"The Beauty Myth"

In my women's studies class we recently went over a reading called "The Beauty Myth." This article was all about how women are being objectified through the media and how the media consistently makes false accusations as to what is considered beautiful. In the article is states that only youthful skinny people are beautiful, but in reality it's all a part of the myth. This myth of beauty is portrayed because of power and not beauty at all. Having this myth creates a sense of competition.

After reading Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” I was shocked. I never actually took into consideration how much control our social economy has on us as females and/or males. This was very potent to me when she started talking about the Nigerians and how the men acted in their culture because that’s how they’ve been raised to act. The beauty myth basically comes straight out and says that we have this one characteristic of beauty, which is skinny, young, and attractive. I put this into consideration because I’ve always been the type of person to want to look good, to be skinnier, and to never get wrinkles. After reading this article though I realized that everyone is beautiful in their own way and the more unique you are the more beautiful you are because there’s not going to be anyone just like you in the entire world.

The more women that play into the beauty myth the more our society wins because they use us for marketing. They say to buy certain products because our teeth will get whiter and they tell us to buy these diet pills because we’ll lose pounds in weeks. When in all reality this is unrealistic, if you want to look a certain way good for you but go about it naturally. The fact that Wolf used to be a model and has lived through these myths is astonishing to me because she’s changed her entire outlook on the world for herself. She realized that it isn’t healthy to be skin and bones and that you shouldn’t want to starve yourself just for others acceptance. Note to self, always be true to whom you are and don’t give into the beauty myth because you’ll only be giving into society.

Perfection or Annorexia?

I have been a part of a blogging community called Xanga. Lately there have been tons of posts about this thing called "thinspo." Thinspos are blogs that people, usually girls, post about how they want to be skinny. They talk about how purging helps them reach a certain weight and usually that weight isn't realistic for their height or body type. Having such a large group of girls believe that this is the norm is honestly mind blowing. A perfect example of this is this website.

My heart yearns for these girls because what they're doing to themselves isn't healthy. If you click the link above you can tell that this is not normal. More people need to come together and let people know that you can clearly die from losing too much weight and not having enough fat on your body. Starving yourself isn't going to get you anywhere and it's going to harm your body in the long run. Also, if you know someone who is part of these thinspos you should really look into getting them help or even just being there to listen to them because these people that engage in this activity usually are a result of a lack of self confidence due to the media that they've been brain washed with for years.

Glamour; Going Against All Odds

Searching the web, I came across a very interesting article. The article happened to be posted in one of the most popular magazines when it comes to fashion and women. This article was called "These Bodies are Beautiful at Every Size." The article basically spoke about how curves are can also be beautiful in the modeling society. Although it is very rare, there are more and more people coming to realize that there is more than one standard of what could be considered beautiful.

This article was very strong and thought provoking because in a society that is all about skin and bones, they were breaking all odds. As you can see the models above have meat on their bones which is still amazing me even after I read the article. The fact that these women are comfortable and confident with their body style is amazing and I feel that if we accept everyone like we did with these models then we should be able to start building up the self-esteem that has been broken down and lost throughout the many centuries that modeling has taken over. The most thought provoking part of the article was probably the comments because they spoke about all types of body sizes and how everyone is beautiful in their own way. Click here and check out the article yourself!

Next Top Model

When next top model came out every girl and woman was watching it. Tyra Banks was clearly only picking the tallest, prettiest, and skinniest women out there that were trying out. This was the first cycle and it came out in 2003, corrupting children and women. Subliminally telling them that this is the only way to look. Reality check: Fewer than 5% of the population are naturally this skinny.

The messed up part about our modeling and such is that women who are 'very thin' earn nearly $22,000 more. Somehow that just doesn't seem fair to me. The fact that women such as Isabelle Caro have passed away due to anorexia because they were models and had to lose weight a fast and easy way. It's even more sad that she was still modeling when she passed away at 60 pounds. Anorexia becomes an addiction is you allow it to control you and run your life due to what the media is expecting of you.