I was reading this article last night, and it was talking about the idea of feminine pulchritude of today, and what women need to do if we want to feel and be seen as beautiful.
Well first of all, you must have overly inflated lips, and hold them as if you are just about to be kissed, though when you smile, you need to have not the ivory and almost translucent teeth that you were given, but opaque whiter than white teeth that resemble chicklets. The eyes must be huge, set slightly wide, and the lashes must be full and lustrous. Hair flowing and thick, perhaps a bit tousled. The skin must be flawless, showing no signs of expression or of a life that has been lived. The neck is long and lean, with wide shoulders that taper down to a tiny waist, no abdomen mind you, with the hips jutting out slightly. The butt must be perfect and round and the legs long and lean. Your body has to be ultra thin, and slightly athletic, possessing no body fat at all, which will make the head appear a little larger than normal, this is apparently appealing.
If you don’t possess the genetic gift of the Angalina Jole/ brat doll aesthetic, worry not, because you can have collagen pumped into your lips, (not much can be done about the eye size, sorry), You can get hair extensions galore (but think about Britany Spears, she couldn’t take them anymore, because they were so irritating, and in a crazed moment shaved her head bald). If you are not into plastic surgery, there are all kinds of “anti aging” products that promise to plump and make skin appear more youthful, there laser treatments of many kinds , or there is the ever popular botox. You can get perfect skin for hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Also, if you are not blessed with a lanky body and a super high metabolism like Kate Moss or Paulina Porskova, you could just spend hour upon hour at the gym and then eat next to nothing.
Wshoo, that is a lot of work to be “beautiful”, if you are not one of the lucky ones.
The article did not mention anything about what was on the inside of a person as something to even be considered. HUM
Now
Of course I want to look the best I can, who doesn’t want to be and feel beautiful, and thought of as beautiful by others, but I want to feel good about who I am, and I want to be happy. I am all for taking care of myself. I love to do yoga as well as other forms of working out. I take excellent care of my skin, and I love a really great facial, no doubt. I eat well, maybe not enough sometimes or perhaps too cautiously, being a former anorectic and bulimic and all, yet today I am healthy and strong.
I wonder where these ideas of beauty come from, and why we as a culture are so obsessed by them that countless women torture themselves to fix their outsides, thinking that what ever they “do” will make them OK, rather than looking inside and loving who they are.
It is much more complicated than I am making it out, for sure, but it is something to consider. I myself have been obsessed, and on a bad day will focus on what I deem imperfect, completely forgetting the spirit inside.
I want my spirit to shine because that is the most beautiful thing I can think of.
The ballet was fun last night. First, it was visually beautiful. The set was simple, with a giant flying flower as the central focus, with deep rich greens in the background. The costumes were gorgeous, The Fairy Queen’s being my favorite,(I want it), and the little farries, fairy wings being my second fav (I want those too).