-B-E-A-U-T-Y-

*Note to readers: this is a really old article and there are grammatical errors here but I'm too lazy to edit so yah XD

By Denice Sharina P. Lao

Our beauty checklist would always have the following requirements: fair skin, gorgeous body and pretty face, be it teenagers or adults tend to have the same ideal Aphrodite in mind.

The judgment of beauty in our present society is only patterned by how media characterize it. If a commercial says that papaya soaps work then it does even if it doesn’t, if age-defying creams make our face younger it does even if it actually doesn’t and if diet pills can lessen our weight in just a couple of months people would actually believe them even without proven evidence. The effects of media has not only affected the perception of the public on things but has also affected the insecurity of the youth and even the old, of men and women. Media has influenced people to follow a certain standard, a criteria and a judgment on who is considered beautiful. People have been hypnotized that beauty is only skin and bones when in fact in ancient times fat was actually beautiful.

Media has influenced people to be extravagant and be wasteful on buying products only to beautify themselves. This just shows the level of insecurity people are feeling, the more they think they are far from the standards of being beautiful, the more they feel the need to fix themselves. We might think that the models we see are the most confident and the most satisfied creatures on earth but in fact they are one of the most insecure people, for some had to undergo operations, lasers and a bunch of make up just to be contended with how they look. Every one of us has already been polluted of being obsessed with beautification, of being accepted in our society and of being what the media wants us to be. Even children as early as the age of three already want to be as cute as their favorite Powerpuff girl and want to be as attractive as their Barbie doll; on the other hand, little boys want to have masculine bodies of their favorite wrestlers and of their action figures. More than making people feel insecure; media has also implanted idealism when it comes to the real value of beauty. It shows features that are almost impossible to have, such as a wealthy bust line, a slim waist line, and a hip measurement congruent to the bust line, in short the all-so-famous coca-cola body. This is one strategy that beauty products and beautification-related businesses (using media) use to attract more customers for they know that it will take these customers long enough to achieve that perfect appearance which would mean that more of their products will be sold. With this madness over beautification, the business industry tends to take advantage of the situation that each individual wants to step a good foot forward and that being beautiful is one factor in society acceptance.

The standards of being beautiful have encouraged racism, inequality and discrimination that are one of the world’s biggest issues today. With stereotype perceptions that black is evil and white is good, that people with eye glasses are nerds and people without are not, that poor people are without breeding and rich ones are mannered, that women are weak and men are strong, that old ones are wiser than young ones, that bankers are rich and clerks are not and that the latest trends are beautiful and the old ones aren’t, superior and inferior relationships tend to grow among individuals. For instance, the discrimination on black men that is still an issue is one example of how people follow that standard of being beautiful. Every insult to the ugly, every degrading comment, every mocking word said are all made by people whose minds are already polluted by the standards of media.

Beauty is not just about physical attractiveness, or what other people think. Beauty is what’s inside you. You may have the weirdest fashion statement but it is in how you bring yourself, how confident you are letting people see how beautiful you are. It’s not just about having the greatest body or the fairest complexion, it’s about letting people see how beautiful life is when they look at you. Beauty is like a word stuck on a stick, controlled and cannot be moved, it follows a pattern that everyone must follow. It is only up to you whether you will allow yourself to be stuck on that stick forever or remove the stick, fill up the holes that were made and bring out your brightest colors and show what beauty really is.