The Definition of Beauty — Women’s Perception of Beauty and Self Image
by Carey-Lee Dixon and Shana-Kay Williams
As women, at some point in our lives, we have all struggled with defining beauty.
Lately, we have been exploring the concept of beauty a little more than usual. It is fascinating how women see themselves and how they define beauty, especially in a society where many measure a woman’s beauty based on her skin colour, size and other physical attributes and not in accordance to her internal traits.
The Struggle
As women, at some point in our lives, we have all struggled with defining beauty. Some of us have grappled with frail self-concepts and have continued to compare ourselves to other women and view ourselves as lowly as others perceive us.
Therefore, some of us have grown to loathe ourselves for having or lacking one feature or another.
Our growing self-hate has intensified our desire to change our form, correct the “obvious errors” on our bodies and possibly obliterate all traces of our genesis and natural features.
We all want to be accepted and to be called beautiful. In fact, some of us have even dreamt about making the top 100 list of the most beautiful women in the world.
We have, at some point, complained about our hair, our size and shape, the noticeable stretch marks we bear, the thickness of our lips and even the colour of our skin.
Gabi and Nada
Do you remember when you first saw Gabi of Gabi Fresh and Nadia of Nadia Aboulhosn photo shoot for the Swimwear for All photo-shoot and thought how great they all looked? Although many of us might not be half the size of Gabi or Nadia, some of us might have said, “I could never be caught in a bikini; I don’t have the body for that.” However, having realised how comfortable and assertive the ladies looked, you must have been impressed by their striking level of confidence. Certainly, Gabi and Nadia were not expecting many people to shout, “Girl, you look amazing!” Nevertheless, they seemed undaunted. They defied society’s narrow perspective of beauty and attractiveness and flaunted their buxom physique. Their oozing confidence seemed genuine, and it inspired girls half their size to warm up to the idea of hitting the beach in bikinis for the summer.
Also, in the documentary, There She Is, we encounter two women who are best friends, Allison Kopach and Jenny Flores. They are not considered the typical pageant queens, but, like many other women, they both love makeup, fashion, and anything that sparkles. However, unlike Miss America, they are a size 22 and the only doors opened to them are in the plus size pageant world. The film explores how the women feel about their own beauty in a society where being a plus size is considered a significant flaw and competing in a plus size pageant is not quite the norm. Through compelling interviews, we vicariously experience the world of these two women, who like many other women are faced with reconciling a strong self-image with the ascribed features of beauty.
The mentioned scenarios reinforce just how critical self-image is.
For many women, self-image usually determines how they feel about themselves, how they treat themselves, how they value themselves and even how they act towards other women.
The truth is, society has created a characteristic image of what beauty is. This image is strongly influenced by Euro-centric features and so a woman who is a size 2, vaunting angular facial features, straight nose and flowing hair is deemed beautiful. Women not having these physiognomies are not well-embraced as beautiful, though in reality the average woman is nowhere near a size 2.
In light of the conflicting perspectives of beauty, it is important for us to love and celebrate who we are and how we look.
Our self-concept should never be defined by social prescriptions of beauty or other people’s perception of us.
We must understand that beauty is more than skin deep. Beauty extends beyond our pigmentation and curvaceous anatomies. Beauty is more importantly defined by our personalities and human qualities. Being beautiful does not mean being perfect, it means having our own vices and weaknesses, but not allowing such to control our lives or who we truly are.
What are your thoughts? Do you think society pressures women to meet unnecessary beauty standards?
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Originally published on For Women to Women.
