Lately I've been bombarded with posts and videos everywhere challenging my perception of beauty. I often feel like certain things are highlighted in certain seasons, so that we are able to grab hold of what we should be growing in. If you're a guy reading this, don't give up just yet, thinking this is for girls only. You actually play a huge role in this subject and I would love to invite you to see things "from the other side".
Women have grown angry and disappointed with, what should be the society we live in, but ends up being ourselves. As I've shared before, I've come a long way from the 16 year old girl who pretty much hated herself. I've also thought that my perception of beauty has been pretty good, accepting all shapes and forms, flaws and all. Until I stumbled upon an angry woman's post (or rant) on how much she hates the whole "flaws and all" trash talk. It's definitely visible everywhere, from shampoo adds to fashion magazines, and I've thought it's a great first step towards a less repressive view on beauty. But that one angry post showed me how closed eyed I've been and how it's really more like a teeny tiny baby step. Accepting our flaws is great, but the truth is that it leaves us at a very superficial level of confidence. By doing that, we accept with it that there's still some utopian beauty standard that we fall short of (hence flaws). Looking at the situation as it is, with hundreds, probably even thousands of years of history where women have been pressured to fit some kind of mould/trend of the season, it's easy to withdraw to a defeated shrug. But that's not us, am I right?
For women to actually become completely free in this area, we have to attack the very root of why almost all of us have battled thoughts of feeling ugly, fat, disgusting, fill in the blank... All our lives we've been fed a certain image in movies, magazines, tv, commercials, setting up a standard for the beauty we need to possess. Sadly, I remember vividly how as a young girl I absorbed those images, making me a believer of "that's what I want to be (look like) when I grow up". One of the shocking articles I stumbled upon was an interview of several Brazilian women and girls, who've undergone plastic surgery, most of them at the early ages of 15-18 years old, because everyone does it and if you don't, basically, you're not a woman. It made my stomach do a backflip and I saw this vivid image of women around the world, obsessing about their looks, spending endless amounts of time and resources to fit whatever standard is the hottest at the moment, while men focus on their careers, enjoying life and pursuing their passions.
This is a subject that I have to come back to probably multiple times because of its magnitude, but I want to leave you today with a few questions. Who defines your beauty? The "media king", aka businessmen making a crap load of money off of your insecurities? The men in your life? The women around you? Who have you given the power to declare whether what you look like is good or bad?
We are powerful. We are beautiful. And we possess the strength to set up a new standard of beauty that says that our chubby thighs or skinny legs, our cellulite and stretch marks, our small boobs or flat butt, our bouncy belly and short legs are not flaws. They are all parts of our beautifully and flawlessly created bodies and it's about time we started celebrating them! Maybe then we'll have the time to put our efforts into making history.
Are you with me?
xxx
Photos by Anna Laulumaa <3
T-Shirt: Sincerely Jules
Jeans: Topshop
Booties: Acne
Sweater: Zara
Sunglasses: RayBan
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