Beauty

Hi everyone!

Today, I want to discuss a rather divisive and controversial subject: beauty. Obviously, beauty is made up of many different layers. In recent years, people have been trying to push for women (and men, for that matter) to focus more on their inner beauty than on their physical appearance. It’s very important to be confident in your personal qualities; I would argue that beauty is composed mostly of self-confidence in one’s qualities. However, as much as it may seem superficial, I do think it’s important to be satisfied with your physical appearance as well. That doesn’t mean that you need to look like a photoshopped magazine cover; it simply means that you make enough of an effort towards your appearance that you feel confident in yourself.

I realize that my stance may be offensive to some, but this is simply my opinion. If you are completely confident in yourself, inside and out, without making any effort to contribute to this confidence, that’s wonderful. For most people, though, I think things like exercising or buying new clothes every so often are really helpful for one’s self-confidence in their appearance. Besides, it’s not shameful to want self-improvement. Don’t think of it as something people do when they are dissatisfied with themselves; think of it as an affirmation that you believe you deserve the improvement.

Remember: beauty is not a specific set of criteria. Just because the media plasters pictures of voluptuous celebrities everywhere and calls them “sexy” does not mean thatyou have to look like that. Besides, society’s definition of beauty changes all the time and varies from place to place. Consider this portrait of María Cayetana de Silva, 13th duchess of of Alba, painted in 1795:

This woman was considered the most beautiful in all of Europe during her day. She’s still gorgeous in this portrait, but look at how different the standard of beauty was then from how it is now. Another example is the Ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti, pictured here:

Again, look at how different this standard of beauty is from the present. It’s fascinating to see what people considered “beautiful” back in time, isn’t it? And finally, compare these with the popular singer Katy Perry today:

Anyway, this is just some food for thought. I encourage you to look up the history of beauty. It’s actually really interesting!