Whether it’s the body positivity movement, slam poems on Youtube or Degree commercials, we are constantly being bombarded with the idea that “every woman is pretty in her own way”.

This new ‘feminist’ movement is supposed to make women feel better about themselves in a world where beauty is at the forefront of everything.

But, despite the fact that the media is shoving this idea into everyone’s faces, women still struggle with self-esteem issues all centered around the way others view them.

And for the girls who don’t see themselves as beautiful, being told that they’re “pretty in their own way” isn’t all that helpful.

Doesn’t this mantra just perpetuate the ideology we’re trying to stray away from? By spending so much time trying to prove to girls that they’re pretty to someone, we’re just proving that being pretty is still a weirdly important thing in our society.

So, my question is: why is it so important to be pretty?

Now, as a girl who loves makeup and dressing up, I won’t pretend to think that looking good doesn’t make you feel good. But there’s a difference between wanting to feel good about yourself for yourself and trying to emulate a seemingly objective standard of beauty.

Not that I have to tell any of you this; we’ve all been dealing with unreal expectations since the beginning of the modern age. I mean, that’s why the entire body positivity movement started in the first place. And it’s done a lot of good. No longer are size zeros the only ones featured on magazine covers, and we’ve stopped demonizing natural things like cellulite and stretch marks.

That’s progress.

But progress is only good if it keeps happening.

We’re so close to a world where a woman can be seen as more than just a sum of her physical features. Where the shininess of her hair and the agility of her mascara-waving hand isn’t all she’s worth. And the only way to get there is to stop perpetuating this idea that women must be beautiful to matter.

Although well-intentioned, this movement is keeping us from moving forward. As we continue to tell women that they’re “beautiful no matter what,” we continue to push this idea that beauty is what is most important to us.

I won’t pretend to think that one day I’ll wake up to see society focusing on a woman’s intelligence instead of her bra size, but I don’t think I’m naïve to think that we can continue on the path of progress we’re on now.

It’s up to us to fight the propaganda thrown from all directions. To look at ourselves even when body positivity ads don’t make us feel better about our love handles, and to say to ourselves, “who the heck cares if I don’t match up to one person’s standard of beauty?”.

Although pretty to look at and seemingly different from the ads featuring models who all look the same, these ads still aren’t perfect. If you look close enough, they’re the same ads that the beauty industry used a decade ago, but with a different spin. They’re marketing for the age of inclusivity, but they’re still marketing.

They’re still selling us on an idea that we have to be pretty to matter.

Newsflash: We don’t.