24/7 Hotlines: Call or text 988 or text 741741
“If tomorrow women all over the world looked in the mirror and if they liked what they saw reflected back at them, then we would have to reshape capitalism as we know it.”
Screw your beauty standards. We have women being told how to be “beautiful” and men being told what to find attractive. (I’ve always wondered to what degree the media determines what we believe we’re attracted to). All these standards do is create low self esteem in women and further the gap between the two genders, which is why gendered relationships tend to be dysfunctional. The adopted persona of the societal idea of a “man” interacts with the idea of a “woman” instead of two people communicating with each other. That’s my opinion, at least.
Anyway, beauty standards are crap, make up should be fun, not required, for BOTH females and males, and it bugs me how these ideas of beauty get into people’s heads, sometimes without even being conscious to the extent that it is influencing their thinking.
TurningPointCT.org was developed by young people in Connecticut who are in recovery from mental health and substance use issues. We know what it’s like to feel alone, stressed, worried, sad, and angry. We’ve lived through the ups and downs of self-harm, drugs and alcohol, and the struggle to find help.
Learn More »
© 2024 TurningPointCT.org. All Rights Reserved.
Hi Evan,
I totally understand where you are coming from. I have and occasionally still work in the beauty industry, and I have heard and witnessed a lot of people (mostly women) talk to me and express their fears and complaints about their appearance. It is definitely a human condition to think about appearance, and each culture has its own ideals (although it can be agreed that some traits are universally standard.)
I think a lot of people struggle with the way they look, and even people I think are beautiful have expressed things about themselves they don’t like. I also see this a lot in the gay community – guys are visual, and I know for a fact practically every guy in the club wanted to be prettier/thinner/ etc, etc.
I don’t think this is an easy or quick conversation, so thanks for bringing this up
I feel like the societal standards take away our opportunity to develop our sense of beauty. It also sacrifices the ability to look at thyself and learn to love thyself because the standards are there instead. Instead of loving ourselves for ourselves, we are taught to love ourselves for how much or little we reach those standards. “My BMI is 22 and i’m a medium now, so i’m okayyyy, but I won’t be good enough until i’m a small…” It’s downright sad.
Though I don’t consider myself a part of the LGBQT community, I do identify a bit, and it’s fuckin BRUTAL for so many. For example, a short while ago I was told “you have a great young lady’s body, why are you dressing like a dude?” The tone and vibe behind this statement left me feeling like i’m simply WRONG as a human being. Wrong to wear what I was wearing. Wrong to want to feel comfortable in my clothes. Totally invalidating, it really did mindfuck me a bit.