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Shiny shiny bright new hole in my heartVanity Fair?SHINY SHINY BRIGHT NEW HOLE IN MY HEART This drama-documentary-style production was slick, captivating and disturbing. It portrays fast-paced antics of a young doctor’s wife as she pursues her addiction to designer clothes, shoes and accessories. Nathalie (Sally Hawkins), egged on by a friend, is only ‘happy’ in the fantasy world of shopping malls and mirrors, progressively ruining her marriage at the same time. On the surface she is a sophisticated professional but is, in fact, a slave to her image and the approbation of her peers. And while in one sense she is an extreme case, she represents a whole raft of people in the grip of consumerism and the exploitation that marks the fashion industry and the world of celebrity today. From a Christian perspective this lifestyle is characteristic of our post-modern society, with no ultimate scale of values to shape our choices. Theologically, Nathalie’s search for an identity or ‘image’ is derived from the loss of a biblical view of life, where character is dissolved and appearance is everything. Hence her preoccupation with the sensual and the external become the all-controlling force, while her 12-year-old daughter is little more than an extension of the problem, equally obsessed with presents and treats. Ultimately, this is all a refined form of idolatry in which, like Narcissus, the worship of our own image in the mirror of the glossy magazines becomes the sole reason for living. Often trivialised by such slogans as ‘born to shop’, this is a serious issue leading to massive debt, marital tension and neglect of other responsibilities. Closely linked to conditions such as anorexia, it is an addiction arising out of our loss of identity as those made in the image of God. The problem for the church is that because this lifestyle is not blatantly immoral, Christians with a measure of disposable income can also be sucked in. In the comfortable setting of middle England, self-denial is hardly encouraged and ‘greed’ becomes a relative concept. With 100,000 people expected to declare themselves bankrupt in the coming year, largely as a result of credit card debt, these issues are all the more pressing. So, while a return to asceticism is not the answer, we must seek to cultivate the self-control which is the mark of those who are to set the affections on things above and who have no permanent city here, but are seeking the one to come. Malcolm MacGregor© Evangelicals Now - September 2006 |