You are not beautiful enough.
Dec. 29th, 2010 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
You will never be beautiful enough. Even the most beautiful of the beautiful are not beautiful enough. All shall be plastic-skinned, flawless and symmetrical.
Uneven features are not beautiful.
Pores are not beautiful.
Freckles are not beautiful.
Smile lines are not beautiful.
The delicate crinkles of genuine glee are not beautiful.
Iris shades some of some unknown, unseen colour unique to you are not beautiful.
Stray hairs that give someone the thought of tucking them behind your ear are not beautiful.
Even your children are not beautiful enough.
You will always be too young, too old, too spotty, too uneven, too outside the beauty parameters, too human to be beautiful. Even you, the common, regular, non-famous little folk, even you should erase every little flicker of humanity from your faces. Feel the pressure. You too must conform.
Do these things, chase the ever-lifting bar of beauty, waste your precious years and happiness spending dollar after dollar, pound after pound, euro after euro, trying to be something that you will never be - an illusion.
Because you are human. Crinkly, spotty, sweaty, saggy, DELICIOUSLY human. And when you go and people remember you, they won't remember plastic skin or perfect white teeth or symmetrical eyes.
They'll remember your crooked smile, the line of your eyes and the twinkle that played against your uneven lashes, the unruly eyebrows and the funny wrinkle at the back of your neck. The softness of your old skin or the joy you spread regardless of the state of the body you were in at the time. They'll remember all those things.
The perfect, make-believe you won't even come into it. So don't rob the world of the record of the imperfect humanity of you by erasing it out of your photos. It is what those in years ahead shall cherish above all. It is what we remember each other by.
Uneven features are not beautiful.
Pores are not beautiful.
Freckles are not beautiful.
Smile lines are not beautiful.
The delicate crinkles of genuine glee are not beautiful.
Iris shades some of some unknown, unseen colour unique to you are not beautiful.
Stray hairs that give someone the thought of tucking them behind your ear are not beautiful.
Even your children are not beautiful enough.
You will always be too young, too old, too spotty, too uneven, too outside the beauty parameters, too human to be beautiful. Even you, the common, regular, non-famous little folk, even you should erase every little flicker of humanity from your faces. Feel the pressure. You too must conform.
Do these things, chase the ever-lifting bar of beauty, waste your precious years and happiness spending dollar after dollar, pound after pound, euro after euro, trying to be something that you will never be - an illusion.
Because you are human. Crinkly, spotty, sweaty, saggy, DELICIOUSLY human. And when you go and people remember you, they won't remember plastic skin or perfect white teeth or symmetrical eyes.
They'll remember your crooked smile, the line of your eyes and the twinkle that played against your uneven lashes, the unruly eyebrows and the funny wrinkle at the back of your neck. The softness of your old skin or the joy you spread regardless of the state of the body you were in at the time. They'll remember all those things.
The perfect, make-believe you won't even come into it. So don't rob the world of the record of the imperfect humanity of you by erasing it out of your photos. It is what those in years ahead shall cherish above all. It is what we remember each other by.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:28 am (UTC)And I just *knew* that this programme would erase all those lines and wrinkles away.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:36 am (UTC)It's just depressing!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:42 am (UTC)*headdesk*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 06:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 06:07 am (UTC)Not even David Tennant or James McAvoy are beautiful enough for the software. It was creepy how they turned out! (Yeah, I downloaded it and tried some faces. It made me look like Christina Ricci, which is fine, but I'm NOT Christina Ricci!)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 06:22 am (UTC)Do you have copies of those shots? I'm curious as to how some of the sexiest people alive are found wanting and "fixed" by it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 09:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-30 08:19 am (UTC)I have this temptation to download the software and crank everything up to eleven, just for gits and shiggles.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 07:04 am (UTC)The women in those pictures don't even look like themselves after the software's been applied. That ain't right.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 09:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 05:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 01:51 pm (UTC)If someone in my family were to give me a portrait of themselves like that, I wouldn't know what to do with it; it's like looking at a stranger.
I love my funny eyebrows and the bump in my nose! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 10:37 pm (UTC)Anyway, point being: as others have pointed out, your way with words wins out again over anything I could say myself - and I certainly agree that it is a message that needs to be shared. Would you care if I reposted? My journal does cross-post, so I will credit you just as a friend, if you'd prefer?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-29 03:27 pm (UTC)There's an untouched photo of me at a wedding reception where I think I look my best. I had my hair done by a hairdresser, wore makeup, wasn't squinting, and for once you couldn't see the double chin. Several family members don't even recognise me in that photo, so so much for looking my best.
Your words are beautiful.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-30 01:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-30 06:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-30 06:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-31 07:00 am (UTC)I think we all need reminding that we are beautiful as we are, so thank you for this. The Universe/Nature/God/etc. knows what's what - I think we all look our best when we work with what we naturally have vs. against it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-03 08:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-03 08:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 09:32 pm (UTC)