Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder/Self Image

 I  often  wonder  why  we  as  women  put  so   much  emphasis   on beauty, makeup  and  how  much  we  weigh. It  is  like  we are  obsessed  with  it   and  do not realized  that  beauty  is  really  in the  eye  of  the  beholder.   Not everyone  can be  a supermodel  like Elle McPherson,  Christie  Brinkley   or  Naomi  Campbell.   I often  wonder  why  do  we  want  to  try  the  latest  diets,  hairstyles  or  makeup  and  then i   realized  that we  are  following    celebrities  and  other  people  from  Hollywood.  Is  it  Godly   to  be  focus  on  beauty, have  we    forgotten  that  we  all  are made in  God's  image?   Why are  we  aiming  to  look like   Mariah  ,  Nicki  Manji  and  whoever   is the  flavor  of  the    week .   Why  cannot  not  aimed  to be  like  Deborah, the  3  Mary's, Esther, Ruth, Hannah   and  why cannot  we    look  at positive   real women  to   admire and copy  them.
What is  beauty? According to  the  Webster  dictionary   beauty  is "the quality of being physically attractive,the qualities in a person or a thing that give pleasure to the senses or the mind" .



So with this  definition I can assumed  that anyone  can  be  considered  beautiful  once  they  give   pleasure  to  our  senses or  our  minds.   We  shouldn't be  held   by  Hollywood's standard's  of  beauty.



   Some  years  ago   I was just watching this Cover  Girl  ad with the actress Drew Barrymore and realize that women and especially young girls are bombard with images of women with make up, size o and who has had  work done on their bodies. I have nothing against makeup because i wear most times but i just realize that the images we as women get are that you put on some make up and all your problems will go away. We live in an age where the media shows celebrities, actors , singers etc with long straight hair, skinny and long legs. There is little diversity from the media on portraying how real women look and are. Not everyone can be a size zero but I digress.  Not   everyone  has  the  time  to  go  to  the  gym,  Not everyone has  the  money  to afford  personal  trainers, chefs or  even go  to  expensive  health  restaurants.




I have notice that because of those images on television, cd covers , magazines etc women and young girls have become self loathing. Women are now trying all kind of diets, buying the latest outfits and clothes that maybe Mariah Carey, Madonna or Halle Berry wore. Women  are  becoming anorexic, bulimic or suffering from any weight issue or disease and becoming overwhelming unhealthy. Young girls don't have the self confidence because of what they see  and what they are experiencing. Many young girls are being bullied or being made fun because they not the size zero or 2 like the popular girls in school or they were braces or and they don't fit the general consensus of beauty.   They  are  bullied  because  they  not  the  most attractive  girls  physically  or  they   do  not  fit   society's  standard  for beauty.




We have women damaging their bodies and skin by having botox or, bleaching  or  lightening of   skin and  spray tanning themselves not realizing g the effects of these beauty enhancements would do, tans and bleach  can cause cancer, botox can go wrong. we as women should forgot those media images and forget those celebrities and have more love for ourselves and realize that though those famous women portray themselves as perfect they are not and its all smoke screens to make the world believe that they are perfect.




Society has to change its perception on what is beautiful and what is great self image. we have to be careful of who we call beautiful, we call fat. There should be more diversity in the media, in magazines etc of how a woman looks not just the tall, skinny, long legs, long hair women that we see but we should we have a more diverse group not all of us are skinny but we are curvy , few extra around, short etc, We need to see more women of different sizes,, textures so that we don't have the case of girls having a bad view of their selves and their body image.



Why  can  we  stop focusing  on  physical  beauty and  focus  on the  inside, why  don't we celebrate   the  female   lawyers,  female  doctors, female   inventors,  why can't  we  focus  on intelligence  and  how  someone  treat us  not  the  physical because  when  all is   said and  done  your  physical beauty fades  and  all  we  have  left  is the  inside.    Girls and  women  need  to  focus  on   what  God  has  called   us  to   to  be   Godly women  and   focus  on  what  is  pleasing  to  him.
 Women  with  a good  self  image   have  the  power  to change the  world!



Lets all forget about the Hollywood stereotypes that we are bombarded by and just love our selves for differences.  Let  us  focus  on   raising  women who  love God  and  want to please  him  not vainity and things  that  fleets away.Lets  focus  on  raising and encouraging more  female  doctors, mathematicians,  biologist, chemists, teachers, therapists. Let us  embrace  the female  intelligence and  kindness and  not  on how   a woman look
Beauty is  in the  eye of  the beholder !  we  all are beautiful in our  own way.  We need to realize  this but  I digress!




I  know  its  hard  to throw away  society's  definition  of  beauty  because  we are  bombarded  by   these  images. I understand  because  I am one  of  these girls  that's insecure   about  my  weight and  beauty and   I often think  ways  that  i  could   change my looks  maybe  have  longer  hair, have  lighter  skin, be  taller, be  thinner. But less  I focus  on   this  culture's and   Hollywood's  sterotype  of what is beautiful,  the  more i focus  what's inside.
It  is the  inside that counts  not  the  outside!  Beauty is who  you  say and what you see  not  the  media but  as   always  I  digress




As  Madonna  says  " Everyone  wants  to go  Hollywood"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYIVIgfEaXc