When will people be satisfied?
In Miss Representation, we learned about the media's portrayal of women. Women are judged more harshly because of the "models" they see on the media. The media is telling women that they will never be "beautiful enough" to make them feel bad about themselves to get them to buy a product that they say will make them feel beautiful. This leads to self-objectification, which can lead to depression, anorexia, and lower ambitions.
You can see this portrayal of women in this video, it was titled "You Look Disgusting". The video shows people's comments towards Em, the girl who made the video. Em posted pictures of herself without makeup on social media, and the comments were ridiculous. The comments ranged from "I can't even look at her" and "Her face is so ugly," to her being described as gross, horrible, and ugly. The commenters expect her to look the way the media portrays women, they expect her to have flawless skin. Because her skin was not perfect, then they expected her to wear makeup. If you look at the comments that were left on pictures of her with makeup on, not many of them changed. Some described her as beautiful, pretty, stunning, and cute. Others said: "she wears too much makeup", "this is false advertising", "this should be illegal", "Misleading", "this is why I have trust issues", and even "Imagine waking up next to her in the morning". This is unbelievable, imagine someone telling you they wouldn't associate with you because of your skin. Even if she covers up her "imperfections", people still judge her for not having perfect skin. People dealing with the same struggle that she was dealing said: "I get bullied because of my skin", "People make fun of me", "I'm learning to love myself", and even "I wanted to kill myself". People are focusing too much on the outside, and not on women's potential. They judge women by their appearance, and not by their intelligence, dedication, and their potential to do great things. Women won't feel worthy of anything if people keep judging so harshly. What are women supposed to do? First you judge them for not covering up what you think is imperfect, and then you judge them for actually covering it up. People can't be satisfied. This is all a product of what the media has portrayed as perfect, and that everyone has learned to follow.
You can see this portrayal of women in this video, it was titled "You Look Disgusting". The video shows people's comments towards Em, the girl who made the video. Em posted pictures of herself without makeup on social media, and the comments were ridiculous. The comments ranged from "I can't even look at her" and "Her face is so ugly," to her being described as gross, horrible, and ugly. The commenters expect her to look the way the media portrays women, they expect her to have flawless skin. Because her skin was not perfect, then they expected her to wear makeup. If you look at the comments that were left on pictures of her with makeup on, not many of them changed. Some described her as beautiful, pretty, stunning, and cute. Others said: "she wears too much makeup", "this is false advertising", "this should be illegal", "Misleading", "this is why I have trust issues", and even "Imagine waking up next to her in the morning". This is unbelievable, imagine someone telling you they wouldn't associate with you because of your skin. Even if she covers up her "imperfections", people still judge her for not having perfect skin. People dealing with the same struggle that she was dealing said: "I get bullied because of my skin", "People make fun of me", "I'm learning to love myself", and even "I wanted to kill myself". People are focusing too much on the outside, and not on women's potential. They judge women by their appearance, and not by their intelligence, dedication, and their potential to do great things. Women won't feel worthy of anything if people keep judging so harshly. What are women supposed to do? First you judge them for not covering up what you think is imperfect, and then you judge them for actually covering it up. People can't be satisfied. This is all a product of what the media has portrayed as perfect, and that everyone has learned to follow.
There is definitely a catch-22 involved in women's beauty. Tons of beauty 'gurus' post before and after pictures on social media and they all receive the same kind of backlash. What is truly astonishing is how idiotic some of the negative commenters seem to be. They say that it's false advertising, but do they really think that women have naturally ruby red lips, birth marks in the shape of winged eyeliner, and glittery, purple eyelids? I think they just want to complain, about anything and everything. Women are constantly told to wear makeup, but look natural. But not too natural, because under eye bags aren't cute. There is nothing wrong with wanting to wear makeup, but there is something wrong with a society that tells you you have to wear it.
ReplyDeleteSocieties view on physical beauty is really contradictory. People want to see people who have flawless faces, but when someone does not have a flawless face, people expect them to cover up their flaws. Then, when people see that this person has covered up their flaws to conform to the standard beauty norms they get upset. Just make up your minds, people! Do you want to only see flawless faces? Then allow people to cover up what you view as flaws. Or, do you want all natural faces? Then stop trying to tell people that they look bad all natural to begin with.
ReplyDeleteOr, just stop trying to tell people that they are not beautiful. Look at their actions, and their words and their attitudes towards others to judge if they are beautiful. You will find that there are so many wonderful and truly beautiful people in this world, and that we should seek them out to surround ourselves with them. The kind of beauty that is within is the kind of beauty we should promote.
I remember the first time I saw this video, and how angry it made me. People talk about how we want to change the media, and how it shouldn't be required that a woman wear makeup to be beautiful. However, this has just created a new standard for women to live up to. We are either expected to wear pounds of makeup everyday to achieve the flawless looks plastered to the front of magazines, or to wear no makeup at all because we must embrace our natural skin because to wear makeup is to be as fake as a barbie doll. Most girls and women can't win the battle. We're judged by team natural when we wear makeup, but we're judged by team makeup because our natural skin isn't perfect. With the creation of a second standard for women to conform to, there is double to amount of reasons for women and girls to be insecure in their own bodies.
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