If you were to go to any store down the street and pick up any woman's magazine, you will probably describe the same kind of woman on every magazine cover. In today's society, there is a standard on what it means to be beautiful and attractive as a woman. We all know -- we've all seen the magazine covers. We're all aware of the woman who walk down the catwalk during New York Fashion week and the woman who plaster the pages of magazines in ads for perfumes, clothing, beauty products, etc.
These women are absolutely physically stunning and have looks that seem impossible to reach by the Average Jane. They're impossibly thin, tall, beautiful, and for a lack of a better word, perfect. These are the woman that the average female looks to as the epitome of what is attractive. And that is a problem.
Most girls and women do not look like this, but they feel like they need to in order to be beautiful. You can look for yourself how photoshopped most of these women are. Their eyes are enlarged, their necks elongated, their shoulders pushed down. These are physically impossible to recreate naturally, and woman think that is what's most beautiful.
It's sad to know how young girls grow up in out society thinking they can never be good enough based off physical traits. Always comparing yourself, wishing you could look like the models walking in fashion shows.
I know I have been a victim of this since I was very young, and it's not an easy thing to deal with, especially the younger you are. There's a sense of worthlessness because you know you will never look like those women, and it's a hard feeling to overcome.
There's no promotion of the many different body types that a woman can have and certainly no mentioning that all are them are beautiful. It's not easy to feel beautiful when your whole world says you're not.
I took an intro to feminism class my sophomore year of college where I learned a lot on this problem. I honestly believe it's a class that everyone should take, male or female. It's quite eye-opening. The more you learn about this societal problem, the easier it can be to overcome personal difficulties with it.
We all should become aware and educate ourselves to either overcome it ourselves, or to understand what others are going through.
I hope that one day this problem will not exist and we won't have to worry about our children growing up with such personal struggles.
