“Who says you‘re not perfect. Who says you’re not worth it. Who says you’re the only one that’s hurting.... Pretty well quoted by pop star Selena Gomez.
So diving into the real question who really says whether you are perfect or not? And no, I’m not talking about your high school nemesis or those poky aunties you see at a family gathering. So, after a series of investigations we have our prime suspects: The media, internet and the society. No matter how strong we pose ourselves to be, these mangy beauty standards like being thin, those thigh gaps, being tall always seem to haunt us..
Log Kya Kehege syndrome
Having grown up around people who don’t care to read the book if they don’t like the cover can be a bit delusional. I mean growing up everyone must have at some point faced the beauty standards card. Growing up, in general isn’t a piece of cake. If you really dive into it you will see that this generation is a clearly a terminal case of the LKK syndrome.
The Like Factor
In this tech-savvy generation where each moment needs to be broadcast it comes as no surprise when people judge other on the basis of how many likes they got. Yes, you heard it, likes!
“Oh did you see that her photo got just 10 likes, so lame”.
In fact the number of likes you got has kind become the measure of how good your life is. I mean do we really need a number to define our happiness, a tag to rank our special moments?
Who’s the fairest of them all...
Remember how often you rejected your choice of a perfect dress after rummaging through those racks of clothes only because you feared people around you might think that it would make you look dark.
Let’s face it, the feeling that dark is bad is an old notion. I bet at least once you would have looked in the mirror and complained to yourself that you have become a bit dark. In fact the society's crazy fetish for a snow white skin have made Fair & Lovely, an Indian skin whitening brand, a best-seller in the world.
Although the prime victims of these creams are women, even men aren’t spared. In fact it’s quite common to see the media picturing people who are dark skinned as less successful than those who are fair skinned. If racism is bad enough, do we really need 'shadesim' as well? And why fret if you become a bit tan -- all it means is that you had fun under the sun and let your skin soak a bit of vitamin D. Trust me a lack of vitamin D is a real big problem that isn’t worth suffering for than porcelain white skin.'
The weighty problem
“To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not size zero. You’re the beautiful one, it’s the society who’s ugly.” - Marilyn Monroe
For most people standing on the weighing machine can be a real nightmare. Too afraid of the number that shows up because for many it’s a scale of how bad they think they look. Remember how Julie and Christine in the movie 'Ladybird' complain about how they don’t look like the girls in the magazine? People who are past the “ideal” weight get constantly bombarded by the so-called fashionistas to lose it, so that they look better. I mean come on, so what, if I like to eat food or the fact that I look chubby. So what, if you have to pick your clothes from the extra-large section. I think there should be a law banning the comment, ‘you would look better if you were just to lose a few pounds’. So what if I have a little bit more pounds than the benchmark? And why is there a benchmark to begin with? All that matters is that you feel confident and healthy in being yourself and loving yourself for who you are. It’s high time we stop nitpicking others on their appearances just because they don’t please our palette.
Why?
The question that really pops into my mind is why? Why do people torment others this way? Why isn’t anyone worth to be called beautiful? Isn’t it time that we stop letting media put these crazy notions in our head? Who decided that the media gets a say in whom and what is attractive and what’s not? Confidence is hard to build and really easy to lose and with such evils ready to tear it down are we doomed to a life of forever believing we are ugly?
The way people are at war with themselves for their appearance horrifies me. Do we really want to live in a world where everyone looks the same? It would look as creepy as it sounds. It's high time people realise that beauty comes in all shape and sizes and is rich in colour.
“I am beautiful. No matter what they say. Words can’t bring me down. I am beautiful. In every way. Yes words can’t bring me down.Oh no. So don’t you bring me down today”- Christina Aguilera
The way we are is fine
I think it’s high time we remove the notion that a set of features is beautiful. If you really think about it, beauty standards are always changing, just like the seasons. Ranging from the busty beauties of the ancient Greece and the petite and corset-fitted figurines of the Victorian era to the short-haired damsels of the Roaring Twenties and so on. So you see the trend is fickle as a...... Believe it or not, the current notions of beauty would have been classified as ugly a few centuries back. Astonishing isn’t it? So why let some points put forward by a bunch of idiots steal away your sense of pride and happiness?
If you think that breaking the rules would leave you all alone, why worry about it? I mean why surround yourself around people who love you for something that you aren’t? After all you are much better off without all that negativity anyway. And I think it’s time we start embracing ourselves and start a #BeingMe campaign.