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How many of you care about the way you look? I know I sure do. The manner in which I present myself is very important to me. My face gets its own daily customized cleaning regimen, my legs endure shave after shave so that they’ll always be touchable and smooth, and don’t allow me to get started on my hair. I spend so many hours shampooing, conditioning, straightening, and curling you’d think I was a hair stylist.
Who else knows what I’m talking about? I know someone out there has put on an outfit, looked in the mirror, shaken their head in disappointment, and put on another one. This process has been repeated so many times only for him or her to look up in disbelief that an hour has gone by. Need more? Well we have the bleached my teeth to make them whiter, the just bought those $300 pair of shoes because they’re the latest fashion, and, my favorite, the always having many sleepless nights complete with an aching neck from sleeping on my face when I have a ton of rollers in my head.
Most of us work so hard to make sure we attain to a certain level of beauty, physically, but what about the inside? We wake up with a pimple and immediately run to get Proactiv; clear, smooth skin is what’s attractive, isn’t it? What about when we look at someone and pass judgment before even getting to know him or her? Or betray someone that is close to us? Why don’t we rush to correct our ugly insides the same way we do for our imperfect outsides?
The answer is because our perception of beauty is distorted. Television, magazines, and advertisements only portray the physical aspect of beauty. These types of media fail to display the most often unrecognized and true definition of beauty: inner. A person’s character, attitude, and, personality are far more valuable than his or her’s facial symmetry, body shape, and skin tone. Brand name jeans don’t make you beautiful; in fact, no material possessions have the power to determine your beauty. Real beauty comes from deciding to love yourself and others, from showing respect and compassion; real beauty comes from honing in on the qualities within and, fortunately, all those traits do not have a price tag attached.
The individuals within society are caught up on taking care of themselves. We exercise and try to eat healthy in order to stay fit; we pay thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgeries to get a certain look. All this we do in an effort to beautify the physical which, ultimately, isn’t the most important. A beautiful face doesn’t guarantee your spouse will be faithful and rock, solid abs doesn’t mean you’ll have no trouble finding a date. Looks are important because everyone should take pride in who they are, but they aren’t the key factor in defining who that person is. I challenge everyone from now on to take more time to focus on beautifying what lies within because a pretty inside inevitably results in a much prettier outside. I guarantee it.
Shala Marks is a summer intern at EmpowHER. She has a passion for writing and women's issues. She hopes to be an inspiring author and a virtuous woman one day.
Add a Comment6 Comments
This is very true. Beauty is definitely more than skin deep. I think the older I get, the more I look at the person inside rather than what they look like on the outside.
July 31, 2010 - 10:24amThis Comment
Yes i agree with you.True beauty comes from the inside.
July 31, 2010 - 8:18amBut we also need to care about our outside looks so that we will be presentable to other people and it is not neccessary to spend too much money to have a beautiful face.
This Comment
If you are saying that natural selection is the way we choose our mates, and "our brain looks for health," then why did the social perceptions of beauty change? Consider times 200 years ago, when beauty was not necessarily in line with health. People generally thought overweight was beauty, as gluttony was seen as wealth, which constituted a worthy mate. If you were fit, it meant that you had to do hard manual labor, which placed you in a lower social class, unable to indulge in the habits of the upper class. How then, can natural selection truly be the way we choose our partners? A: It is not the only factor- society and media play a huge role in defining beauty.
July 31, 2010 - 7:29amThis Comment
The media does manipulate our insecurities to profit however, the author of the comment left previously is ill-informed. Firstly, acne is a medical condition and not based solely what you eat. The texture and quality of hair is based on genetics not solely a lack of nutrition. Natural selection is a possibility but not the only theory on mate selection.
July 22, 2010 - 7:01pmThis Comment
Oh for God's sake!!
July 19, 2010 - 4:16amQuit blaming everything on media. Havent you all people studied biology? Our brain looks for the best mate to pass on genes, and the our brain looks for health. If u have pimples, most likely there is something wrong with your stomach -> unhealthy. If your hair isnt silky and shiny, it means u lack some vitamins -> unhealthy etc.
Its called natural selection in the process of evolution. Its like with animals, they choose the strongest mate to breed with because they need their kind to survive.
Media just uses our needs in order to make money.
This Comment
This contained such a powerful and yet absolutely true message. Everyone who takes the time to read this, whether it be female, or even male, can relate to what is being said and take something from it. I really enjoyed reading this piece and I look forward to the next article.
June 25, 2010 - 9:54pmThis Comment