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Navigating ‘Beauty’ In A World That Constantly Emphasizes The External
Beauty is about more than how we look, right?
“It’s easy to confuse the image we present to the world for who we actually are, especially when media messaging deliberately blurs that distinction. You might look beautiful today, but if that was the result of vain obsession in the mirror this morning, the Stoics would ask, are you actually beautiful? A body build from hard work is admirable. A body build to impress gym rats is not.”
Ryan Holiday, via MoveMe Quotes
A friend of mine came up to me and showed me three letters she had written on her hand: “PGS.”
“Guess what they stand for…” She challenged. “You’re going to roll your eyes...”
After a couple of failed attempts at guessing, she finally revealed that they stood for “Pretty Girl Summer.”
It was her reminder whenever she reached for snacks or unhealthy foods to abstain so that she could be a “Pretty Girl this Summer.”
Of course, I rolled my eyes.
Does abstaining from Oreos—or any other food—make you pretty? Of course not. It might help you avoid some calories—which can be a noble effort—but pretty is more than calories. It may demonstrate self-control—which is an admirable skill—but it doesn’t (shouldn’t) translate to beauty.
Beauty is widely defined as having to do with pleasing the aesthetic senses, especially sight—but I like to think beauty in people goes deeper than that.
Sure, some people are beautiful—but, who are the most beautiful people you know? The ones who have the most beautiful Instagram feeds or the ones who have the most beautiful souls? I have a hard time imagining someone argue that external beauty is more beautiful than internal beauty.
Of course, these characteristics aren’t mutually exclusive—there is plenty of internal and external beauty in us all. But, when the emphasis is placed on tactics that will primarily effect/ manipulate the external—it can become counterproductive.
If how a person looks today is the result of vain obsession in the mirror, are they pretty? If abstaining from snacks is a means to create more envy…
