Beauty

The way that our society (in America) defines and portrays beauty is really jacked up...in my opinion at least.  This has been on my mind a lot lately.  This is not a new revelation and I'm sure it's not news to you...it's just hard to ignore.  The first time I really saw how far American ideals of beauty reach was in Thailand, my first trip there.  We were in one of their major stores (like a Wal Mart or something here) and I saw "facial whitening cream".  WTF?  Here in America there are tanning salons on every corner, just like Starbucks.  Having golden skin is what you want.  Granted actresses like Nicole Kidman have helped people see that pale skin can be beautiful too...but for the most part, we like to be tan here in the USA.  In Thailand though, where they have beautiful dark skin from working rice fields, that is not ideal...for exactly that reason, it shows your trade.  To be fair skinned is to be royal or high class.  Was that influenced at all by Western culture?  I don't know....but I can imagine we didn't help.

If you don't have long eyelashes, you should get extensions.  If you have hair where it shouldn't be, get it waxed or laser ed.  If you have fat where it shouldn't be, get that out.  If you have a grey hair, OMG!!  Pull it!  Dye it!!  If you know me, you know I stopped dying my hair a few years ago.  Now I'm not judging people who dye their hair or do any of these other things...I'm just asking why?  There was a time when grey or silver hair meant wisdom, what happened to that?  Why must it be ugly or old looking?  I often overhear people talking about when they started "going grey" and how horrible it was and they immediately started dying it.  Like I said, no judgment.  Hair dye can be a fun way to express yourself.  I just want to know why black/brown/blonde/red hair=good and "salt and pepper"= bad.

I might be a self proclaimed hippie in some ways, but believe me I'm not that hard core.  I wear deodorant, I use shampoo and I occasionally wear make up.  I'm a product of western culture.  However, in my 30's now that I have gained so much more confidence and appreciation of my own beauty (as compared to my teens and 20's)...these are things I think about, especially now that I have my own daughter.

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