Something that I constantly think about is how people tend to perceive themselves. We live in a world where people rarely feel good in their own skin for one reason or another. Whether it’s weight, acne, or just being overall dissatisfied with one’s look, we tend to tear ourselves down because we don’t think we look good enough.
This culture of dissatisfaction upsets me to no end. That’s not to say that I don’t fall prey to this self-destructive mindset myself (I’ve been an incredibly self-conscious person for literally as long as I can remember), but why is it so hard for women and men to be comfortable the way they are? Of course we’re all VERY familiar with the media glorifying stick-thin women and perfectly toned men, but who decided that’s what the rest of the world should want to look like? Who decided that layers of makeup and Photoshop were the best way to go? And worst of all, how did it become the norm to look at others with just as critical of an eye as the one we see ourselves with?
Nothing makes me more sad than when I give somebody a genuine compliment and they don’t believe me. Half the time when that happens, the person counters with some remark about how they hate whatever it was that I complimented them on. Our society has glorified a certain appearance so much that as a result, people don’t see something about themselves that is truly beautiful. They believe that just because they don’t look like a model on the cover of a magazine, that they aren’t beautiful too. But beauty is more than just the edited version of somebody staring back at you from a piece of glossy paper.
In 2014, Aerie (American Eagle’s sister brand for lingerie) decided that they were going to stop retouching the pictures that they use for their lingerie ads. Since they launched this campaign, they have incorporated a wider range of body types to model their underwear, and now swimsuits, for their ads. Always having been naturally curvier than some myself, this campaign really spoke to me. I’ve always hated shopping for swim suits because I never felt like any of them were flattering on me, but now I’m seeing girls with similar body types as me not only wearing them, but actually modeling them and being published in magazines without being retouched. For all of my life I’ve gotten used to seeing young women with perfectly flat stomachs and thigh gaps showing off these bathing suits, but now I’m starting to see a wider range of body types that make these styles seem more inclusive to the range of body types they are being advertised to.
I think that a campaign like Aerie’s is important for helping girls and young women appreciate their bodies for the way they are. Since this campaign is still fairly new, there is still a lot of room for the range of body types to expand and it hasn’t caught on very much with other brands. But because models have been projected as the epitome of beauty for so long, it’s good for us to start seeing a wider range of looks that are also beautiful. It is important for everybody to stop looking at themselves with so much criticism that they resort to unhealthy habits or spend thousands of dollars for a surgery they believe will “fix” them. Everybody is born different, so why should it be expected that we all look the same? Diversity is an important part of biology! Instead of looking at the things about ourselves that make us different as flaws, what if we could appreciate them as the traits that make us all uniquely beautiful?
