Too Body Concious?

Dear Readers,
I was flipping through Cleo Magazine for the month of June 2010 when I came across an article that I find really interesting. The title is 'Too Much Body Love?' by Nicole Elphick.

Okay, so we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because it's very subjective. What is beautiful to some may not be attractive to others and vice versa. The beauty industry hasn't been very fair to us mere mortals either, brainwashing us into thinking that tall and skinny is the way to go, fair skin is to be coveted and only long, black straight hair is healthy and beautiful.

Recently there have been a lot of campaigns promoting 'Body Love' or accepting how we look and that everyone is beautiful in their own special way no matter what size or color we are..

Body Love.. Everyone is beautiful..

  Any size can be sexy and attractive..

 
Nicole, the writer of the article on the other hand is asking the question "Why is it so da*n important for us to be attractive?" Long ago women are viewed as nothing more than decorative things that should be seen and not heard. Their value was based on their looks and their looks alone. Now it seems in these modern times where women can work as hard and achieve as much as a man, have rights to vote, etc but we still have to look nice on top of all that.

Although 'Body Love' campaigns may be good but the emphasis it puts on our looks makes us women judge and compare how we look like to other women when we can use that time to plan our career, use our energy to achieve greater things and so on.

Most of these campaigns are also proclaiming that 'real women have curves' and that 'men prefer a curvaceous woman'. By doing so, we are indirectly belittling the femininity of naturally thin women. Telling naturally thin women to be curvaceous because men love it is just the same as telling naturally curvy women to be thin because designers make their clothes in ridiculously small sizes.

 Thin.. Less feminine?

 Curvy.. A real woman?

"Letting other people's perceived judgements of your body form the basis of your own self-esteem, and believing that your attractiveness is important to your own self-worth, is like taking your hapiness and putting it in someone else's hands. Perhaps instead of viewing our bodies on a superficial level as something that needs to be accepted, we should start appreciating everything it does."

 Big or small, they both can stand, pose, smile... And win in a beauty pageant.. :)

Our bodies is just one tiny element out of the thousands that make us who we are. When we stop focusing so much on it, that's when we truly accept all aspects of ourselves. Women should celebrate what their bodies can do like run, give birth to new people, grow, build houses. Women should also be celebrated for all their othes qualities such as their intelligence, empathy, endurance, determination and so on..                                                  
In a nutshell, Nicole is saying that being beautiful is not a goal a woman should strive to achieve more than being talented or smart. It isn't something that is to be emphasized in our life and shouldn't dictate how we feel about ourselves.

In my personal opinion, Nicole's point of view does have merit.. Unfortunately it's almost next to impossible to practice in the real world.. We will always, ALWAYS be judged based on the way we look whether it is to get a job, to get a partner, etc. Our physical being is after all what people first see and conveys what type of person we are before we get to even open our mouths and spout intelligent facts and figures or present our ideas.

We will also forever judge ourselves, however slightly, on how we look... When we look good in a particular outfit, we feel like everything is right in the world. Try watching makeover shows and you will see those who were 'made-over' smile more, laugh more and walk with their shoulder's back. Being beautiful is a confidence boost to women. It's just how we operate..

Before..

After... Notice how she carries herself differently?

Would you offer a corporate job to someone like this..

or like this? (In case you haven't caught on, it's the same person)

If you've read the article and have something to say about it, whether you agree or disagree with Nicole the writer, feel free to comment below. Those who haven't read the article are welcome to air their view too. Cheers!

 Of course, personally I'm all for curves...

 

'Cause I have them... ;)

P/S: I'd like to see how Nicole Elphick look like.
P/P/S: The italicized part is where I quoted from her article. I also paraphrased her article for the most part of this post.

*Pics are from Google and www.oprah.com