By Antionque Penny
A lawyer was just waking up from anesthesia after surgery, and his wife was sitting by his side. His eyes fluttered open and he said, “You’re beautiful!” and then he fell asleep again. His wife had never heard him say that so she stayed by his side. A couple of minutes later, his eyes fluttered open and he said, “You’re nice!” Well, the wife was disappointed because instead of “beautiful,” it was “nice.” She asked, “What happened to ‘beautiful’?” His reply was “The drugs are wearing off! “ There an ongoing issues that many adolescent girls and women face around the world. As more and more countries become industrialized and are exposed to the Westernized concept of beauty and attractiveness they start to abandon their cultural concepts of beauty. Is success defined by a Westernized standard of beauty? What is beauty really? Why must this abstract concept be confided in a simple concrete mold?
In this technologically advanced world, it is so simple to see or to be exposed to Westernized beauty from ads on the social media websites, music albums covers and songs right on down to products that that we buy. We have accepted this concept and it seem as if we have influenced many other nations as well to adopt our standards of attractiveness.
Traditionally, in Fiji and parts of Africa and China beauty was depicted as being plump or thick yet as these nation were exposed to Westernized television they began to associate being beautiful as being thin and underweight. Many women began to develop eating disorders as a result and to experience psychological problem about their self-worth and beauty. They start to associate being thin as a way to success yet not realizing that they are harming themselves.
This is a huge problem. I feel that in order to change this route of self-destruction, we must first change what we consider beauty. Instead of showing ads of what seem like perfect models show us the beauty within the flaws of the person. Instead of plastering this one concept of beauty we could focus more on abstract ideas such as personality traits. Yet to get to this level and change how beauty is perceived, it must come from the individuals too. You must truly love yourself and love the skin that you’re in; to be a trendsetter and not a follower of the ideals of others.
I also believe another way of helping women and young girls is to maybe start a movement or have a women are beautiful conferences that would make a statement to the world that beauty comes in all different forms. In order to be beautiful you must first learn how to love yourself and love every single flaw and begin to change, not necessary your outer beauty but your inner beauty. As Maya Angelou says “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty” Beauty isn’t your appearance but who you are as a person. In conclusion what is your definition of beauty? How will you stop this implicit idea of what beauty is in the media?
Antonique Penny is a Sociology major with a concentration in Family and Marriage at East Carolina University.