**I apologize now for any incoherent rambling that may exist in this post. I am not skilled at putting my thoughts into words. This really doesn't have much to do with the going-ons of our family...just some complaints I have that are probably coming from my hormonally driven thoughts right now.**
This subject has been on my mind a lot lately. Not just for me, but for my daughter and every other woman out there. Everyday we are bombarded by images of what society and media tell us what we 'should' look like. You cannot watch TV without there being a commercial for a new make-up, a new workout, or some other product to make us beautiful and sexy. And each of these products are endorsed by a size 2 perfect hourglass. How many of the 'popular' actresses really look like women you see walking down the street or through the grocery store? You can't even check-out at the store without having the one last flash of 'Real' beauty on the magazine racks, right there for you to see while you are stuck waiting in line. What is the point of all of this? These women are just a minority and do not even come close to representing the female community. So why is it there? Well, men like looking at it...women want men's attention, so in turn, we feel like we have to look like that in order to be attractive to men. Why? Why should we have to look a certain way? We are all beautiful in our way....who we are, how we feel, even the way we look. We are all beautiful because of our differences. We don't look the same. We don't look like cookie-cutter VS models. And we shouldn't, nor should we want to.
How are we ever supposed to feel good about ourselves in a world where pornography is a billion dollar a year industry, where ever channel you watch on TV (even antenna!!) is throwing images of the 'perfect' women at you, where you can't buy anything from a store without images being right there at the check-out?? Of course, it's easy to say that a big part of this is to blame on the men....sure, they choose to look, they choose compare us to the ever impossible to achieve level of beauty out there. But we are responsible for it too. We can't keep trying to make ourselves look better. It just shows 'them' that it's working. I'm all for looking good and feeling good about yourself but I've been stuck trying to obtain a level of beauty that can only be achieved by photoshop. I have chosen to avoid looking at those magazines...I will not anymore. I will not compare myself to any other women again. (I must say, it's working...I do feel better about myself and put myself down a lot less)
I am a real woman. I have stretch marks, loose skin and some extra fat. I do not have a pair of perfect, perky Ds that I paid $5000 for. My eyes look tired a lot, I have kids. I am getting wrinkles. My hair isn't shiny or even always washed. I don't have a professional make-up and hair stylist to make me look good everyday. I'm not a size 2, I don't have an hourglass figure. I'm not perfect but I am still beautiful because I am real.
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