If you want to change something about yourself, whether it is your hair color, your makeup, or your nose, I support you. If you do not, then I support you in that. I urge you to do exactly what you want to do to make yourself feel beautiful. And I’m not talking about beauty according to magazine standards or Hollywood standards, but your standards.
Wow. When I first looked at this I thought it was about women standing up for themselves in society – for things like equal rights and equal pay and the right to control their own sexuality and hold more positions in government and places of power and having more power to make positive changes in this world…
…and to find that it’s a commentary on what they think makes them look beautiful really just makes me want to cry. I mean, seriously, this isn’t even a male issue. Men can pretty much look like almost whatever they want to (except a girl, alas) and still be 100% accepted as being authority figures and figures of power and not judged by it. That we are still so hung up on ‘looks’ is really depressing to me. Ladies, we are better than this, no?
Yeah, but the sort of beauty she’s talking about is the true expression of yourself. If who you feel you are happens to include beautifully coiffed hair and pristine makeup, then you’re right in line with society. But if who you are is no makeup, or purple hair, or tattoos and piercings, or full-on cross-dressing…doing those things may make you feel beautiful, but in the eyes of society, it makes you an outcast and can even open you up to violence (ask any woman who’s dressed goth or punk or otherwise ‘weird,’ or who has visible tattoos or several piercings about the sort of harassment they’ve had to put up with because of it).
What she’s talking about is reclaiming the notion of beauty, from a concept centered around pleasing men to one centered around satisfying yourself, accepting and expressing yourself, and displaying and celebrating individuality. So really, it IS about women standing up for themselves in society, and the right to control how they define and present themselves.