Beauty Confidential: Society's Beauty Standards

We're told everyday how important looks are and that being attractive matters, especially if you want to find a mate. Men and women alike fear not being attractive enough or were told they were not. They may have even been bullied about their appearance at one point in their life and now are insecure about their looks. When you see the beauty standards we hold everyone to, it just takes that insecurity and manifests itself ten fold. As human beings when it comes to life and looks, we all have it hard.

That being said, as a woman I can say women are held to a high standard or should I say there's a high standard of what a beautiful feminine women should look like. In every magazine, T.V. show, movie and even commercials we're told what's attractive and what's not, what men find sexy and what they don't. We then hold ourselves to that beauty standard and try our best to achieve it. Hollywood is the one place where looks reign supreme, where the most beautiful women exist. However, even they have things that they get ridiculed for.

For instance, Erin Andrews, from ESPN. She also co-hosts Dancing with the Stars. She said on the show one time that people on social media are always making fun of her nose. I thought " what's wrong with her nose? I've never noticed anything". Even someone as pretty as her has people making appearance comments

Continuing with the face let's talk about Patricia Arquette and Rumor Willis. Both have been judged for many things. Patricia apparently was told early in Hollywood that "you could be in Playboy if you fix your teeth" and she said " Why would I want to be?". I've honestly never noticed anything odd about her teeth.

Then there's Rumor Willis, people always said that there was something weird about her jaw. As a person with a jaw that didn't grow properly, I can definitely sympathize. It's sad to see someone get picked on for how their face ended up growing, isn't it?

Let's talk about the body. One person who I've always admired for the way she handles criticism about her body, is Kelly Clarkson. She's always had weight struggles but she always had the attitude of "if you don't like it, don't look at me" and I've always admired that. Even now, after having two children people are picking on her and she still handles it well. I've always liked Kelly Clarkson and I think she's pretty and I don't think her weight is a big deal.

For a less famous example let's talk about Bethany Mota. She's a YouTuber who does makeup videos and now I think designs clothes. She started her YouTube videos to boost her self-esteem after being bullied in school. Hearing her story and how she felt reminded me of my own life. I wonder why anyone would pick on someone so sweet and pretty. I don't get it

There are so many things everyday we as women, get picked on for. From clothes, hair, makeup, weight/ body, face, etc. It's hard to feel secure in a world that is constantly making you feel insecure about everything. There's just so much pressure it's no wonder there are people and companies taking time to show younger girls that no matter how they look, they're beautiful. It's why they advocate curvy women, so the ones that don't naturally weigh 95lbs even after having a child, see that they are beautiful too.

As women we need to lift each other up not tear each other down. We all deal with pressures of being beautiful. Beauty standards are something everyone is held to, even good looking people. We just have to find a way to love ourselves as is and hope other people will too!