A YouTube beauty blogger named Em posts makeup tutorials on her channel "My Pale Skin." Several months ago, she very bravely started posting photos of herself makeup-free on social media. Em has struggled with acne for years and has revealed in her videos that she taught herself to use makeup as a way to help herself feel beautiful despite her flaws. While many were in awe of the drastic transformations, her photos were flooded with obnoxious, cruel comments. Ugly, gross, and disgusting were all words used to describe Em sans makeup. Others called her out for using too much makeup and for looking fake. One user even called it "false advertising."
After the onslaught of comments, Em made a short film called "You Look Disgusting." (If you haven't watched it, you need to right now). This video shows the power that words can have on a person. The vileness of the comments are heartbreaking. People forget that there is a real person on the other side of the photo; a human being with feelings and insecurities read those words — a human being who deserves to be treated with respect. However, since she wiped off her makeup and showed the world she had some zits, people decided that she could no longer be deemed beautiful. How many of you can say you love everything about your body? How many of you would be confident that others will think of you as beautiful? My guess is most of us can't.
Everyone has the right to feel beautiful. More so, even if someone has flaws does not mean they aren't pretty. Just because someone doesn't meet the societal definition of beauty does not mean they are ugly. There are unwritten rules of what a beautiful person can't have: zits, scars, brown spots, freckles, grey hair, big thighs, crooked teeth, thin lips, wrinkles, the list goes on and on. The standards we hold both men and women to are unattainable. Our society's obsession with superficial beauty has resulted in judging a person's worth based on what his or her face looks like.
This needs to change. We are human beings. There is no perfect. There is no real standard of beauty. The only standards that exist have been fabricated by our culture. I challenge you change the way you think about beauty. Break the standard. Stop the stereotypes. Crush these ideals until they hold no truth. True beauty does not exist in our physical appearance but instead is comprised of who we are as a person.
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