When I was a kid, I recall my Mom saying to me at moments I was not behaving so gracefully - "Pretty is as pretty does." I used to pour over Seventeen and Young Miss Magazines to see the latest fashions, make-up tips, and trends. I'd read those magazines from cover to cover and back again. Everything inside of those pages seems controlled, fun, beautiful and well... the ideal.
At that time I remember being frustrated by my big bone structure, because no matter how thin I'd wish and try to be, but with my German/Welsh/Irish/Native American heritage -I would never be the magazine ideal.
Over the years, I've become much better about loving myself the way I am. It was not an easy or simple process, considering the pressure most women feel to become the ideal picture of western beauty, but it's better than it used to me. Sometimes I think as we get a little older, its a little easier to feel comfortable in the skin that you're in. However, it may not be the same for everyone.
As I was wrapping up lifting free weights the other day, a woman in her 20's or 30's rushed in to say hello to another person working out there as well. As she came through the door, she thrust a magazine in the face of her friend and exclaimed, " Here, see this? This is want I want to look like!" as she pointed to the photo of a model in an exercise magazine.
After she left, I asked the other person, "Does she understand that no matter how good the models look, that they always airbrush them to look better?" The person replied, " I know that, but I'm not sure she was aware of that."
Humans have a tendency to work and strive towards the ideal, for perfection or what we happen to perceive as perfection at the moment. It's sad though, that when I was a teen and this woman at the gym use unfair and biased standards to compare themselves to. Health and wellness are well and good, but an obsession to be something you can't, is well, crazy.
To the people striving to be what they see in magazine ads and TV commercials, please understand that what you are seeing is NOT reality. Take care of your body, mind and spirit; but don't strive towards a goal that is purely fictional.
Being pretty truly has more to do with the attitude and character exemplified by each individual and less to do with their size and beauty products applied to their face. What huge changes could occur if people were willing to live out lives of "pretty does" instead of "pretty wears"?
If this shift in the perspective on beauty could happen, we all would have a voice to become catalysts and promoters of real beauty.
For more information on the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty click here!
Comments
I think a lot of us fall victim to that 'ideal'. I know I did--and it wasn't by pouring over magazines and fantasizing, it was done simply by looking at the people around me and how they operated. I created all sorts of troubles for myself chasing what I perceived as things that would make me 'good enough'.
Today I know that's my privilege as G-d's child......
Good enough!
I still live with the battle scars but it's so nice to be retired from that war.