Is Beauty Toxic?

All the above mentioned contribute to the toxic idea of beauty. This toxin is harming our society’s community of women. Women are constantly being bombarded with negative media messages, and the frequency and strength of these messages and the slenderness of the ideal female body have greatly increased over the last few decades.

There is nothing wrong with men or women wanting to look attractive for themselves or the opposite sex. That is not what I am concerned with, and if you confuse the two, you have missed my point. The answer to these problems is not necessarily to enforce censorship over the media, but it should be more carefully monitored. In addition, I do not believe forcing women to cover up is the answer either. Women should not be required to wear baggy clothes or overly cover up their bodies in order to be respected as a human being. I also do not believe that the media should be changing their image so that it portrays only one other image of beauty. For instance, while most women may resemble more closely to a fully figured woman, if this image is the only one that is portrayed, women who do not fit this mould will be left in the dark. The key is variety and reality, and a reflection of all beauty.

Women are intelligent and worthy human beings who deserve to be treated as such. Women are not sex objects for men, but autonomous individuals. Women are more than the sum of their parts, and should not have to risk their health and have to invest large amounts of money in order to be considered valuable. We need to place intelligence, personality and who a woman is as a human being above the importance of physical beauty. Hopefully by doing so, media will increasingly reflect these new images, and will leave young girls and women with better self-esteem and a better self image that can allow women to focus on what is most important, and live a more fulfilled and happy life.

I hope that in the future, if I have daughters, they will be looked at with dignity and respect, and they will not feel they must conform to these images, and know their value as a human being lies not in their appearance as a woman, but in who they are. If I have sons, I have hopes that they will be able to look at women the way I hope my daughters will look at themselves. What are your hopes for the future? What are you going to do to create change? Or will you allow the toxic image of beauty to persist and contaminate our society?