5Society puts pressure on women to be 'perfect'.
What exactly is 'perfect' to the average woman? Being skinny? Being curvy? Being yourself? Each woman has a different view yet society has a different view: skinny, to the point where you look ill.
One example of this is Victoria Beckham. This famous singer/ fashion designer is very pretty yet it is fairly easy to see every single bone in her body. Whenever I see her in a magazine all I can think is "eat something!" Yet 2 years ago I thought she looked stunning. This was when the celebrity was pregnant. I thought the extra weight suited her. Victoria Beckham is just one of many examples of women who need to eat something.
From the time we are little girls women are pressured into believing that we must be beautiful. We are pressured into thinking that we must be super thin, that we must have perfect hair and that we must look great. Normally through the use of the super skinny and beautiful Disney princesses that I, myself, have long since fallen out with because of this. Another woman who is said to be perfect - only because of plastic surgery I am sure - is Barbie. Skinny, beautiful and perfect Barbie.
Magazines are perhaps the bane of my life. Not because I look at page after page of the new foolproof diet. Or even because Celebs who are the same weight as me are seen as fat despite the fact that a size twelve is not too bad. No. The reason I can no longer stand magazines would be because of my mother. My mum is very ill and is on a lot of medication. A few months ago she went on a diet. She went from a size sixteen to a size fourteen and was rather proud of herself. Or she would be if not for the fact that she ended up very sick. The doctor said that through losing weight, all of her illnesses went 'out of whack' and caused her to be ill. Now she is a size sixteen - the same as the average woman - and miserable as all she can see when she looks in the mirror is a fat woman. Which she most definitely is not!
TV is no better. Why is every woman on every reality TV show skinny and blond? To make a reality TV show seem really realistic the directors should bring in some big brunettes. That would really make women as a whole feel better. That and they probably have better personalities than the so called 'dumb blonds'.
Women must spend thousands - if not millions - each year on make-up, hair products and plastic surgery. Another is clothes. Look at any woman in town and 8 times out of 10 she will have a shopping bag with clothes in it. Today a woman's biggest worry would be to walk into a party and to see another woman in the same dress. "The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public." - Phyllis Dille.
Society is literally obsessed with being beautiful. Society wants every woman to be beautiful. It really gets on my nerves - if you couldn't already tell - that society puts so much pressure onto women to be the same as those anorexic - sorry models - that are seen strutting around on the catwalk. Not everyone is going to look like a supermodel and weigh 120 pounds and be five feet ten inches tall. Young girls are under so much pressure to look a certain way. It's starting earlier and earlier with girls trying to stay thin, and look pretty way before they start becoming teenagers. In the end they just look fake.
Teenage girls are getting plastic surgery done for breast enhancements and getting their noses fixed and getting this tucked and that made better. Does a girl of 16 really need to get her breasts made bigger? What these girls need to learn is that they should show off what they have got, not cover it with plastic. It's basically just coming to terms with who you are and finding things in your life that make you happy-inside. When you feel good about who you are on the inside then, you become a confident person that just naturally looks glowing and happy. I look in the mirror every morning and go 'I look like a zombie' yet I don't put on fake tan or make-up for school. I deal with it. Seriously, who can be bothered getting up half an hour earlier to look good. I can't. I would much rather read.
Then again there are some women out there who do need to lose weight, just not to be skinny but perhaps for health reasons like my mother. I am not saying 'never look nice'. I am one of those women who will cover my face in make-up and dye my hair and all that to the point where members of my own family have re-introduced themselves to me. There is looking good to feel good then there if looking good because you feel that you are ugly. Look at any model who has not make-up on and is free of Photoshop and you will feel one hundred times better. Guaranteed.
We need to accept the fact that our bodies are a certain way. The more you do in your life that makes you happy, will make you feel better about who you are. Work at a career that you want to do. Start hobbies that make you happy. Society has created this image that women should look and act a certain way, and we don't have to take it anymore. Work on the inner you and outside you will follow. Then all those TV shows, magazines and celebrities won't matter. Besides did anyone ever see Victoria Beckham smile?