If you're like me, you're not really into pop culture like the rest of the world seems to be. You catch the highlights on Twitter and enjoy the memes, but you don't sit on "E! News" and wait for something juicy to come out. Well, last night was the AMAs. Per usual, I didn't even know they were going on. However, I did catch a glimpse of the speech that Selena Gomez made about loving yourself. It was beautiful. She spoke about how your importance is not just simply based on your looks. She spoke about how you should be proud of what's in your head and your heart and not just your looks, something that seems to be the objective of the feminist movement, or so I thought.This is what the media seems to have portrayed recently.
I thought the speech was beautiful. I thought she had a great message to share. The women of Twitter did not. Selena Gomez is being trashed for being "anti-woman" and "slut-shaming." But is she actually either of those things? I don't seem to think so. I don't think that the message she was trying to convey was that women SHOULDN'T be proud of what people can see externally. I just think that she was saying that it isn't all that matters. As far as I know, that is what we as women have been trying to get out for so many years. As soon as people are finally starting to get it, that's no longer what we want? That doesn't seem right.
So many women are contradicting themselves right now by saying that we SHOULD be more boastful about our bodies. They are saying people SHOULD pay attention to what beautiful creatures women are. While I agree, I also think that this speech has been completely misunderstood and women are making complete donkeys of themselves by putting another woman down for loving herself internally, in addition to and not rather than, externally.
Selena Gomez has never been one to put other women down, only build them up. In fact, Selena Gomez just got out of rehab and this was her first public appearance. To me, it seems that she has grown and matured not only as a woman but also as a person. She stated that she is no longer seeking external validation (which may mean that none of these comments will even upset her because she knows what her intentions were when she made that speech.)
We have come so far in this battle to be respected for more than our beauty.You are more than welcome to view yourself as valuable because of your external qualities, but don't put other women down for the importance they want to place on their internal beauty and intelligence.
