When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Do you think you’re beautiful? What is beauty anyway and according to whom? It has never been harder for people to feel good about themselves. Ironically, we have more “things” to help us in the process—technologically advanced makeup, an abundance of expert advice about nutrition and exercise, and even drastic medical procedures such as elective cosmetic surgery. But still, many people in our society feel unattractive and unworthy. Beauty is something that we all crave for – but what exactly is it?
Beauty should not be able to be defined by the media. How can one say what beauty is? Beauty, on the outside, is different in every culture. Some may think pale skin is beautiful, or in contrast, tanned skin. Why does beautiful have to mean skinny or tall? What good comes from being a size-zero? The truth is, real beauty is more than skin deep. You will see, in any culture around the world, a loving and caring person is always be favoured over a sour, vain person. Real beauty is seen the same way from every perspective and is not created by the media.
Real beauty is what you are on the inside – how good a person you are. We should not be judged from how we look based on the idea the rich and famous people put into our heads through the media. Too many people, especially young girls, are attacked by the self-consciousness they place upon themselves. The media gives us the wrong impression of beauty. We are all too absorbed in what we can’t have. That is, to look like those airbrushed, stick-thin models on the cover of some magazine. Do we all have an unhealthy obsession with beauty? Think about it.
We spend almost every minute of our day consuming some form of media; watching television, surfing the Internet, reading a magazine or newspaper, listening to the radio, or just reading billboards while we’re in the car. In every form of media, we are exposed to advertisements of all sorts and likewise, fed information of what we should feel, think and look like. Almost everything from toothpaste to car insurance is advertised using some kind of bony model and sometimes, I wonder, what the model has to do with the product. Look around you. What are you wearing?
What have you bought lately because you heard it was the latest trend? To some degree, we are all slaves to the advertising industry and the materialism of our culture. Sometimes it can get depressing looking at all the thin, gorgeous women in magazines or commercials and thinking about how impossible it seems to be like them. The fact is, it is impossible. A fashion designer who has worked with stars like Paris Hilton told Roberts in “America the Beautiful” the goal of pictures in advertisements is to create a sort of magical fantasy world … that world is artificial.
It’s been touched and retouched a countless number of times again and again; it doesn’t even exist in real life and people, especially our youth, dedicate their lives trying to achieve this impossibility. Who gave the glamorous or the famous the right to define beauty or constrain it to a size zero? Beauty is largely a matter of the thoughts we think, the deeds we do, the food we eat, the interest we show in others. It is the sum of sincerity, enthusiasm, and unselfishness. It is the product of busy days and nights untroubled by guilty regrets.
Beauty is obedience to the laws of good and wise and wonderful living of the laws of health and happiness. To these add a lively search for eternal truth—for the good things here—for the good things hereafter—and you will surely find beauty in living, and be beautiful yourself. In short, beauty is a reflection of what you are inside yourself. Because real beauty, is more than skin deep. http://www. tinypineapple. com/archives/2006/08/beauty_is_more_than_skin_deep. html http://www. spirituality. com/article. jhtml? ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticl
