Pretty Hurts; The High Cost of an Unattainable Beauty Standard

"I want to play something for you." my sister, Terren, said as she pushed a bunch of buttons on the radio of her car. "I think your will like it."

The music erupted from the speakers as we were riding in her car. Beyoncé. From her latest album. Not Drunk In Love nor Partition. This was a different song:

"Blonder hair, flat chest. TV says bigger is better.
South beach, sugar free. Vogue says "Thinner is better."

Pretty hurts

Shine the light on whatever's worse
Perfection is the disease of a nation

Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Tryna fix something

But you can't fix what you can't see
It's the soul that needs the surgery."

Terren was right. I really did like that song.

A few days ago I featured a link in the Readables for an up coming film, The Illusionist, a documentary created by film maker Elena Rossini which discusses not only the globalization of the beauty industry, but also the globalization of certain beauty standards. The film features the many weird and culturally disturbing ways women (mostly of color) are attempting to reach a standard of beauty set by mainstream media.

One of those ways seen vividly in the clip was the process of skin whitenening, which funny enough I talked about here a few months ago with the release of the Whitenicious by Dencia product. But this skin whitening thing isn't even just affecting the African diaspora. It's affecting the whole world, especially in places like India and even Japan and Korea. 

We all want to be tall, thin, with big boobs, a small gap between the thighs, with long flowing hair, big eyes, and fair skin. God forbid we are short, or have thick coils of hair, or narrow eyes, or ample curves. God forbid we aren't the standards. 

What it boils down to is this: We all know that there is something seriously wrong. We've seen it in those extreme examples of those who are determined to achieve this unattainable beauty standard, only to be somehow destroyed by it, either through eating disorders, extreme body modification, or suicide due to the disappointment of not achieving such looks. We even feel it in our own souls as we stand in front of the mirror in the morning and loathe everything not in vogue now. 

But will anyone be brave enough to combat status quo, to challenge all that we've been taught and told that was wrong with us, to look into the mirror and fall in love with it, flaws, flab, photoshoplessness, and all? 

Pretty shouldn't hurt.