Every girl above the age of 15 has most likely been asked that inevitable question: “So, do you have a boyfriend yet?” It's your extended family’s favorite question to ask. If you’re single and still in high school or starting college, then you might get the response, “Good for you. You need to focus on school, anyways.” If you are above that age, however, you probably get a very different response. This response comes in the form of a look that silently asks things like if you are trying to die alone, or if you can feel the seconds of your young and pretty life ticking away. Tick, tick, tick.
They don't mean what their eyes seem to be saying. They actually care and want to know about your life. The look they are giving you probably has no underlying meaning whatsoever, yet our minds create this state of unease in which we feel judged.
The simple truth is that this question is being asked way more often by society than ever by your family -- and that's the real problem. Luckily, I am not the only one who believes this. Our very own real life princess of everything, Jennifer Aniston, happens to have very passionate feelings about the issue. She spoke out about it on Tuesday in her Essay for the Huffington Post.
In her essay, Jen highlights the reasons why she is fed up with the media and society as a whole. The 47-year-old actress has been known to disregard accusations made by the media, but it wasn't until she realized how these rumors were affecting women as a whole that she decided to tell the world how she really feels.
“This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman’s value based on her marital or maternal status,” Jen wrote. She collaborated her frustration with this issue with her discern for beauty standards and body image in our society. “The message that girls are not pretty unless they’re incredibly thin, that they’re not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we’re all willingly buying into,” Jen wrote.
Her concern is valid. Her frustration is universal. Her words speak volumes.
Jen is just one of the many celebrities that have shown disgust with these ideals of beauty, success and completeness. I commend the many celebrities such as Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham who have spoken out against this plague of standards that sicken the minds of young, impressionable girls in our society. But their voices aren't enough.
“We decide how much we buy into what's being served up, and maybe someday the tabloids will be forced to see the world in a different, more humanized lens because consumers have just stopped buying the bullshit,” Jen said.
Jen couldn't be more right. We, as women and men of America, have more power over this issue than ever before. In the past few months, our nation has faced racism, cruelty and hate and has emerged from it with unity and strength. If the American people excel at anything, it's rallying against the events that attempt to tear us apart. It is a time for change regarding many important problems in our country, and the pressures we put on women is no exception.
If you take nothing else away from Jen’s essay or my thoughts, please remember this: we have the right to a society that values us deeply regardless of our appearance, status or relationships. If we want to achieve more, there is no room in the equation for these ideas that pressure us and cripple our confidence. It’s time to stop buying the bullshit and force society to recognize how powerful, capable, and might I say flawless that we already are. We can and we must demand this from the world, because the daughters being born today are counting on it.
