No Standard is the Same Standard

Beauty standards are everything but equal. What is beautiful to me might be ugly to you. I personally believe that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. We only have to do a quick Google search to reveal the different beauty ideals and standards from across the world. Heck even in the UK, we see so many different ideals according to where we are or which social group we talk to! A great quote from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohello sums this up: “someday you'll learn that our countryside is the best, and our women the most beautiful.”

I asked a couple of my friends what is beautiful to them and this is what they had to say:

Victoria Reeves, female, 21, Law Student and Athlete: Well for me it goes beyond pure looks and is more to do with personality and that people are nice and kind and funny, and in the long run that's more beautiful than any physical beauty but if we are going on looks *points to Orlando Bloom*

Idris Mussa, male, 26, Sales Assistant at The Perfume Shop: See when I think of beautiful I always think of women but obviously there’s more to it than just that.. someone's personality can be beautiful or someone who is always there for you is beautiful. Today in society people won't look past things, they see what they see and judge… if you just take a little time to get to know someone they can be really beautiful if you understand.. It's not what you see but what you think that makes something beautiful..

Amandeep Singh, male, 21, Politics & Sociology Student: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What you find beautiful is something completely different to me.. It’s a very difficult question.. I’m not sure!

I chose these three people because they come from different backgrounds, yet each one of them was born and raised in the UK. They sum up just how many definitions can be attributed to beauty and how the ideals on beauty can be varied across even such a small group of individuals. Take this and apply it to the world. I cannot even begin to think about how many different ideals spring to mind. The last quote is my favourite because it demonstrates how impossible it is to ever define what is beautiful.

The true inspiration behind this post comes from a recent encounter I had with someone very close to me. I don’t feel like sharing exactly what happened but when it did happen, I truly felt a little ounce of hope leave me and I realised just how much the media ideals of beauty and attractiveness affect us. Not only are we influenced by the media in what we begin to find attractive but also how we view ourselves. Now, I do not intend to go into the psychological effects of the media on our own body image because I am sure most of us are aware that the effects can span mountains.

Aside from poverty, deprivation, abuse and all other horrific things in life, if there was one thing I could change or influence in the world, it would be beauty standards, self appreciation and image perception. It hurts me to hear people telling me they think they aren’t ‘attractive’ because, whilst I am probably guilty of it myself, I believe there is beauty in everyone. No matter what you look like, the beauty lies within you. When we look at ourselves, we need to forget what we see on the catwalk, we need to let go of what we find on the cover of vogue, because that is not who we are.

I am not denying that models are beautiful. They are chosen based on their looks, their walk, their height, their weight, their build. In that industry, beauty in the crudest sense of the word is what matters most. But life is not an industry. Life is beyond that. Life is about experiences, memories, adventures, conversations, emotions. How we deal with these things is what makes us the beautiful people we are. You might get into an argument with someone in school, with a colleague at work or even a family member/friend. Nevertheless, somewhere within that person is inner beauty. Inner beauty that someone else might have seen or maybe inner beauty that you might see one day.

I think that society has progressed to appreciate the differences in outward beauty. We now see models of colour along with plus size models, walking the catwalk, showing us that it is ok to embrace who we are, because the world is full of so many different shapes, sizes, colours, and most importantly, beauty. A Favourite Marilyn Monroe quote of mine is “Everyone’s a star that deserves the right to twinkle” and for my entire life, I will stand by this. Because that is what we all are in this world, BEAUTIFUL STARS WHO SHOULD SHINE IN OUR OWN RIGHT!

Never let anyone tell you that you are not beautiful because their beauty does not have to be your beauty. Your beauty will be someone else’s beauty one day and they will cherish that. They will love every single piece of you, from the inside out. Never let the words of others stop you from being who you are. We do not live in a world of identical ideals but a world of differences, differences we all need to learn to appreciate and embrace with open arms.

All love xoxo