing it — that is most of ALASKA. You will be a breath of fresh air to these boys — especially if you are coming from Smog Angeles, then of course it is you getting the breath of fresh air.

Lack of sun helps: my 90yr olde grandma’s skin looks better than some half her age down in theAlower 48.

BRISTOL PALIN’S FACE CHANGED WHEN SHE WENT SOUTH

Veneers, chin impact, upper bletheroplasty,… and a sprinlkle of something else I’m sure


One could see the changes in the naturally-beautiful face of Bristol all the way from Russia. Alaska’s first daughter (named after Bristol Bay where her dad fished out of) is what I call “lower48-erized”: plastic surgery seized her psyche as most women in the contigenous states are a victim of such warped beauty culture down here. I think she settled in Arizona years ago and that’s things started to…shift around. I mean, there is just no way she would get all these surgeries and other modifications in Alaska if she was still living full time up there. Alaska is like a fermament against the harsh realities of the Kardashian culture down south: natural is cute when you are preteen but, after that, an inadvertent quest to change your looks at the behest of a multi-billion dollar beauty culture takes hold in the minds of girls. But heck, now women don’t even have to leave Alaska to be tainted by this beautification culture — it’s on their iPhones (thanks to social media).


WHERE DO I STAND?

I think I have a unique perspective on Alaska as I spent almost half the year up there ever since I was born and then in the Lower48 during the school season. It was always refreshing for me to go up to Alaska every year, not because I needed the validation of feeling more beautiful, but because I already knew I was — what nuance! Alaska was just affirming my reality, as down south has been out of touch with reality for years now.

I was spared a lot more comparision than I thought I had already endured in my young tender teenhood and I’m glad Alaska could act as a buffer. For example, I was always more demure compared to my fishing girl peers and I lived between two highly contrasting sentiments (or adages have you): “where the men are men and so are the women” (Alaska) and “where she’s not ugly she’s just broke” (Lower48). Both of these sayings irk me: they are short fringe commentaries on two different areas of America that stereotypes us woman. On one hand you got the rugged woman liberated from the chains of feminine beauty standards and on the other you have this competitive woman forever climbing the ladder of beauty with her deep pockets. I side more with my Alaskan culture but I think there is a healthy pride to how a woman upkeeps herself — the question is, how much is too much? and that is a personal journey for most women. But the Overton Window for plastic surgery normalization has almost passed and now it is no longer a unique thing that a woman does this to herself — it’s commonplace.

CONCLUSION

I would love to say my motherland of Alaska is where plastic surgery dreams go to die because — why need it? The natural look is always in, ladies! If you are on the fence about getting that [insert latest trend surgery or filler] then you might do a paradigm shift when you visit my great state.

Just a small caveat though: Women trying to strategize their dating odds by moving to a whole other state or city, don’t bank on it. The saying “wherever you go, there you are” is true — and so are the men you have been meeting. So, just because you might want to visit Alaska because there are more males up here, may I remind you, “the odds are good but the good are odd.” But heck, all be damned if you don’t at least go back to the Lower48 with more confidence because (well, you know what I already ;tell my friends)…..

  

$4.03 earned in one year after 38 stories published: Why I’m cancelling my Medium Membership

When your ship has sailed because the dock gave no solid anchorage for it...

I know I’m a damn good author as are SO many others who are complaining across the Internet about the scheemy nature of this platform that once was [insert early day medium memories]. Some of the best hidden gems are leaving Medium in droves. It’s too bad they were not given the opportunity to be discovered or platformed. Like the Land Run of 18(something) but in reverse: this exit from Medium is running away to a brighter future, to save what’s left of our self respect/dignity. And it’s not for a lack of trying: I’ve been on here for a year and have engaged with many accounts, been extremely proactive but only gained 183 followers while earning a total of about 4 bucks for hundreds of hours spent on here (a combination of writing my own stories, engaging and reading other’s work). This place was once an oasis for independent writers to land (perhaps I should have jumped on the bandwagon years ago) but even people who have been here for years and built up a handsome following STILL do not deserve the kind of backlash treatment from Medium. It’s slimy and grimy — heck, I’ll go as far to say insidious. Shani Silver wrote a tremendous amount of masterpeice articles here on Medium (that’s what intitially drew me to the site!) and then she departed recently — but not without a magnum opus of blog entries which I encourage everyone to read:

Medium Is Officially, Genuinely, Actually No Longer Worth It

How a once-beloved space for writers became a waste of my time.

shanisilver.medium.com

As a reader in general, I’m also fed up: Medium recommends the most basic bitch articles to me (on the discovery feed) which I’m no longer stomaching. I think a lot of these people have used ChatGTP and copy paste — I also don’t like how everybody uses Unspalsh. What the the heck, y'all — do you know the pennies photographers are earning for their work over their?? It’s like one unethical platform feeding another unethical platform.

One Million Reasons Unsplash Is A Disaster For Photographers & Designers

We recently featured an article by photographer Samuel Zeller touting the virtues of giving away photography on…

www.diyphotography.net

I have several people I actually follow but their work does not headline as much as other people who I am NOT following. Sound familiar? Yea, Medium is following after Instagram and dating apps: this pesky thing they do in the beginning to build up your hope and enthusiasm and then once they baited you in — GOTCHA! — they let go. Whiplash. Ghosting your good name. You were just an unsuspecting pawn in a pyramid scheme, that’s all this really is. It’s mentally and financially debilitating because all artists and writers want is for our name to be recognized (through validation in engagement) and respected (through financial compensation). As a children’s book author it’s even hard to make a living selling my books, and this article confirms I’m not crazy for thinking my books deserve more of the limelight:

How Do You Even Sell a Book Anymore? | The Walrus

As sales slump, the labour of trying to bottle hype is largely left to writers

thewalrus.ca


I‘ll cherish my $4.03 — a whole year’s worth of income and not even enough to buy a latte. Thanks Medium! Now I suggest you and your elite gatekeepers read the room of what the Internet is saying about you right now….


The farce behind “high value men”

The Andrew Huberman accusations got me to finally talk about something that has been bugging me for years now. **WARNING: sassy rant ahead**

Let’s amend that term already, shall we? Seriously, the terms “high value man” and “high value woman” make me cringe — how subjective! I mean, not everyone views the term “high value” in the same way. Thus, it is a strereotype, almost a caricature of what we deem a desireable man to be these days. So, let’s talk about that most secular definition of what a high value man is: A) one that is at least attractive to the majority of people (add to that, fit body and over 5'10 for specifics outside of facial qualities), B) makes a good living (+$100k/year) and C) has a personality/charm to him which is essential for those around him to even gain the consideration of him being high value in the first place. Andrew and the likes of him out there in public view right now fit that proverbial definition of “high value men.”

Now, let’s get into the weeds of the issue: sex. Pardon if I am number 100,498,385 person on the internet to use the tossed-around phrase “80% of women are sleeping with 20% of the men in this country.”, but pretty much ALL those 20% would fit into the stereotypical definition of “high value men”. All of these qualities make for getting women a lot easier. Thus, fitting that proverbial definition of “high value” means you can get a lot of women — but, in my critial-thinking book, it doesn’t mean you should. But do these men hold back? Nope. In a culture of sexual gratification — even if you are a straight male espousing conservative values — you still give into premarital sex. That reminds me of a comment I left on Adam Sosnik’s video:

Therin lies a cognitive dissonence on mass societal scale with no one seeming to ask my blunt question: why would being a man whore be high value? Ever since those pitiful high value phrases trended their way into our vernacular, I’ve been giving a strong side-eye towards dating culture. Andrew: just because you can get multiple ass at the same time, doesn’t mean you should. I passionately wrote an exposé on the subject of half-hearted love in this country which is due so much in part to the 20%/80% phenomenon I mentioned in the last paragraph.



Therin lies a cognitive dissonence on mass societal scale with no one seeming to ask my blunt question: why would being a man whore be high value? Ever since those pitiful high value phrases trended their way into our vernacular, I’ve been giving a strong side-eye towards dating culture. Andrew: just because you can get multiple ass at the same time, doesn’t mean you should. I passionately wrote an exposé on the subject of half-hearted love in this country which is due so much in part to the 20%/80% phenomenon I mentioned in the last paragraph.

https://medium.com/hello-love/passive-love-the-mediocrity-of-our-times-70b4942a178f

Ew. Gross. I mean, come on guys — think about the numbers racked up with these man whores. A Dan Bilzerian clip just came to mind right now — yikes! Mind you, womanizing Dan amassed his wealth in a pitiful “low value” way (just like Andrew Tate) and he is not easy on the eyes [mine at least]. Nonetheless, he would be deemed high value in our surface-thinking society because he can get women and rolls in dough to spoil these women in return for their “services.” These men are, in essence, bringing down their value by not having self control and bonding with one women. Sewing your wild oats for years on end is disgusting and juvenile. Andrew might be engineer/professor/podcaster/health guru (and I LOVE his videos btw — fascinating!) but he has a deficit to him: he is just like the other dudes who can’t master their lust. Andrew, BE DIFFERENT. Same goes for that other Andrew (Tate), those Fresh n Fit podcast bros and you, too, Justin Waller. I could name several in this cespool. The saddest part is that so many men out there think this is part of the high value man “package”: If I can and DO SLEEP with all these women then it must mean I’m high value!

I hate using the umbrella term “toxic masculinity” because I think it chastises men for just having male qualities that are a net positive to society but, in this particualr case, this is a net negative because, dear men, you are not weilding your sexual marketplace power in a productive way. You are having years of sterile sex with women who are not your wife — peel back the layers of logic, you know how BETA that is ?? Am I allowed to ask how many abortions are paid for by these men or did I just cross a bar? Think about it.

By restricting access to your fleshly desires, then you would be the TRUE definition of a high value: a man who can get any woman he wants but holds back because he has a MORAL SPINE. Self control — what a concept. Think about it: you pride yourself in self discipline and delayed gratifiction in every other area of your life — your career ladder, your fitness, your diet— except for when it comes to sex. Andrew Huberman is a statuesque, ruggedly attractive intellectual who was sleeping with multiple women at the same time — that only makes him partly high value. The hallmark of masculinity is self control in sex which I talked extensively about in my last blog on the epidemic of porn and sexual apathy in this country.
https://medium.com/@whitneylanderson/why-i-now-fastforward-through-rated-r-sex-scenes-05173f51b53e?source=post_page-----d84ed54ad872--------------------------------

Interestingly, because you are deemed “high value”, that gives you carte blanche to take advantage of other women and negatively impact the dating scape on a mass scale. Actual true high value men are like Tim Tebow — not because of his looks, his football accolades or his charm — but because of his FEAR OF GOD. The man has a spiritual spine not seen in alot of men these days. Most often that carries over to a RARE SELF CONTROL when it comes to sex. Granted, the man waited until he got married — and got teased because he wasn’t “taking advantage” of his high value situation to just get with women whenever and wherever he wanted. Taking advantage of his situation = taking advantage of women = jading their outlook of relationships and sexual relations they have in the future. Thus, the negative impact of these “high value” men is exponential.

If you are are not critically thinking about this then you will give into your vices when it comes to the sex you have available on tap. The culture will cheer you on for this attribute at first, but then women can come out of the woodwork, like in Huberman’s case, with a disdain for you. Your sexual past is alive and well: for every women you bind your body with, she WILL take you with her into her next relationship or marriage. Men actually imprint on women more than the other way around — so men, please head my advice today! You are the leaders in society. Stop giving into lust just because you have access to it — it’s the oldest sin in the book. Women, you can also help by having more self respect and agency to not give into premarital sex on your end. Gone are the days of men being excused from promiscuous behavior in the dating space because they have the halo of “high value” blanketing their reputations — and I don’t need to be Jean Grey to see right through it.

If you want to get the dish on my overall thoughts on dating, here is a platter I served up years ago (and its aging like Manchego):