Sunday 23 August 2015

Everyone's Beautiful | So What?



Its a well known fact that in todays society there's a big issue with body image and beauty pressures. What with models and fashion encouraging the straight skinny body shape, and music and social media telling us that having 'curves' is the most important thing in the world, it seems to be pretty much impossible to be happy with the way you look.
However there is still a big part of the population that recognize this as a problem and want to do something about it.
 
We see so many campaigns nowadays telling women that they're all beautiful. But is this really the best way to go about it? Doesn't this simply encourage the view that beauty is all that defines a woman's worth. Yes we are all 'beautiful' but should that even matter?

What I hate, is that someone's looks are so commonly used as a means of complimenting and as ammunition for insults. I may be in the minority here but I know that I would 100% prefer to be complimented on something I had worked towards or put effort into. Of course I always appreciate a compliment about my appearance, but it always seems slightly superficial. I find that complimenting someone's physicality can also create unnecessary self consciousness and take away from personality and skill. So you think I have a nice nose?...great...I'm flattered, but shouldn't you really be complimenting my parents?

As for insults, insulting someone about the way they look is pretty much the lowest you can get. Appearance should never influence your respect for someone ever. I think that's all I need to say about that really.

When you compare appearances to all the other incredible attributes that we humans have; creativity, intelligence, empathy, wit... it becomes clear how unimportant and superficial it really is.
Think about all the people in your life. Now think about the reasons certain people mean so much to you. I'm guessing 99.99999% of those reasons have nothing to do with the features they were born with or the body they grew into.

In short, I'm saying this: How about we stop telling people they're all physically beautiful, and instead start telling them that really, it doesn't even matter.