Why we should stop trying to redefine beauty.
We don’t need to redefine it. We need to stop telling people that beauty gives them worth.
Lately companies have been redefining beauty to be more inclusive, and no matter how good the intentions are this still forces us to look at our bodies and see all the ways we should change them.
I watch/listen to a lot of TV when I am painting and once I started to pay more attention to commercials I couldn’t help but get annoyed by what I heard. Over and over again, we are shown how we should look at ourselves.
Like Pantene with ‘strong is beautiful’. Strong hair and strong bodies.
All I need to do now is work out a bunch and fuel my hair. Bam! Beautiful!
Aveeno and Jennifer Aniston think healthy skin equals beautiful skin.
Does that mean that if my skin looks dry it won’t be beautiful? Better slather on the lotion.
The message at least gives me the power to define my own beauty and it’s actually inclusive.
And then there was Dove with the Real Beauty Campaign telling us we are more beautiful than we think:
Really? Beauty is critical happiness? I call bullshit.
still going to criticize a message that makes me look at my body with any sort of objectification.
should feel confident with their bodies and minds—but when the conversation is about beauty in any form we are just given a new image to fixate on and a new product to buy.
Now, shifting to the commercial that just pissed me right off. Crest.
And omg, nobody is going to pass the fricken ‘Tissue Test’.
But back to the first commercial.
Girl 1: “Why are you deleting these photos?”
Girl 2: “Because my teeth are yellow.”
Girl 1: “Oh, yeah. They are a little yellow.”
Girl 2: (joking outrage) “Hey!”
Girl 1: “Why don’t you use a whitening toothpaste?!”
The beauty industry is the worst.
tell you all the things ‘wrong’ with your body—tell me your secrets.
Be aware and help change it.
Am I the only one annoyed with how things are packaged and sold to us?
be awesome instead? Beauty does not have to be a part of our identity.
A sassy new hair cut can give you loads of confidence, but a bad hair day shouldn’t devalue your self worth. The winter weight in my thighs may jiggle more than usual when I walk, but I’m still going to enjoy cooking dinner with my fiance and eating ALL of it. And then I’ll go paint a new piece of art and rock the shit out of my lack of perfection.
The struggle is real.
I admit, I struggle with this every day as a still I see myself as having a lot of flaws—but we need to stop sacrificing moments of happiness just because we don’t look the way we want to. Mostly, I’m really tired of pop culture telling me how I should want to look and then selling me a product to achieve that look!
(Guys, this goes to you too!)
If you like what you read, check out my other ‘profound’ thoughts for more.