The Female Culture of 2015

Idea #1

In today's society, the human race can be found in the beauty isle of department stores and on the covers of magazine with awards such as, 'The World's Sexiest Woman' in bold type across the top of the paper. When you think of perfect, I'm sure you all have different ideas about what it is. The 'perfect woman' can range from Jennifer Anniston to Cara Delevigne, but the more often then not, there is a 'type' for the perfect woman. She's the girl with a college education, flawlessly smooth skin, beautiful hair and a full yet thin figure. Basically, your everyday supermodel. We see woman of this caliber on the runway, sporting the best clothing and recieveing world wide admiration for her beauty. I am here to talk to you about the societal views presented to women today and how it affect's thier confidence and personal respect.

From experience I can say that I have grown up with false expectations for what women are supposed to look like. As a child, Barbie dolls were my favorite toys. I would play for hours on end with this slim waisted platinum blonde haired doll, telling my mother how I was going to be just like Barbie when I grew up. Of course, as I grew up I began to realize that I was on track to be a tall, curvy girl without the looks or body of Barbie.

I was probably in sixth grade when I made the discovery that being as skinny as that plastic doll was not only dangerous but near impossible. So naturally I automatically assumed that the rest of the world had the same grasp of reality as I had just acquired. Let's just say that I was wrong. Yet even today after so many years of this knowledge being out in public, I still see people struggling for their idea of perfection.

However, the media is relentless. You're either too thin or too heavy...there's never a happy in between. That's where things get confusing. People claim that 'skinny is beautiful' but then take it upon themselves to put down those who are thinner and find the flaws in them as well.

For the record, beautiful by definition is to delight the senses and excite intellectual or emotional admiration. Simply put this means that the image of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sure, you might not think that a plus sized girl is beautiful and might not find her aesthetically pleasing, but that doesn't mean someone else doesn't see her as a goddess.

Every year thousands of young girls are hospitalized from anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders because of these demented ideals. It's almost become customary in today's society to have a 'sickly' look to your physic. This has to stop. I can't even tell you how many times I've heard people calling each other fat, telling them to stop eating, to loose weight, and to go on a diet. Some of the most beautiful people I have ever gotten the opportunity to meet are curvy. They put that over worshipped doll to shame. Some say that you have to have the body of a supermodel in order for people to accept you. That's a complete and utter lie.

The average adult woman has a Body Mass Index of 26.5. If Barbie were a real girl and her proportions correlated with her ever popular doll, her BMI would be a minimal 16.2. She would weigh one hundred and ten pounds, have a 39 inch bust, 18 inch waist, 33 inch hips and wear a size 3 shoe. She would fit the criteria for anorexia and have to walk on all fours due to her proportions. The sad truth of all this is that even with these frightening facts, people still try to become skinnier, to achieve size double zero, to be 'beautiful'.

Beauty doesn't have a weight limit.

I might not always want to admit it but on occasion I'll find myself thinking about dieting, loosing weight, dropping a dress size just to see the response I would get. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm perfectly content with who I am because sometimes I'm not. But there is no magic bullet. There's no pill that I can take that can change me into someone who's happy and secure with how I look because there will always be someone smaller. That's because body confidence doesn't come from trying to achieve the 'perfect body'. It comes from embracing the one you've already got. How a person feels about themselves is more important then how they look. Feeling confident in your own skin is what's important here. Not whether or not you'll attract the attention of everyone around you or evoke jealousy. If a woman can walk in her own body with the confidence of a supermodel, no matter her size, then you know that she's found herself. That she's her own definition of beauty. Because, beauty doesnt have a weight limit.

As a result of society, the confidence a young person has in his or her body has been diminished. We're struggling to find ourselves in a world full of judgemental people and in the process, discover how important image has become to us. The good news is that I'm not the only one with this mindset. Millions of people around the globe have found who they want to be and are content. However, there are still some that are fighting to become the person they believe is 'perfect'. So before you go out after this and comment on how people look or think of yourself as inadequate, just remember that society can't judge you on who you should be. You are the judge of perfection. And as far as I can tell, you've reached it.