"A person is only beautiful when their own beauty is reflecting on to others."
- Tara Grady
*****
It's not usually something I dwell on, but several separate conversations and topics over the last few days have revolved around natural beauty and Hollywood beauty, and what people perceive as a standard of attractiveness.
I've always believed that every single person is beautiful to someone, somewhere. Some people have the kind of face or features or body that turn more heads than not, but those kind of people probably count for about 5% of the population. The rest of us, well, we're beautiful to a more select group of people. At least, that's what I've always thought.
Unfortunately it's obvious that mentality isn't shared by everyone.
I guess you could say this is a blast against the media in general; the people behind the cameras and the magazines, the make-up artists and plastic surgeons. Somewhere along the line in the past 30 years or so the public perception of what is beautiful or ideal - what is or should be attractive to the opposite sex - has changed, and it's still changing.
We are lead to believe that what men want is something women simply cannot deliver. At least, not without sacrificing one's health or genetic make-up.
OK, so not every woman would want to change their face structure or their body to get a man, but what about the women that plaster several layers of make-up on before leaving the house? If we're not expected to change our bodies to look like Megan Fox or Lindsey Lohan, are we expected to at least slap on the war paint? Very few women survive without at least a little bit of make-up, which is something I've always known but only recently started to wonder, why? Is turning your face into a work of art really going to make you more attractive to the opposite sex? Or does it say you're trying too hard? If that's the case, is there such a thing as trying too little? Should women always have some sort of mask, some ounce of falseness, to be beautiful?
If the answer is no, then why are images and ideas that skinny, tanned, toned, pouting young women what men really want?
Makeup, for me, is fun. A hobby, I suppose. 90% of the time I'm out of the house and at work/running errands, whatever without an ounce of makeup on. In high school, that wasn't the case. I NEVER left the house without makeup on. Now, it wasn't a TON of makeup but still. Something about putting that layer of stuff on my face made me feel more confident, protected in a way from everyone else.
ReplyDeleteI think so much of people's dependence on it (once they're outside of the troubling teen years) reduces down to confidence. Some of it's on them, and some if it's because they see the perfection you mentioned in magazines and TV and think they have to achieve it. It's kind of sad really :(
Still, you can't just assume that everyone you see wearing makeup does it to look perfect or to conform. For some, it's just another avenue or self expression. No different from dressing a particular way, or getting a piercing/tattoo, etc.
For most people beauty is skin deep.
ReplyDeleteEver since I worked in a graphic design studio doing touch-ups similar to the YouTube clip I have never really trusted any kind of media.
Everything is sculpted and artificial, its very rare that we see anything natural.
Megan, I dont think that teenage years can really be used as example for anything relating to emotions or confidence or anything like that. I agree with the confidence point you made but that ties in with what people want to look like and how they want to improve themselves. Though I'm not talking about self-expression. I'm talking abuot the people that change their natural image (whether that's with make-up or more extreme measures) just to be more "standard" or even closer to "perfect". Make-up can be fun, of course, but I'm talking about the women who don't answer the door to the mailman without make-up on.
ReplyDeleteRight Matty, but is there a solution? Or anything anyone can do to fight it personally? Everyone knows that what they see is fake to some extent, but does anyone really care about it? Guys (and girls) look at images and thing "That's really hot, I want that," but no one really considers what it is they're oogling at and in a way, promoting.
Yeah the teen years obviously aren't a standard. But it seems like some people never grow out of that insecurity, where as others do. It's really up to the individual I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that there's anything anyone can definitively do about it. Even if you have every magazine and whatnot agree to stop photoshopping (which some are agreeing to do it LESS but I doubt it'll ever go away completely), you'll STILL have people seeing someone who's "prettier" than they are naturally, and want to emulate them. You'll still have problems with people seeing a thin person and thinking "God, if i could just look like that" even if the modeling agencies stop with this size zero crap. I think it's part of being human, sadly. The best we can do is try to spread the "Self acceptance" love so people get the message and hopefully start to realize they're ok as they are.