When did you stop thinking you’re beautiful? This is one of the questions that Dove poses to its audience through their Campaign for Real Beauty, which aims to widen the definition of beauty. Research gathered from this campaign shows that only 4 percent of women around the world consider themselves beautiful.
As college students, societal pressures are endless and our appearance is at the top of the list. After being at King Library until 2 a.m. the previous night, it’s not easy waking up early before class to look presentable. It’s also no simple task to walk from Western Campus to Uptown in a steep pair of wedges that have yet to be broken in. Oh, and then get up the next morning and go to the Rec Center because of the tremendous amount of calories consumed that night. All of this is in attempt to reach the desired, and nearly impossible, beauty ideal of our culture.
But it’s painful to be beautiful, right? No, wrong.
Her Campus took the time to ask women around Miami what their thoughts on beauty are. We asked women’s studies professor Alyssa Straight about her thoughts on beauty and what makes someone beautiful. She said, “Magazines, TV shows, celebrity culture, ads for clothes, make-up, etc. not only tell women how they should look, but also teach us about what we should find attractive.” She discussed how we buy into these ideas, just as we buy products to help us achieve this beauty.
The false image of what beautiful is as pictured in the beauty industry needs to be disrupted. For many years, there has been controversy regarding the message being promoted by society of what beautiful looks like. This problem has caused women as a whole, specifically young women, to lack confidence in their appearances.
Miami is known for having an attractive student body, which often makes matters worse. The standards for what beautiful is at this school are even more unreasonable. Freshman student at Miami Priya Ram said “A lot of incoming freshman feel the need to live up to these standards by dressing a certain way or looking better.”
Women need to reclaim their beauty. This can be done by lessening the judgments towards oneself and others concerning appearances, and acknowledging that the media’s representation of beautiful is unrealistic. The lesson to take from all of this: tell a girl she’s beautiful today!