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So these days, everyone feels like they have to be pretty like the people in magazines and all over TV. you MUST be skinny, you MUST have flawless skin, and you must NEVER have a single flyaway piece of hair. Guys learn at a young age that this is what they must think is beautiful. and then the guys MUST have the right amount of muscles and MUST be "manscaped". Girls try to fit their standards to attract those guys to make them seem better and guys do the same. Yet fewer and fewer people are able to meet these standards and thus eating disorders and depression arise (This is the lazy, miserable generation.). life is sooo easy now. you click a button and turn on something one foot away. you don't need to move to do much of anything. by making our lives to easy, we can't fit the standards set. So now stores have plus sized clothes that are fitted for normal sized people that are average weight in order for people to not feel bad about their inability to fit societies beauty standards. But I think that makes it worse because healthy girls think "WTF I'm a PLUS SIZE?!" it's a vicious twisting cycle.

but then if you think of it, way back when in a different era of style, this was totally different. people would pad their clothes to make them seem chubby because that meant you were wealthy and well fed. and the brightness and puffyness of your clothes meant a lot too. This was their standard of beauty. before golden tans, some women would try to look extremely pale and would emphasize the veins in their wrists because it reflected innocence. also long ago.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder. unfortunately, most eyes have been tainted and no one really has their OWN definition. some do though.

opinions? ideas of beauty? anyone? be heard!

I can't believe how many people hate their appearance. I seriously don't have a problem with the way I look. Sure I have my crap days, but who doesn't? There are people that go to extremes (like you said, eating disorders and such) to look 'perfect'. Well, I don't believe there is a perfect way to look. As long as you look like yourself, and you wear confidence like make-up, you're sure to attract the right kind of person for you. If you try to act like somebody your not just to impress the most amount of people as possible, you're not going to get anywhere you want to be. That's my opinion.

indeed. there's even further extremes though. I read an article in a magazine about a girl who would get up hours before school to make sure she looked absolutely flawless, had a breakdown and begged her mom to let her stay ome because ONE zit, HAD to stay a certain weight and she monitored it like a hawk. one pound off and she'd have fit. then she got lyme disease and didn't want to admit being sick..she got to the point where she couldn't get out of bed to get all gussied up. then she realized how stupid she had ben and accepted that everyone is perfectly imperfect.

I dislike commercialism altogether. I cant stand seeing ads and commercials that are trying to tell me I cant live without their product. but it works, it sells items including fashion because people buy into it. they actually start thinking they cant live without this product.. or materialism as a competition.. feeling like you have to keep up with your neighbors.. whatever they have, you have to have. it's rather sickening.

indeed 4laugh

i totally agree with u (first girl) too much emphasis is placed on our appearances...expensive clothes and shiny things don't make you a better person. i think this new generation of hair bleeching, slim crazed individuals is just the consequence of the shallow media's backward perceptions of beauty.
i think people should stop listening to the media and think for themselves because they constantly contradict themselves...one minute they say to be beautiful you must be a size zero and then when some crazy person actually reduced themselves to that size they criticize her saying she has a serious issue.
no-one's perfect but everyone can be beautiful in there own way you just need to accept the way you look and find the "look" that works for you.

The physical appearance of our bodies is merely a coating for our true spirit, it becomes tainted dirty sullied but underneath you're fundamentally the same individual unless you get sucked into the 'Have-to-have' group where you believe thin is beautiful or sexy attractive etc personally I fail to see how the current trends are likeable or even allowable, skirts that show more than if you just wore a belt or piece of rope around your waist, shirts that are transparent etc, mounds of makeup are necessary for beauty and only certain colors are good. I disagree with standards of beauty no matter what they are unless they're individual standards not influenced by masses,name brands, or the newest celebrity's choices but I think I'm off-topic so I'll shush myself sweatdrop

OK
I am of a popular opinion that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that other stuff
but about the acne
i read somewhere(and know from personal experience)that acne is often caused by stress, which is probably why most humans are so turned off by it.
I mean, I dont want to hang out with someone really, really stressed all the time and stuff like that. Most people would prefer to hang out with someone calm and in control of their life thean someone stressed. Thats how it is for me.
even if people dont know that, they can probably sense the stress and subconciously pin it on the acne
cuz havent you ever noticed the zit that always pops up just before an important even when its least wanted?