Girls and women are told to embrace themselves and accept their bodies. They are also told to treat their body as if it were a temple (via Oprah). This is all good advice.
I believe everyone has beauty within and without, and my version of beauty will be far different than others'. That's what makes life and love connections so intriguing. How bland and tasteless life would be if we all aspired to some beauty "ideal" and actually bought into that image.
I was skimming through a People magazine (I know, I know... I should know better) when I came across an article about women taking their children's ritalin medication because it made them more focused, able to multitask, and LOSE WEIGHT. Immediately, I shook my head and said, but why...?
I only have to look at the headlines on all the tabloids at the checkout:
"How to lose 10 pounds in 10 days!"
"How to decrease signs of aging!"
"Ten things to do to keep your man happy in bed!"
Excuse me? I must be living in a fog because I don't recall being told by my mother that I had to stay young, thin, and fabulous in bed to be worthy. In fact, she ascribed to the "embrace yourself" philosophy.
Our society has not progressed one iota if women are still looking to outside sources to be "good" or "better". What happened to liberation? Well, we certainly can't look to men and blame them. They sit back and shake their heads at our self-absorbed quests for perfection, dictated to us from some magazine that is usually written by women, for women ie: Cosmopolitan.
Here's a reality check to anyone thinking those cover girls are something we should, and can physically, attain.
1) The models are usually between the ages of 17 and 21.
2) Many of them have already had cosmetic surgery (top surgeries are nose jobs and breast augmentation)
3) They haven't had children
4) They're not menopausal
5) Their skin is airbrushed and any "lumpy" bits are digitized out of the photo
6) They have terrible eating habits and often have eating disorders
7) Finally, believe it or not, you are just as beautiful, if not more, with your body and its life experiences.
Ignore those Beauty Myths on the covers of checkout stand magazines.
Look yourself in the eye and affirm your individual beauty because it is there.
No comments:
Post a Comment