What Is 'Real' Beauty?

Hi everyone! So below is an opinion column I had to write for school, I thought it was extremely relevant and that I should share it with everyone. I'd just like to say, I chose this topic for my column because I have struggled with the media's representation of beauty and what women should look like. I say this should be NO MORE! Women, men, girls, boys, EVERYONE should be happy with their appearances, everyone should feel beautiful. So below is my very thought out opinion column, I hope you enjoy it. 

Beauty is a topic that doesn’t go astray in many women’s day to day lives. From clothes and make-up to gym and dieting – it’s all constantly there being advertised, talked about and drilled into our brains. With technology being readily available and children accessing it younger and younger, young girls are being pushed into a whirlpool from day one in life. To be thin, NO, now be curvy, NO, now be thin, NO, now be curvy. Why isn’t the media telling us to love ourselves for who we are, not what we look like? With constant pressure to be beautiful, what affect is this having on young women?

Current campaign circulating ‘Real Women Have Curves’ features photo’s of bigger women being compared to thin women. In one promotional photo the Victoria Secret ‘Love Yourself’ campaign which is promoted with thin Victoria Secret Angels is placed above a photo of the Dove ‘Love Yourself’ campaign, which is promoted with plus size models. Another promotional photo being shared for the campaign is one with Marilyn Monroe, pointing out all her curves in the right places, beside this photo is one of a girl with anorexia. Below both photo’s is a caption “I’d rather a girl like this,” (pointing at Monroe), “than a girl like this.” (Pointing at the girl with anorexia). How else could this affect girls than make them feel insecure about their body?

Left: Victoria Secret 'Love Yourself' Capmpaign. Right: Dove 'Love Yourself' Campaign. 

The effect of this campaign is shown on 16 year old, UK model, and social media star Cemone Warren’s Facebook page. Originally she posted a photo of herself, in a crop top and leggings. This photo received so many negative comments about how thin she was, she removed it. She later reposted the photo on the 19^th February 2013 with the caption “So I deleted my other photo that was like this because all i got was 'too skinny, too skinny eat' ect, I eat loads & just don't put on weight, so why should I hide it? i'm not ashamed, f*ck you.” Even after stating she simply can not put on weight she still received comments such as the following “To anyone that says I eat loads and can't put on weight. Here's a way to fix that problem. Eat more. And if that don't work. Eat more than that” and, “She is a good looking girl but does need to put on a little bit of weight..” and finally, “Holy fuck please go to McDonald's or something”. At the same time all these negative comments were flooding hundreds of comments were also young girls stating they too had the same problem – they just had a fast metabolism.

Cemone Warren's photo posted to Facebook.

Just two and three years ago, skinny shamming didn’t exist. All the negative was on ‘curvy’ or ‘bigger’ women. DailyMail.co article from October 2010 by Fiona Macrae titled ‘Being Thin Makes Any Women Happier Than A Man’ stated that what makes a woman her happiest is her dress size and weight. Another article from Forbes.com, June 2011 by Lisa Quast explained that being thin translated into a bigger pay check for women. It states that Timothy A. Judge from the University of Florida and Daniel M Cable from London Business School “set out to test the norms that society holds very different body standards for men versus women.” The article then states that their research found

“• ‘For men, increases in weight have positive linear effects of pay but at diminished returns at above-average levels of weight.’

• Gaining weight is more damaging to women’s earnings than to men. ‘For women, increases in weight have negative linear effects on pay, but the negative effects are stronger at below-average than at above-average weight levels.’”

August 9 2013, Jasmine Bala of Girls Globe wrote ‘On Skinny – Shamming: Not All Real Women Have Curves.’ Bala comes from both points of campaigns, and explains how “In the light of body-acceptance and fighting the body ideal, it is a myth that thin women have it easy.” She goes into detail how dangerous it is to say that one body type is more worthy of beauty than another. Some very vaild points are made on skinny-shamming, the most vaild being “If you wouldn’t call a women fat, why would you want to call a woman thin?”

March 28^th 2013, Amanda Russel, a fitness guru who posts workout video’s on YouTube released a video titled ‘Why Are You So Skinny?’ In this video, her friend interviews her on what it’s like to be skinny and the criticism she receives. Her friend then expresses just how much it upsets her to see people tell Amanda that she is “Too skinny,’ or that she shouldn’t be posting videos as she is a “bad influence on young children.”

Better Health Victoria on Eating disorders claims that “Westmeand Hospital in Sydney and the Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne have observed that eating disorder cases have increased substantially in the under 12 age group.” This is both ends of the scale, rapid weight GAIN and rapid weight LOSS. 12 years old and younger suffering from eating disorders more now than they ever have. Why? Because with easier access to the media now than ever, children are witnessing the media’s portrayal of so called ‘beauty’. How the media wants us to look, or what they want us to buy so that we can look that way. It’s affecting children, and in my opinion, needs to stop now.

The media should be telling us to love ourselves for who we are, not telling us to change our body to be perfect.