5 décembre, 2007 15:59
Beauty’s Ugly Truth In today’s African American society
, our beauty icons are Beyonce Knowles, Tyra Banks and Vanessa Williams, to name a few. The media and society at large tries to make us feel insecure by not measuring up to their standards. The frenzy has gotten so extreme that they try to commercialize getting foreign objects implanted in your body so that you can mirror some of the icons.Recent studies have shown that in 2003, 487,887 African Americans have had cosmetic surgery done and the numbers continue to increase. The majority of the surgeries include rhinoplasty which is the reshaping and size changing of ones nose, gluteal augmentation which is butt implants, tummy tucks and breast implants. But the media doesn’t inform the public of the excruciating pain, the long recovery to see the results, bruising, scars and even death. Or even the fact that it may not come out right the first time; causing a second surgery and more money. People often get addicted to it and may have a scary outcome.
But what some people fail to realize, is that beauty tends to have its ugly side. Some Americans become so obsessed with meeting the media’s standard size they become anorexic. People who become anorexic tend to have bad memory, thinning hair, slow heart rate, bone fractures, pale skin, a hault in menstruation brittle nails and yellow teeth; - All in the name of beauty.
Trying to meet society’s standards is nothing new. As a matter of fact, it’s old. People have been doing it since the Middle Ages. Women and especially men would use paints, white chalk, powder and even make themselves bleed to have pale, white skin. Pale skin meant you where high class. Women in some parts of China would bind their daughter’s feet to make them small. The process includes rapping the foot with a 20ft cloth, bending all toes except the big one inward and under the sole and gets a large stone to crush the arch. The healing used to perform this ritual so their daughter’s could have a good life and marry well in their society. You see, the smaller the foot, the more desirable they become.
In America, damaged skin is considered attractive. People go to tanning spa’s to get a tan or go to the beach with no sunscreen on and bake in the sun’s ultra violet rays and wonder how they got skin cancer. All in the name of beauty. Some women undergo micropigmentation which is permanent make-up tattooed to a person’s face.
What has our world come to? Last time I checked, we were all made in the image of God which is perfect. How did we get brain-washed into thinking that the way God made us was not up to society’s standard? All of the people we see on television have on make-up to appear beautiful. In magazines, people’s photos have been altered on a computer to fix all of the imperfections of the model so that they look perfect. So in all reality, we’re trying to look like people who don’t even look how they appear. Just remember some of beauty’s ugly truths and stay true to yourself.
