The concept of beauty has been streamlined to a particular meaning which is not supposed to be. However, due to social media, magazines and the likes, beauty has been categorised to a particular set of people or body type or complexion and the likes. Hence, we see a lot of people trying to become “beautiful” like a particular image that the media has connoted to be a definition of beauty. The irony is that just like fashion, the concept of what the media considers as “beautiful” changes over time. For example, there was a time that only skinny or slim men and ladies were considered beautiful according to media and all but nowadays, even fashion agencies now have plus size models, they have thick models and buff models. There was once a time when we wouldn’t see those kind of models in the fashion industry or under any fashion agency. Of course we are all moved by what we see first so, most of the time, the concept of beauty is been narrowed down to the physical attributes and what he or she is wearing and all.
Now that we understand that what is been attributed as “beautiful” is bound to change over time, why do we tend to “change” to fit in to the context of what is been attributed as “beautiful” at the expense of our health and the likes. I know you might be wondering that we all buy clothes that are in trend and all but we can’t possibly begin to compare both. For instance, you can be thick and be fashionable, you can be slim and be fashionable , you can be tall and be fashionable, you can be short and be fashionable etc. Nowadays, we see people bleaching and exposing their skin to a whole lot, we see people starving on purpose and becoming anorexic, we see people binge eating to gain weight and the likes. My point is we should be comfortable in our own skin as long as its healthy. In my own opinion, being beautiful depends on how you see yourself, depends on how you feel inside regardless of what other’s perception of beauty is.
The other day, I read a story about a plus size model who goes to the gym not because she was to lose weight but because she wants to be fit. Mind you, you can be skinny and not be fit. I also read about a lady who bleached her skin in the past and now she tried her best to change her skin colour back to normal. I don’t know how she managed to pull that off but one thing she said was that she thought that being dark skinned was not beautiful enough and that she is urging a lot of people to become comfortable in their skin. Do you remember when being light skinned was the trending topics on all social media platforms? “light skinned people are this, light skinned people are that….” to the extent that people started bleaching. Now, we can see on this same platforms people advocating for dark skinned people. We see phrases like “black is beautiful” and the likes.
Another important aspect i would like to address is that fact that people force their perception of “beauty” on others. Let’s forget about media for a while now. I mean i have seen a lot of people imposing their perceptions of beauty whether directly or indirectly. We hear people saying phrases like “You are too fat” “fat people don’t get into relationships on time” “you are too skinny” “you look hungry” “you are too short” “you are too tall” and all. We are all beautiful in our unique way!
We should try as much as possible to not to make people feel bad because they don’t fit into your criteria of what we call beautiful. Please, we are all beautiful in our own unique way. Spread love not hate and most importantly “Beauty” is being the best possible version of yourself on the inside and outside.
My dear; live, love, learn and laugh.
