We live in a world of standards. We live in a world full of judgment. I don’t know how religious you are, but when I was growing up in church, I was told that God is the only one who has the right to judge each and everyone of us. So my question is who in the world came up with these beauty standards?
If you were born in the '90s (like I was), you were subjected to the supermodel era. The stick thin Heidi Klum, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell era. These women and many others have been looked up to, by many for decades. They are labeled as beautiful.
Dictionary.com defines beauty as "the quality present in a thing or person that gives an intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind." Now that is where everyone’s personal definition of beauty comes into play. As young women we are so focused on the way we look. From the time we are little, we are aware of what is labeled as beautiful and not so. We are told that beauty is granted more than “the ugly." But in reality, what deems someone as not beautiful? And do we as people have the right to label a person as so?
In today’s society, we are in a sense evolving the idea of beauty; in a way, it reminds me of comparing the '20s and '30s to the Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren era. That era was focused on the “curvy” woman. That at the time was labeled as beautiful. People strived to look like that.
I am a thinner-built woman, it's all genetics really. I find myself wishing I had a butt like Jennifer Lopez or Kim Kardashian. Or wishing I had the stomach and abs as the Victoria Secret Angels we see gracing our television every winter. As a young woman with body dysmorphic, I am constantly trying to change my appearance. Constantly battling with myself to look like some celebrity or "Instagram famous" individual. This shouldn’t be the case for me or any other woman in the world.
Why as young women are we pushing ourselves to the breaking point or spending so much money on products and surgeries to look a certain way? A way that society has deemed as beautiful? Because, in all seriousness what makes a person beautiful? Does a girl have to have a size 24-inch waist, big boobs, a butt, a natural contoured face, long lashes, straight hair, stretch mark free, cellulite free and an infinite pout to be beautiful? If you put all of these together and try to create a natural normal woman, it's virtually not possible. I watch Dr. Miami on Snapchat almost every day; he often says that he is there to make others feel better about themselves. He is an amazing doctor don’t get me wrong, but in my mind I’m thinking why do we need to change? Why should this even me an option or the case? Why is there a need to have a surgeon(s) in the world to make us feel better about our appearance? Why are we trying to achieve something rather unreal?
As women we should work out, but not gain muscle. We should have large “assets," but never have surgery. We should act dumb and hide our intellect just all to be labeled as beautiful. Writing this I think of two songs; Melanie Martinez's "Miss Potato Head" and Beyonce’s "Pretty Hurts." Each song talks about societal standards and how we are suppose to look in order to find love and be accepted. It talks about how it is in a way detrimental to a woman’s mental and emotional help to be judged by others.
I applaud all models thin and “plus sized." I applaud company campaigns like Aerie and Dove. I love that we are learning to accept models like Robyn Lawley and Tess Holliday as beautiful individuals. I love that people and companies are pushing the typical natural American woman.
Every woman is beautiful no matter what their waist size is or how their face appears. Something needs to happen in society in order for all of this to change. We need to not be so judgmental of one another. We need to teach the young girls and boys that it's OK to not look a certain way or to be a certain size. We as a society need to evolve and accept everyone for who they are. Don’t judge them cause they don’t appear how you think they should. There is no need to tear anyone down. Natural is beautiful.
