As modern collegiettes, our path has been paved before us with the obtainment of political, social, and educational rights. We are a generation of college-graduates, independent thinkers, rule-breakers, and challenge-embracers. As far as we know, the restrictions from previous decades have been lifted, offering us the freedom to be ourselves and pursue happiness…
Almost.
We can all accept the beauty and freedom of our minds—but what about of our bodies? Social media, magazines, TV shows, movies, music videos, and websites bombard us with images of what we should look like, act like, and strive to be like. Type into the top search engines “how to be” and look at the results. In all of them—Google, Bing, and Yahoo—“pretty” makes it in the top three hits. Since when did we need to ask the Internet for tips on how to be?
When you click on this top option, you are hit with pages of WikiHows, YouTube tutorials, and even online quizzes to determine “Are You Ugly or Pretty?”
From there, you are dragged into a world on how to modify your features to fit the definition: contouring makeup to change your cheekbones, cutting out foam pads to stuff your bras, eating weird fruit to get rid of acne. Instead of being a natural thing, beauty is sold to us as a carefully crafted mask of pressed powder, diets, and padding. It’s no wonder that today, self-esteem is a huge issue among girls. If magazine ads and TV characters weren’t enough to push a certain body image, then the online instructions would certainly be the tipping point.
We are modern women, collegiettes. We are powerful, intelligent, and absolutely beautiful—and it is time we start inspiring our bodies as much as we do our minds!