What do you do when you see a mirror? Isn't it the most common behavior to quickly check how we are looking? Is the one hair sticking out? Is the nose too shiny? Has the lipstick smudged? From time immemorial human beings try to look better. "Better" is an extremely relative word, because in different cultures and in different times this "better look" sometimes border the crazy. We wonder, "what kind of taste do those people have?" Like when we see those iron shoes from China, don't we think, "what made them think that THAT looks nice?" But if we look around, I am sure we would find a lot of crazy things that we do in the name of "looking good".
Take for example, the high heeled shoes. What makes us think that those look good? And for people who wear those (included me, though very rarely) can vouch for how uncomfortable they are. I don't think anyone can say that they feel good wearing them. Adds to the height? Haha! For a really short person, that won't really add much and for an already tall person, that is not something she's worry about. Makes the gait graceful? Bwahaha...until she sprains her ankle! Also, it adds quite a strain to the leg muscles because humans were not meant to be walking in that unnatural manner.
Then is the thing about nail colors. Why? Painting nails... who told us that it looks pretty? I don't know. (I paint my nails too, more often than I wear high heels). Ranging from simple things like wearing makeup, taking pains to make the hair look more voluminous, coloring hair and going to the last degrees as laser hair removal, Botox and the like, we do spend a lot of money, time and energy in trying to "look good". When I see teenaged girls wearing makeup I wonder what they are thinking. How are they trying to present themselves, how important is "looking good" and why?
I don't know.
We grew up in a society where putting on makeup was considered a bad thing. It was like if you think too much about how you look, you would not be trying to grow yourself properly. I personally like that idea. Especially while growing up, it does good. Probably that is why me and girls of my generation are pretty comfortable in our own skins and I had never heard of the word "negative body image" until I was in my late twenties. The only image we knew of is the one the mirror showed us and we were happy with it.
I am not saying people don't have to look good. We all need to look presentable. That is why we need to wear nice clothes while going to a wedding, professional things when we go to work. Going to a wedding in PJs with a bed head look may be very "natural" but that is also borderline eccentric. We need to take care of ourselves, look proper and wear normal clothes. But how much is too much?
There should be much more emphasis on being healthy. A healthy person will anyway have healthy skin and nails and hair. And when you have naturally healthy hair, why bother to increase it's volume by applying an array of chemicals? A healthy girl will not want to become skinny and result in an anorexic or bulimic or both. A healthy skin does not need any makeup.
It is in our genes, that we girls like to dress up but why? Next time you take up that makeup applicator, ask yourself why you are doing it? If you spend an hour in the morning dressing up before going to work, or worse still, before going to school, ask yourself why. Why do you think you need to hide under a layer of makeup before you go out to meet the world. And those women who apply eye makeup while driving on the highway, let me assure you, no one will admire the eye makeup of your corpse.
Take a look here: http://www.stopthebeautymadness.com/ and see for yourself where the world is heading. #StopTheBeautyMadness
Take for example, the high heeled shoes. What makes us think that those look good? And for people who wear those (included me, though very rarely) can vouch for how uncomfortable they are. I don't think anyone can say that they feel good wearing them. Adds to the height? Haha! For a really short person, that won't really add much and for an already tall person, that is not something she's worry about. Makes the gait graceful? Bwahaha...until she sprains her ankle! Also, it adds quite a strain to the leg muscles because humans were not meant to be walking in that unnatural manner.
Then is the thing about nail colors. Why? Painting nails... who told us that it looks pretty? I don't know. (I paint my nails too, more often than I wear high heels). Ranging from simple things like wearing makeup, taking pains to make the hair look more voluminous, coloring hair and going to the last degrees as laser hair removal, Botox and the like, we do spend a lot of money, time and energy in trying to "look good". When I see teenaged girls wearing makeup I wonder what they are thinking. How are they trying to present themselves, how important is "looking good" and why?
I don't know.
We grew up in a society where putting on makeup was considered a bad thing. It was like if you think too much about how you look, you would not be trying to grow yourself properly. I personally like that idea. Especially while growing up, it does good. Probably that is why me and girls of my generation are pretty comfortable in our own skins and I had never heard of the word "negative body image" until I was in my late twenties. The only image we knew of is the one the mirror showed us and we were happy with it.
I am not saying people don't have to look good. We all need to look presentable. That is why we need to wear nice clothes while going to a wedding, professional things when we go to work. Going to a wedding in PJs with a bed head look may be very "natural" but that is also borderline eccentric. We need to take care of ourselves, look proper and wear normal clothes. But how much is too much?
There should be much more emphasis on being healthy. A healthy person will anyway have healthy skin and nails and hair. And when you have naturally healthy hair, why bother to increase it's volume by applying an array of chemicals? A healthy girl will not want to become skinny and result in an anorexic or bulimic or both. A healthy skin does not need any makeup.
It is in our genes, that we girls like to dress up but why? Next time you take up that makeup applicator, ask yourself why you are doing it? If you spend an hour in the morning dressing up before going to work, or worse still, before going to school, ask yourself why. Why do you think you need to hide under a layer of makeup before you go out to meet the world. And those women who apply eye makeup while driving on the highway, let me assure you, no one will admire the eye makeup of your corpse.
Take a look here: http://www.stopthebeautymadness.com/ and see for yourself where the world is heading. #StopTheBeautyMadness
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