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How has body positivity changed the perception beauty?

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How has body positivity changed the perception beauty?

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It's the affirmation that every woman allegedly wants and even needs to hear: "You're beautiful."
Like many girls, I aspired to be beautiful.
As a child, I spent hours playing with makeup. My mom would meticulously curl my hair for every picture day. From a young age, I associated beauty with exceptionalism.

Also like many girls, my relationship to and perception of beauty became tumultuous throughout my adolescence. I worried about my weight and had felt anxious about my appearance.

On days when I didn't feel beautiful, I was filled with self-loathing. Although I knew that the superficial wasn't everything, I understood that beauty was inevitably one of the cornerstones of my identity as a young woman.

If I wasn't beautiful, how could I put my best self forward? How could I designate myself as worthy of someone's time?

The intensity of the unrealistic expectations placed on girls has justifiably received increasing amounts of scrutiny and backlash, with numerous groups endeavoring to expose the extent of the media's distortion of women and attempting to spread body positivity.

One of the most recognizable examples of such an effort is the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, which attempts to show that women can be beautiful across a variety of sizes and ethnicities.

There is a familiar anxiety that runs throughout all of these movements, however - the idea that all women must feel beautiful.

The idea that if you don't feel beautiful, you'll be miserable without any self-esteem.

In that sense, not feeling beautiful becomes almost threatening.

Which prompts the question: Why? Why should women be obligated to feel beautiful? And what happens when we consider that fact that beauty may not matter?

Beauty as Sexism

This one is pretty common sense. If the first thing you routinely think to say to a woman is something about her looks, we've got issues.

You might be well aware of unattainable beauty standards. You could feel the need to constantly remind women of their beauty to make them feel good about themselves.

The problem is that beauty can often be inherently reductionist. Imagine how it feels to have all of your accomplishments superseded by your appearance on a daily basis.

We see it with female public figures all the time. "Who cares if she's a strong leader, let's talk about her outfit!"

Whether you're an empowered politician or an athletic ballerina, it can be defeating. At the end of the day, sometimes it feels like we're defined by little more than how desirable or ladylike we look.

Sure, compliments on appearance can be nice in the appropriate context, but there's also a good chance that I'm trying to communicate with you or focus on something else or maybe just go through my day without being objectified.

We need to start teaching ourselves that womanhood doesn't constantly need validation. My womanhood can thrive without your approval. Further, my womanhood comprises a hell of a lot more than my fashion sense.

Womanhood and femininity are not inextricably intertwined, contrary to popular belief. You don't need to be feminine to feel like a woman, and you certainly don't have to be beautiful to feel like a woman.
Every woman's identity extends so far beyond the superficial, and they deserve for others to start recognizing that.
I always felt uncomfortable thanking people for calling me beautiful because it seemed to indirectly reinforce the behavior by giving the impression that I was insecure. Instead, without thinking about it, I began to reply to "you're beautiful" with a joyful, minimally sarcastic "Thanks, I know".

This quirk produced quite a few chuckles initially, but it also steered the conversation in another direction because I was able to reclaim my right to validate myself and take appearance off the table.

Beauty Ideology Extends Beneath the Surface
In an effort to compensate for impossible physical expectations, there has also been an emphasis on inner beauty.
You'll often hear a well-meaning friend or parent try to comfort a despairing young woman by pointing out the importance of a good personality or strong sense of self.

These internal qualities allegedly contribute to a different sort of beauty that ultimately outweighs and outlasts the aesthetic side.

On one hand, it is important to remember that beauty exists beyond physical desirability. Perhaps someone is just trying, however misguidedly, to acknowledge that other qualities can make you stand out.

Yet again, there is a nagging insistence that we always have to find beauty in everything and that there has to be something analogous to beauty in every situation to make a person whole, especially in regard to women.

Beauty may be more than skin deep, but unfortunately it remains omnipresent.

Over time, this idea can warp girls' self-perception and quickly snowball into the "I'm not like other girls" mentality. Are inwardly beautiful girls better than outwardly beautiful girls because they're presumed to be less superficial and therefore be less shallow?

Predictably, this polarized mindset only creates more misogyny, both among women and men. Men and women alike learn that only "certain girls" are worth their time.

It might be a difficult disentanglement process, but we need to learn that sometimes beauty is irrelevant.

Beauty doesn't always have to have meaning. That meaning is socially constructed and, even though it has the potential to be empowering in certain contexts, more often than not it causes more angst than good.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be beautiful as long as you don't allow society's definitions to overwhelm you or make you doubt yourself.

Remember that beauty is your tool and your canvas.

Still, others could use a little reminding that just because you look great, you don't want your physical appearance to dictate and distract from every interaction.

Some Alternatives to Beautiful

Hopefully by now you're starting to grasp why you might want to think twice before you call someone beautiful.

So what should you say instead?

Appearance is often the go-to compliment for women, which should tell you how much gender influences even our most initial judgments and perceptions. In lieu of commenting on the physical, focus your attention on attributes less associated with gender.

Here's a handy list of some examples you can try:

"I love your enthusiasm" - this shows the other person that you're reading their mood and that you're receptive to positive energy.

"You're looking vivacious today" - again, emphasis on the positive without relying on femininity. Everyone likes being told they're full of life.

"You look confident" - upbeat reinforcement with the added bonus of a self-esteem boost.

"I admire the energy you contribute" - because it's always good to be acknowledged as bringing something to the table of everyday life.

"You're so much fun to be around" - reminding them that their presence matters and is appreciated.

Any of these are likely to engage the person more than an assessment of the superficial would.

Let's face it: Even in its most flattering context, beauty is predictable. Choosing these alternate phrases conveys a more genuine interest in everything the person has to offer.

***

Some of us might enjoy being called beautiful, and that's perfectly fine. Beauty isn't a four letter word.

If there's anything you should take away from this piece, it's not that calling someone beautiful is necessarily an insult (depending on the scenario), but that you should critically examine the social reflex to analyze and interpret women's appearance.

No one wants their appearance to dominate how they are perceived. Women are smart, talented, fierce, passionate individuals.

We are so much more than simply beautiful.
Erin Tatum is a

Filed Under: Tagged With: Articles, Health & Body, Love, Self-Worth Posts

Contributing Writer at Everyday Feminism. She's a feminist, queer theory lover, and television enthusiast living in Pennsylvania. She is particularly interested in examining the representation of marginalized identities in media. In addition to Everyday Feminism, she's also a weekly contributor to B*tch Flicks. Follow her on Twitter @ErinTatum91 and read her articles here.

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Don't Call Me Beautiful (And What to Say Instead) - Everyday Feminism

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It's the affirmation that every woman allegedly wants and even needs to hear: "You're beautiful." Like many girls, this author aspired to be beautiful. If she wasn't beautiful, she thought, how could she put my best self forward? How could she designate herself as worthy of someone's time?

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How does our ideal of beauty discriminate?

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How does our ideal of beauty discriminate?

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http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/when-beauty-equals-white/

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I have to cringe when I think about my early days of putting on makeup.

First, my mom wouldn't let me touch the stuff until high school - which I can understand, knowing what I know now about how girls can be pressured to grow up too fast. But I was lagging behind other girls who'd learned to beautify their faces by middle school.

Then there was the long, awkward process of finding the right looks for me. It was discouraging to join white friends at or flipping through dELiA*s catalogues ( remember those? ) and feel like I couldn't pull off any of the looks.

I thought the pink lip glosses looked awful on me because my lips were too big, and the glittery eye shadows looked strange because my skin color was all wrong. I thought foundation was always the wrong shade because I couldn't properly blend the two brown shades I'd found.

Too many times I cringed at my reflection and thought, "Why am I so ugly?"

I didn't realize that this makeup wasn't made for me at all - and neither was the ideal of beauty that I saw in magazines or the movies.

Since then, I've learned from my makeup blunders. But in a way, not much has changed - it's still a challenge to find the right colors for my dark skin.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with embarrassing memories of looks I tried to pull off when I was young. These memories go even deeper than makeup - for many young girls, starting to buy beauty products goes hand in hand with learning about what beauty means.

From television shows to commercials to magazine advertisements to celebrity culture, mainstream media has a big influence on how we understand beauty in the US. It's an impossible standard for any woman to live up to - even models themselves don't look like their photoshopped, heavily made up images in the magazines.

The beauty industry gains a lot from convincing us that we're too fat, or too flat chested , or we don't have clear enough skin - anything to say we're not good enough so we need to buy something to improve our appearance.

Combine those messages with the toxic idea that only white women are beautiful (so it's my skin color that's wrong, not the limited selection of foundation colors), and you can understand how damaging the beauty industry is for women of color.

It's not just skin color - we also learn that so-called "attractive" eyes, hair, noses and more rarely (if ever) appear on Latinx, Asian, Black, or Native women.

These examples show how the beauty industry says that beauty means whiteness - and why it matters.

1. The Women Who Represent 'Beauty' Are Almost Exclusively White

The easiest way to confirm society's belief in whiteness as beauty is to look at the most common images presented as "beautiful women."

Glance at a Google image search , a rack of fashion magazines , or advertisements , and it's clear that selling the image of "beauty" usually means taking pictures of white women.

Models of color that at photo shoots and runway shows, makeup artists aren't trained or equipped to work on their skin.

People in the industry just assume that creating an image of beauty means working with white women.

This has a discouraging impact on women and girls of color. Photo after photo of a standard of beauty that looks nothing like us tells us that beauty is unattainable - because we'll never be white.

2. For Women of Color, Lighter Skin Means More Beauty

The absence of women of color in images of beauty is even more disturbing when you realize that when the industry does advertise to women of color, it often includes telling us we should have lighter skin .

This one-way shows up in the beauty industry, telling women of color that the darker we are, the uglier we are.

The message is subtler when companies use light-skinned models of color or make people like Beyoncé look lighter in ads . But it can also be as blatant as selling skin lightening creams with the promise of looking prettier with lighter skin .

Many of these creams have horrible side effects, including scarring and kidney damage. They're sold prominently in countries with high percentages of people of color - like , where nearly two thirds of dermatological products are for skin bleaching, and , where 77% of women use them.

When it comes to lightening skin, the message is clearly racist: The more you can look like a white woman, the prettier you are.

3. Women of Color with More Anglicized Features Are Valued More

What do Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, and Zoe Saldana have in common?

They're all successful actresses of color who are widely considered beautiful - and all of them have slender features and light skin.

Valuing whiteness as beauty comes down to more than just skin color. It's also about the we associate with white women - smaller noses, thinner lips, less prominent curves.

We're told that the most beautiful people in the world are celebrities like those who grace People magazine's "Most Beautiful People" covers - and it's no coincidence that they're rarely women of color.

Our society bases the idea of beauty on things like the "golden ratio," which rates traits like eye size, nose width, lip fullness, and hairstyle - and says the ideal proportions of so-called "universal beauty" never rank non-European features as most beautiful.

Black women everywhere are celebrating the recent visibility of actresses like Lupita Nuyong'o and Viola Davis - not only because it's so rare for Black actresses to be so visible, but also because it's even more rare for women with their features to be considered pretty.

One New York Times reporter revealed common ideas about Black women's features when she called Viola "less than classically beautiful."

Viola Davis is gorgeous - and the fact that she doesn't look like a white woman "dipped in chocolate" doesn't make her any less so.

4. The Straighter the Hair, The Better

I never miss an opportunity to fawn over Viola Davis - so let's stay on the subject while we're here.

When Davis' character removed her wig and showed her natural hair on an episode of How to Get Away with Murder, my squeal could be heard 'round the world.

Because naturally kinky hair is not considered beautiful.

Instead, the beauty industry shows Black women with straight hair and sells the chance to get a little closer to that unattainable beauty by chemically straightening our hair.

Think about that: She was the very first to show that Black women don't have to hide their true hair texture in order to look beautiful.

This is long overdue, and it's way past time for the rest of the industry to get on board with the beauty of Black hair.

5. The More Anglicized the Eyes, The Better

What does it mean to have beautiful eyes? According to the beauty industry, it means having eyes that look as European as possible.

East Asian women face pressure to make their eyes look "less Asian," like the eyes many East Asian models are said to have. The pressure is so strong that some, like Chinese American media figure Julie Chen, opt for surgery to change their eyes.

The Eurocentric beauty standard is so embedded in our media that it takes surgery for an East Asian woman to have a chance at success. That's outrageous.

Comments like these show that people actually believe that beauty is a white thing - and pretty people of color are just rare exceptions to the rule.

6. Light Eyes Are Considered Prettier Than Dark Ones

It's not just the shape of the eyes that matter for the mainstream media's idea of beauty. Color matters, too - and with colors like blue and green so often considered to be most beautiful, ethnic groups that tend to have darker eyes are once again excluded.

We don't typically associate dark skin with light colored eyes. So between selling colored contact lenses and fawning over women of color with naturally light eyes, eye color is another way for companies to say that women of color have to pursue whiteness to attain beauty.

It's another aspect of the "white girl dipped in chocolate" appeal.

But a woman of color who has features that aren't typically associated with her ethnicity is said to be more beautiful - implicitly - because she's closer to being white.

7. The Selection of Products Available for Women of Color Is Limited

I'd really rather not revisit my awkward teenage years again, but let's talk about that for the briefest of moments.

I mean, I was a young teenager, and it was the late 90s, so a certain level of awkwardness in appearance is to be expected. But I had no idea I'd have to face such a stark lack of beauty products for me to use - and that I'd still struggle to find them even as an adult.

I never enter giveaways for beauty products, because I can safely assume that what's presented as a "one size fits all" package of hair, skin, and makeup supplies is actually only for white women.

Oftentimes, the available selection looks like we don't even exist. We have to products or companies, and racism in the industry can make those impossible to get off the ground.

I swear I'm not just complaining for the sake of my own beauty regiment, though it feels good to get that off my chest. When you think about this lack of selection in combination with the products for women of color that I have mentioned so far - things like hair straighteners and skin lightening creams - you get a disturbing picture.

To the beauty industry, women of color aren't worth having products meant to celebrate our natural beauty. But we do have value as consumers paying into a multi-billion dollar industry of changing ourselves to look more like white women.

8. The Same Looks That Are Criticized on Women of Color Are Praised on White Women

Nothing tells the story of double standards in beauty like cultural appropriation.

From headdresses to moccasins , dreadlocks to cornrows , bindis to saris - every group of people of color has a long history of cultural traditions that we've had to fight to maintain through colonization, racism, and genocide.

In terms of beauty standards, this looks like being told that your culture's traditional styles make you look anything from "ugly" to "too ethnic" to "dangerous."

And I rage for them when I then see magazines praising white women in cornrows, dreadlocks, and as "edgy," "trendy," and "epic."

This double standard just piles on to the message that a look is only pretty if a white woman is wearing it.

9. Companies Use Casual Racism to Sell Their Products

As if excluding women of color from images of beauty wasn't bad enough, many of these companies add insult to injury by blatantly putting women of color down with racism in their marketing.

, , Illamasqua - the list of companies with racist marketing campaigns could go on and on. Sometimes, enough people speak up about it and public pressure leads these companies to apologize and make a change.

But racist incidents happen so often, in an industry so centered on whiteness, that the defense that these are all innocent mistakes is unconvincing. And regardless of marketers' intentions , the harmful impact of what they've done is a huge problem.

MAC apologized and promised to donate proceeds to human rights groups working in Juarez. At best, Mexican women are so invisible in their minds that it didn't occur to the MAC team that exploiting their suffering for profit would hurt real human beings.

At worst, Mexican women are so unimportant to them that they just didn't care until they realized the outrage might hurt their image.

Either way, these incidents show that women of color simply don't matter to the beauty industry.

10. Models and Other People in the Industry Who Speak Out Against Racism Get Penalized

To solve this problem, we have to figure out what's in the way of eradicating a Eurocentric standard of beauty - and if you look into it, you'll find some very deliberate obstacles in the way.

People in the industry risk losing their careers if they talk about it.

Models like Naomi Campbell , , and Tyson Beckford have reached a superstar status that's rare for models of color - and they've all spoken out about the awful racism they've had to deal with along the way.

When the people who speak out are treated this way, you have to wonder how many more have stories of outrageous racism and are afraid to talk about it.

And you have to realize it's going to take all of us to demand a change.

Of course, true beauty is subjective and we're all beautiful in our own ways. We don't have to rely on a racist beauty industry to recognize our beauty.

But it's difficult to feel beautiful when the industry has so much power in setting society's standard for what beauty means.

Not to mention that the concept of beauty itself holds so much power - for women and girls, our self-worth is tied to our appearance everywhere we turn.

I can relate, and so can countless other girls and women of color hoping for the same miracle - and for smaller noses, bigger eyes, smaller lips. They don't know the truth: that they're already miracles of beauty, proving the beauty industry's hideous racism wrong with their radiance.
Maisha Z. Johnson is the Digital Content Associate and Staff Writer of Everyday Feminism. You can find her writing at the intersections and shamelessly indulging in her obsession with pop culture around the web. Maisha's past work includes Community United Against Violence (CUAV), the nation's oldest LGBTQ anti-violence organization, and Fired Up!, a program of California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Through her own project, Inkblot Arts, Maisha taps into the creative arts and digital media to amplify the voices of those often silenced. Like her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @mzjwords.

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10 Ways the Beauty Industry Tells You Being Beautiful Means Being White - Everyday Feminism

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I have to cringe when I think about my early days of putting on makeup. First, my mom wouldn't let me touch the stuff until high school - which I can understand, knowing what I know now about how girls can be pressured to grow up too fast.

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What do you think of the US perception of beauty?

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What do you think of the US perception of beauty?

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Beauty can be seen in many forms, shapes and appearances, but when we as a society think of beauty, what comes to mind? Beauty has become deceptive, a false advertisement that corrupts young minds.

Magazines, television and advertisements have given the impression that slimmer is better. I feel most women gather this "ideal image" in their heads, believing that being slim, caking on makeup, poking needles in their faces and spreading on anti-aging cream at age 13 are all necessary beauty trends.

What society has failed to realize is that this sort of beauty is not reality. Everyone can obtain a personally healthy weight, but this does not mean every individual will be slim. And not every individual will have smooth skin, pretty teeth, glowing eyes or radiant hair. But, because society struggles to accept those who do not look like models, the perception of beauty will continue to be distorted.

When I think of the relationship between beauty and the media it leads me to question whether we allow the media to construct our thoughts on beauty, or whether the media simply reflects how beauty is perceived.

Society notices people such as Heidi Klum, Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian, and they have become our ideal of beauty. When I asked sophomore Ashlee Gilmore how she felt about the perception of beauty she said, "the perception of beauty has become worse because people aren't seeing beauty as personality characteristics. They are seeing it as a size two and people defining beauty by outside appearances, kind of like judging the book by its cover."

Most people have yet to stop and realize the effect of this attitude on those who may not have an appearance that fits into the prevailing idea of beauty. The pressure of societal standards can lead to low self-esteem, lack of confidence, diseases such as anorexia and difficulty in setting positive and worthwhile priorities.

Nowadays, technology plays a major role in the way we look and has a huge effect on society. Technology perpetuates a distorted perception of beauty, contributing to lower levels of self-esteem by advertising false hope.

I asked psychology major Yvonne Igodan how she felt about society's perception of beauty. "I feel like it has changed for the worse. The better technology gets, the worse our perception of beauty becomes," she said. "They Photoshop the models so much - to the point they are no longer real humans. So kids looking up to them are like looking up to something that is nonexistent."

Beauty has to do with more than just appearance, weight and social standing; it also includes what is on the inside. Attitude and personality help make the person.

I am not saying that you cannot look at outer appearance, but keep in mind the inner qualities of the individual as well. As Confucius said, "Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it."
Veronica Jones is a sophomore strategic communication major from Dallas.

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American society holds a warped view of beauty

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Beauty can be seen in many forms, shapes and appearances, but when we as a society think of beauty, what comes to mind? Beauty has become deceptive, a false advertisement that corrupts young minds. Magazines, television and advertisements have given the impression that slimmer is better. I feel mos

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Here are some questions to start your work today. Your job is to choose and article read and respond to the prompt using the rubric below.  You are welcome to post questions and related articles of your own for classmates to comment on.(Post the link to the article in the comment section and then comment your response after citing the article).

Each student should read at least one article, and each student should respond, thoughtfully and completely to each question. This is a silent discussion and response. Each student will receive extra credit for every respectful, thoughtful, and clear comment made on another classmate's post. Please follow the attached rubric as a guideline for how to do your personal response.