MY CULTURE. PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S 2015 WORLDS MOST BEAUTIFUL This is my culture. This is the world I breathe in. Where groups of humans sit in rooms with fancy presentations and decide what other humans they think are better than the rest. I have given so much power to these humans. I have exalted these editors and photographers and models (who are all flawed beings along with myself), and allowed them to define my perception of beauty and attraction. I forget that they are people just like me. They are searching, they are imperfect. Why have I allowed flawed human beings to define what is beautiful? They have just as much capability of being wrong as I do. I have put my weight on the things that they have told me. They have told me a thousand times how I need to be thinner. How I need to get a perfect complexion. How I need to get those shiny glowing straight teeth. How I need abs. How I need long toned legs. How I need to be SEXY. They have thrown diet plans, exercise plans, face washes, hair products, makeup products, clothing lines, and promises upon promises at me. And I have so gladly swallowed every word. Why? Why have I given these humans, these flawed, imperfect humans, who are most likely just trying to make a buck, the power to define something so powerful and majestic and sacred? Beauty does not belong to them. Beauty is not theirs to own. Beauty is not theirs to define. Beauty belongs to all of us. Beauty is so much bigger than all of us. I am the one who has built their empire. I am the one who gives their lies power. I am the one who feeds the beast. I am the problem. I have looked for beauty in all the wrong places in all the wrong ways. It doesn't take a genius to see that what we believe and proclaim about beauty and attraction in the U.S. is less than accurate. In fact, what we have believed is destroying us. It's killing us. You can look up the statistics for yourself. Whether it be eating disorders or suicide. It's real, and it's not a joke. I don't take it lightly. Men, women, and children's lives are being destroyed by what I have believed. Is it not then my responsibility to seek out change? To seek out truth? To no longer sit in self-pity, but instead strive to understand and conquer these lies? - - - - - - - Below are photos of women that I found on almost every "top 10 hottest" list out there, and the thoughts that they provoked in me. I know and believe that these women are beautiful, and I realize that the way they are portrayed is sometimes out of their control. However, what I'm coming to understand is that I live in an obsessive culture.
I think we as a people have a hard time accepting the ambiguity of beauty. We love absolutes, and rules. It seems like we're constantly trying to be the same; to create a mold and fit inside it. Constantly searching for "what all men want", when the truth is, all men are not the same, and they often want different things. Maybe it's some sort of strange survival instinct, trying to become like each other. (Which is ironic, because all it does is kill us.) My culture is obsessed with sex. It's everywhere. As if, if no one wants to sleep with you it means you're not beautiful. But I think there's a difference, however small, between beauty and attraction. Attraction changes, it's fleeting. We can be attracted to one look one moment and another look the next. Attraction is instinct. It takes no will of conscious thought to be attracted to someone. It comes and goes, forever changing; just like my cultures standards of beauty. It's all based on sex, instinct, with no thought involved. But beauty, I think, is more everlasting and unchanging. Beauty can go beyond appearance. An experience or a feeling can be beautiful. Beauty transcends even people. Anything can be beautiful; a landscape, an animal, a piece of art... Beauty is vast. Beauty is powerful. This all reminds me of when Jesus said you cannot serve two masters. Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Money. I don't think it just means cash. I think that money is currency. Money is whatever our culture values most. It's what we trade with, what we work for and grow success with. Sex has become our currency. Being 'hot' is what we have measured our success by, our happiness by. But I think we have to choose. God or currency? Will I spend my conscious effort to become 'sexy' or to become like God? What will I value, pursue, and work for? I can't serve God and whatever is currently most valuable to my culture.
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