logansrogue: (Default)
[personal profile] logansrogue
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.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amarra-jade.livejournal.com
This post is beautiful.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
Thank you. Going to that site, all I could think of was "The thing I remember most about my grandmother is how soft her skin was, and how the looser skin was so nice to kiss compared to tight young skin". I also remember the radiance of her smile, and her firm, wrinkled old hands that would grab mine in joy when I said something that particularly amused her.

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)
From: [identity profile] amarra-jade.livejournal.com
Yeah, those pics...ugh. Those girls are gorgeous. The airbrushing was totally unnecessary.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
The airbrushing was one thing, I've seen people get airbrushed to the shithouse, but the software actually *recalibrating the proportions of the face* is what seemed the most egregious to me. You're not good enough as you are, as you actually exist. No, you have to be morphed to fit some ideal, and there is no way on God's green earth you will ever, ever look like that.

It's just depressing!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amarra-jade.livejournal.com
Oh, yeah, that too.

*headdesk*

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asweetdownfall.livejournal.com
I'm in love with this post. <3 You said it wonderfully.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 06:04 am (UTC)
ext_4241: (Default)
From: [identity profile] lauredhel.livejournal.com
Any post where I'm reminded of Pippi Longstocking is a good post!

“There is a sign in a shop window in the small town where she lives that reads, ‘DO YOU SUFFER FROM FRECKLES?’ Pippi doesn’t. She isn’t interested in the anti-freckle cream on offer but nevertheless goes into the shop to makes her position clear.

“No, I don’t suffer from freckles,” she declares.

“But my dear child,” says the startled assistant, “your whole face is covered in them.”

“I know,” says Pippi, “but I don’t suffer from them. I like them. Good morning!”

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 06:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
There's a beautifully freckled woman on that site that has all her pretty sun-kissed spots taken away in the "after" shot.

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)
ext_4241: (Default)
From: [identity profile] lauredhel.livejournal.com
I saw the disappearing freckles! Argh!

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)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
I'm actually going to do a follow-up with those shots. :) Funnily, the photo of me they changed, it was my long-boned face and tiny eyes that needed fixing. Yeah. You've seen the size of my eyes. The software is seriously flawed.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-30 08:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drbunsen.livejournal.com
Freckle girl looked way cuter in the before shots!

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)
From: [identity profile] honorh.livejournal.com
Yeah! What does that stuff have against freckles? I love it when the sun brings my freckles out to play.

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)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
Apparently it thinks freckles are the Devil's Work.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 05:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meleth.livejournal.com
I love freckles. I have no idea why anybody thinks freckles are a blemish.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-29 01:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] myemmie.livejournal.com
I'm well aware that airbrushing, etc, is so common today it is beyond the point of absurd - but I agree: some of these faces are not even the same women from the original photo!
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)
From: [identity profile] myemmie.livejournal.com
So this has been stuck in my head all day; I even brought my daughter over to the computer so that I could show her how completely unrealistic (and unnecessary) the beauty standard/scam was. I was very proud of her reaction, actually, which was horrified! "I love her freckles!" she said about a few, and "There's nothing wrong with her face, though!!" LOL

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)
From: [identity profile] stephbg.livejournal.com
OMG those photos are horrifying. It's one thing to get a nicely-lit blurry glamour shot, but this is breaking perfectly nice faces.

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)
From: [identity profile] nephron.livejournal.com
I remember getting stuck into the Photoshop at times to remove glaring pimples, but not to the point of making me look like not-me.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-30 06:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] melalucci.livejournal.com
Oh, fuck that website. I like the original versions.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-30 06:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] melalucci.livejournal.com
And hugs for your insight and beautiful words.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-12-31 07:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wingedselkie.livejournal.com
I'm currently reading a book called "Uglies" by Scott Westerfield - are you familiar with it? It's the first in a series. It's set in a future in which every person undergoes a surgical transformation at age 16 to make them absolutely "flawless" - no freckles or blemishes, perfectly symmetrical faces, large eyes, full lips, etc. Anyone normal-looking is an "ugly," everyone after the surgery is a "pretty." I'm almost finished with it, and I'm really enjoying it. It has a lot to say about true and natural beauty, as well as how we brainwash ourselves into thinking only one ideal is correct. This post reminded me of it.

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)
From: [identity profile] originalnilson.livejournal.com
I draw the line at actually shifting the features of the face and wiping out freckles. I think freckles are so cute, and what the heck is wrong with a woman having a well defined jawline for shit sake? Lol.

(no subject)

Date: 2011-01-03 08:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] logansrogue.livejournal.com
I don't know, but the programme thought my eyes weren't big enough and that my face bones (jaw) were too long, and my cheekbones weren't big enough either. Bizarre!!

(no subject)

Date: 2011-01-07 09:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mysanal.livejournal.com
You rock. (as always)

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