Last updated on July 6th, 2022 at 10:37 am
At an early age, women learn how important beauty is in the world. Just like in the celebrity world, the fairy tale world has many captivating beauty images: Snow White’s porcelain skin, Rapunzel’s amazing long locks, and Cinderella’s petite feet. Even the characters’ names evoke beauty like “Sleeping Beauty” or “Beauty and the Beast.”
The message has always been: Only beautiful princesses win the heart of a handsome Prince Charming to make their dreams come true.
There’s undeniable pressure for women to be beautiful in order to live a charmed life.
I am old enough to remember when the Oscars weren’t so much about fashion as they were about industry achievement. Beauty has become a kind of sport. We report on women dressed in high fashion in slow motion with a lot of importance just like the NFL does with athletes in play-by-plays.
Modern society is absolutely terrified to be human. It strikes me as odd that the things that all human beings do like having sex, going to the bathroom, and aging are taboo. This is so very inconvenient to our nature. Another great inconvenience is that what we consider “beautiful” rapidly changes. What was “beautiful” in the 1920s is completely different than what is considered beautiful today.
Modern cultures think primitive cultures are odd because they add rings to their necks, sharpen their teeth, elongate their ears, add plates to their lips, bind their feet and put in nose studs. But is Western culture any different with Botox injections, butt and breast implants, or lip injections?
I am not suggesting you let yourself go. It’s fun to be a woman. I love to dress up and wear makeup. I just think women need to relax and have fun. The lesson is to look your best while not killing yourself and to feel better than you look. And no woman should feel pressured to downplay her beauty to be “real” to be taken seriously. Over time your looks will change. That doesn’t mean you will then be un-beautiful. You simply need to place your focus on creating beauty in the world.
What if you took your focus off worrying about beauty to work on a big dream you want to come true?
If you didn’t have a body how could you feel beautiful? What is it about your soul that is really beautiful?
Consider a new focus that takes your eyes off you in the mirror and looks instead at your life. Could working on a dream create beauty in your life that is more satisfying than getting your hair look just right?
I’ve often heard that a confident woman is a beautiful woman. Self-confident people never put other people down. Why? Because they don’t need to. Confidence is beautiful, but so is being a real, authentic, and vulnerable human being.
Magazines often tell women if they want to be beautiful to do the following:
- Wear a pleasing scent
- Exercise daily
- Get a new hairdo
- Wear sexy underwear underneath your business suit
- Wear a bright color
- Get a good night’s sleep
- Stand tall, good posture exudes confidence
I want to leave you with a few tips of my own:
- Adopt a new role model. Mae West never felt bad about herself. She was too busy living her dream and feeling fabulous with men who adored her.
- Eat your veggies. There are thousands of healthy diets but I have never found one that was completely void of vegetables unless you are an Eskimo. Veggies are beauty-producing foods.
- Click here to read Annemarie Colbin’s encounter with a tree that freed her from negative self-perception.
- Know that if we are all unique there really is no competition.
- Label yourself “Fragile” when the need arises, as sometimes you need to be gentle on yourself.
- Read Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Birthmark. This short story offers a brilliant lesson.
- Click here to read Audrey Hepburn’s advice on being beautiful.
- When all else fails–smile and take the first step to make your big dream a reality!
Patricia Biesen
Patricia Biesen is a blogger, health coach, artist, and beauty rebel. To learn more about Patricia, check out her website, Creative Juices.
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