Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Has anyone noticed the increasing emphasis on beauty lately in the media? And surprisingly, I don't mean this in a negative way. People have this tendency to assume that all media sources think that girls should be as thin as lunch meat, as dark as the Gingerbread man, or have Dolly Parton status curves. Don't get me wrong, a lot of ads and such promote this unreasonable ideal, but let's try to focus on the positive here. Block out all of those things you see, all of those things you hear, and all of those things you watch that tell you that normalcy is suddenly an illness.

 It's like Pink's song Perfect or Selena Gomez's Who Says, both of which are currently on repeat at the moment. Who exactly told your appearance didn't fit the norm? Your parents? Your friends? Your boyfriend? Even your ex-boyfriend? No. Even that stereotypical mean girl that you have been having a silent battle with for years may have said some mean words you, but chances are they probably have never told you that you look unhuman.

If you have never watched the Dove beauty campaign, please do so. It's amazing how much touching up is done to just make a model look "normal." But, really people? Can you define normal for me? The stereotypical model that everyone finds so beautiful is just a body type that accounts for less than 5% of the population. There is nothing wrong with being naturally skinny or tall, but when you force everyone else to believe that they must be that way...no way jose. Plus, girls with that type of body typically have very small breasts, so if you see any model like that with large breasts...they are fake. Just saying.

So instead of making ourselves feel like inferior beings, lets thing back to good old Eleanor Roosevelt; No one can make you feel inferior with out your consent. So can we please just stop looking and listening to the things that make us feel like we need to improve ourselves. Let's be like Raven Symone. She's fabulous. And she thought she was more fabulous when she had curves, not the smaller size she is now.

I love how she says that "People look at me for all the wrong reasons." True statement, Raven. True statement. When I ask people why they want to lose weight so bad they answer 99% of the time is about just looking good. "Because I look fat." "Because I need to look good in a bathing suit!" "Because I need to look sexy." "Because I got to get married someday!" First of all, if a guy is wanting to marry you because you look good in a bathing suit...find a new man. Secondly, if you think that you must be skinny to look good in a bathing suit, you really need to reevaluate something. Jennifer Love Hewitt is beautiful right? Or is she? According to media's standards, she is not.

There a lot of people who don't fit the skinny and tall bracket but are equally as beautiful. Queen Latifah? Khloe Kardashian? Jennifer Hudson? Christina Aguilera? Mariah Carey? And what about Aretha Franklin? Honestly, if you are going to criticize Aretha Franklin...I would like to see you belt out as good as she can.

Again, this may just be one of my ranty posts, but whatever. I don't care. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and my behold is my Lord.

:)