Tag Archives: beauty standards

Guess Who is Shattering The Glass Ceiling? HINT: She’s Running For President

I’ve come along way from playing with Barbies and memorizing the tag poems of my Beanie Babies — who remembers that insane craze? Because after a certain age girls in America are somehow brain numbed to believe and then adapt to the societal standards. You know the ones I’m talking about…the pesky glass ceiling that puts limits on our dreams and our pay because why? Society — ahem — media told us that we belonged in a kitchen instead of a boardroom. Because we should care more about how we look rather than what’s in between our ears and what comes out of our mouths. I call bullshit.
By now, you’ve heard of the woman who is aiming to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling for women and girls throughout the U.S.—Hillary Clinton is running for President. Do you see that? That’s my feminist pride get brighter. Don your sunnies, people!
sunglasses
In recent years we’ve seen a resurgence of the feminist movement and coalitions of both men and women speaking out for equality for all. My favorite was that of reality star and now big time beauty and style icon, Lauren Conrad, who when asked by a radio host what her favorite position was she — without missing a beat — said, “CEO.”
CEO
Then there’s P!nk who most recently gave her fat-shaming trolling critics the one-two punch. Yes, they were saying P!nk the multi-talented aeriall acrobatic singer, was fat. People are just so strong behind a computer keyboard, but P!nk proved to be even strong. Take that haters. I digress…
It’s time for a woman to take the reigns and steer our country toward progress and for me that means making equal pay a reality, protecting our uteruses—uteri?—from government controls and proving to women that they can and should do anything she wants to do without the fear of malarky standards infiltrating her psyche.
More importantly, Hillary is cutting through the overgrown weeds to create a path for the future of girls in this nation. She’s showing girls that their dreams are limitless. If a girl wants to be president of the free world, she can be and no one can tell her its not possible because Hillary will make it possible. She will.
HillaryQuote
And before those of you say, “I support equal rights and women’s rights but not Hillary Clinton for her past behaviors, etc.” You’re entitled to your opinion, but what you must remember is the bigger picture. Currently she’s the only person on the progressive side of the aisle announce her run for the Oval and with four of the Supreme Court justices being over the age of 70, some even into their 80s means the next President of the United States will be appointing FOUR. Count ‘em: one, two, three, FOUR new justices who will be pounding the gavel to either make or break our society and the rules that govern it. I can almost feel my uterus hike up into my intestines in fear. Eeek!

P!nk gives fat-shaming critics the one-two punch!

I’ve always loved P!nk because her music is powerful, her performances are full of beautiful, dare devil aerial antics and her bold girl power prowess knows no bounds. So when twitter gave her ish for looking voluptuous in a black dress while attending a cancer benefit rather than, you know, giving focus to the cause at hand: cancer. She responded to the hate in a way more of us should—she spoke up! Ohhh girl, did she!

Her response is “f*&kin’ perfect,” to quote one of her song titles.
“I can see that some of you are concerned about me from your comments about my weight,” she wrote in a tweet. “You’re referring to the pictures of me from last night’s cancer benefit that I attended to support my dear friend Dr. Maggie DiNome. She was given the Duke Award for her tireless efforts and stellar contributions to the eradication of cancer. But unfortunately, my weight seems much more important to some of you.”

She continued…
“While I admit that the dress didn’t photograph as well as it did in my kitchen, I will also admit that I felt very pretty,” she continued. “In fact, I feel beautiful.”
It’s so easy to be hateful behind a keyboard, but we have to remember it’s just as easy to overcome the hate and be an example and voice of many too. So just when I thought P!nk was all </endrant> she replied to many of her fans tweets and shared them making me feel super OK with consuming that personal pizza at lunch. Dawwww I heart my body even more now. Curvalicious, FTW.


And my personal fav…because it really is all about balance

source: HelloGiggles.com

source: HelloGiggles.com

P!nk concluded with, “So, my good and concerned peoples, please don’t worry about me. I’m not worried about me. And I’m not worried about you either,” P!nk concluded. “I am perfectly fine, perfectly happy, and my healthy, voluptuous and crazy strong body is having some much deserved time off.”

So instead of offering these compliments or being too hard on yourself, cut yourself a break would ya (P!nk did!) , because you my dear, are BE.YOU.tiful!

Face Strip Down

Celebrities of the musical variety are using their powers for good! They’re using their talents to stand up and go public about their distaste with how the media is portraying false beauty standards, as reality. And I love it. First, Lorde took to her Twitter page by showing a side-by-side photo comparison of her in concert. Now, Colbie Caillet, the beach vibe singer is making her voice heard and her face seen through her new music video “Try.” In the video, Caillet along with several women of all ages, shapes and colors strip down. No, not stripped down like they’re starring in a rap music video. They’re stripping down their faces. One woman after another wipes off her make-up and lets down her hair in exchange for basking in her “au natural” glory! I adore this concept, and in fact it inspired me to go make-up-free all weekend. Even when I attempted to cheat and dabbed on some mascara, the wand stabbed me in the eye. Karma. Make-up is the real life Photoshop, it makes flaws disappear with the sweep of a brush or a dab of a sponge. But who said they were flaws to begin with? It’s safe to say that the media played a large role in pointing out others flaws, which then make us think, from viewing the media, “well if I look like that, then am I flawed?” We start to question, we start to hide behind who we really are in exchange for what society wants us to be.  And before we realize we’re looking in the mirror not knowing who’s staring back at us. Caillet’s lyrics give beauty ideals the one-two punch. HIIIYAAH! Her lyrics zoom way in to the thought that, you know, being you is enough. She sings:

Take your make-up off Let your hair down Take a breath Look into the mirror, at yourself Don’t you like you? Cause I like you

A message that Bruno Mars can stand behind: “girl, you’re amazing just the way you are.” You just have to believe it, for everyone else to do the same.

Have you ever gone make up free? Would you? If you have, was your experience difficult or invigorating!?

Hey Internet, here's me sans make-up. It's freeing and really quite scary. GAH!

Hey Internet, here’s me sans make-up. It’s freeing and really quite scary. GAH!

update: My friend and fellow blogger Jess brought my attention to John Legend’s new song You & I (Nobody in the World) that was just released this month and it sends a similar message to Caillet’s—”you don’t have to try” because being your true self, without all the glitz and glam, is the best part about you. This video speaks 1000+ words!

Screw Beauty Standards, Natural is Gnarly

Marc Edwin Babej

Photo by Marc Erwin Babej. Click the photo and scroll to the bottom of the article for a slideshow of the other striking images.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said, “When did that wrinkle appear?” Or “If only my nose was just a little smaller”? Probably, if not for those two reasons something else. I’ve said it before, we are cruel to ourselves as girls and women trying to live up to the “standards” that are laid out by the media. We’re trying achieve that Barbie look, and not realizing it’s impossible until it’s too late. And for the love of flying monkeys can someone create this real-life-beauty Barbie so our girls can get a dose of what real beauty looks like!

Trolling the Interwebz I found an article in Huffington Post, Women about the “Mask of Perfection,” a project by photographer Marc Erwin Babej. The purpose? To illustrate the difference between a women’s natural beauty and the “correctable flaws” a plastic surgeon is trained to see and thus make a living. He enlisted his plastic surgeon friend, Maria LoTiempo.

Armed with her plastic surgeon perspective and black Sharpie, Maria marked 12 model volunteers all in their twenties, TWENTIES, on the “upgrades” she would give them according to the (unnatural) standards of her profession. Interesting idea I’d say.

However, I did make me have flashbacks to movies that have girls wanting to be part of the “cool” girl group, standing on a table in their unmentionables forced to allow the cool girls to circle body imperfections. ::shutters::

Thank goodness Babej didn’t use the full body approach because I’m certain this post would have sounded quite different. Good move mister, good move.

So what are these “beauty standards” Though the article didn’t clearly map them out I think we all know what they are:
(and please let me know if I forgot any)
1. Wrinkle-free
2. Symmetry
3. Trim nose
4. Pouty lips
5. High/defined cheek bones
6. Trim jaw line

Scrolling through the images of the marked up models I was trying to hard to look for “flaws”, but honestly I didn’t see any, which is the point. These girls are beautiful and naturally so. I appreciate Babej’s project because it adds to the perspective that natural beauty is truly beautiful and for these twenty-somethings to “need” improvements to live up to the “standards” set by the plastic surgeon gods are ridiculous.

What do you think of “Mask of Perfection” and the images slap you (figuratively, of course), the viewer across the face and say “THIS EXISTS.”
What’s your opinion of the images?