Society's Warped Take on Beauty & My Two Cents

[colonel cupcakes]

PheonixEmber

I was at work a couple weeks ago, at a coffee section of a store. I make coffee for people. I saw this girl come in, and she was beautiful. She had a beautiful body. And I thought to myself: "Wow, she's beautiful She's not perfect but she's beautiful." Then I thought for a moment. "She's not perfect?" She had curves. She wasn't taut and tone, she was cooshy. But she was beautiful. Soft, curvy, not overweight, not obese. She had fat but that made her beautiful. And I realized... tone is "hot" on a woman, but some fat is beautiful. Curves is beautiful. She had the body of a depiction of Venus by the Romans. A depiction of beauty that we have lost. I realized that day, that I had been brainwashed. I am 23.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was scrolling through the Sociology and Psychology forum and found this gem of a post. It really opened my eyes tonight, letting me get an insight on how twisted this age's idea of beauty is.

Definition of beauty via google search:

beau·ty (byo-otē)

a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight.

Definition of beauty via society:

Being 100lbs, 5'11", with white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and C cups.

I apologize if you fall under these standards and you feel as if I'm bashing you. You don't need to have blonde hair to be beautiful. You can have brown hair, black hair, red hair, hell, you can have blue hair and still be beautiful! Same goes for skin, you can be black, asian, hispanic, mexican, european, brazilian, latino, whatever! You're beautiful! And for weight...

Who says you have to weigh 100lbs to be beautiful?! I know plenty of gorgeous plus size women who are proud to be plus sized and love their bodies! I also happen to know a bunch of skinny women who embrace the bones and love being skinny! It isn't a competition, both are equally beautiful... Why is it always 'Skinny vs. Plus size'? Why always make it a competition? Why not just accept and love ourselves and one another as we are? Why do we have to fall victim to society's harsh standards? Who says being skinny is unattractive? Who says being plus size is unattractive? They are both attractive. There should be no competition, no 'vs.', no one is better than the other. Why are women bashing each other? Why is this society falling apart? I have the answer: The Media. The Media is butchering women's confidence, and giving them a false sense of what beauty is.

Those impossible standards aren't the only crap the media is fueling into our heads. I've been up all night, scouring social media websites for opinions, and this is what I've gathered:

*PLEASE NOTE: These opinions do not reflect my own; These are the most common answers received when asked, "What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Skinny women/ Plus size women?"*

Skinny women are
Vain, Bitchy, Superficial, Conceited, Confident, and Mean

Plus size women are:
Lazy, Giving, Insecure, Undisciplined, Passive, and Careless

Now, I don't know about you all, but these answers bother me to no end. May I add that most of these answers came from WOMEN? Women are bashing other women! Why can't we all come together and love one another? The criticism needs to stop NOW! We are tearing each other apart, bit by bit, piece by piece, and killing our self esteem and our confidence! It is the destruction of our esteem and confidence that throws us towards fad diets, crash diets, and worse, eating disorders.

Listen, I know I have female readers, and I know that sometimes we feel insecure. Which is perfectly natural, we all have our doubts. But I need you to realize that you are beautiful, you are strong, you are smart, you are special, you are worth it. If you are bone thin, you are beautiful. If you are skinny, you are beautiful. If you are petite, you are beautiful. If you are curvy, you are beautiful. If you are plus size, you are beautiful. If you are obese, you are beautiful. Big or small, you are beautiful! This doesn't just apply to weight, but appearance, race, ethnicity, age, whatever! You don't have to dye your hair to be beautiful, or purchase color contacts. You don't need facial reconstruction surgery, or gastric bypass surgery. You don't need to wear makeup or stuff your bra or follow the latest trends to be beautiful. You don't need to shave or wax or trim. You don't need to change the natural being you are! As soon as we grasp this, we can begin to rebuild society's standard of beauty.

[Gin And Puff]

cuntucky

As soon as we grasp this, we can begin to rebuild society's standard of beauty.

Red pills like a ********.

[Teaquick]

I saw this post in the forums too! I thought it was admirable. I wish I could feel that being bigger rather than skinny was beautiful because then I could love myself.

But back to your topic; The reason the beauty standards change so often is because they are a representation of what is most difficult to achieve.

Back in the renaissance times, most people were too poor to afford meat, and they worked their asses off everyday. That made for a lot of skinny people. So being skinny was nothing special. The rich had lots of meat, etc, and were a lot bigger. Being big was seen as a status symbol, and since people want what they can't have, it became the ideal.

Nowadays, however, people don't struggle with getting food. It's a hell of a lot harder, and requires a lot more time, money, and hard work, to achieve a curved, skinny body, than it does to achieve a bigger body. Even more unattainable is that things like body type aren't changeable. You're BORN with it. Sure, you can get lipo in certain areas, and tone only specific parts of your body in order to try and shape it, but it won't be the same as having a natural hourglass figure, for example.

Like I said, people want what they can't have, and the standard of beauty changes with what's the least attainable. It wouldn't be so sought after if EVERYONE had it.

But anyway, that's my word on the subject, lol.

[Triratna]

Actually, it's men who set the beauty standard & norm of attraction, Illusions.

Blue Pills.

[Gummy burrs]

Why not both pills?


I blame it largely on advertisements. Walk into a mall and look at the model on the tag of the item you are about the try on, then you try it on and it doesn't look as good, and then you look at the model and note that there is not a single lump on her besides the two on her chest and back side....you on the other hand have that pouch of fat near the bottom of your abdomen (lets face it - it's not going away without surgery) and two now unignorable love handles.

Bull.

[colonel cupcakes]

retro_rage

Why not both pills?


I blame it largely on advertisements. Walk into a mall and look at the model on the tag of the item you are about the try on, then you try it on and it doesn't look as good, and then you look at the model and note that there is not a single lump on her besides the two on her chest and back side....you on the other hand have that pouch of fat near the bottom of your abdomen (lets face it - it's not going away without surgery) and two now unignorable love handles.

Bull.

can you please explain this 'pill' business? sweatdrop

[Gummy burrs]

cuntucky

retro_rage

Why not both pills?


I blame it largely on advertisements. Walk into a mall and look at the model on the tag of the item you are about the try on, then you try it on and it doesn't look as good, and then you look at the model and note that there is not a single lump on her besides the two on her chest and back side....you on the other hand have that pouch of fat near the bottom of your abdomen (lets face it - it's not going away without surgery) and two now unignorable love handles.

Bull.

can you please explain this 'pill' business? sweatdrop

I think the first commentator was a referencing concept from The Matrix. Basically, other people control how we view reality, and if you take the pill (I forget which one), you will see what reality actually is.