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When I was probably around 5 or 6 years old, my dad picked up a girls’ magazine I was reading, turned to the back pages and showed me all of the advertisements for cosmetic surgeries. This was back in the late 1990s, pre-cell phones, and we didn’t have a computer. “A good man will never, ever judge you for how you look. The only people who will put this pressure on you are other women,” he said (or words to that effect), using the ads to validate his point. And 25 years later, his words are still 100% true.
So when a video went viral on Monday of a woman getting some messed up work done to presumably extend her eyelashes, under the caption “men keep setting beauty standards for us women, now we keep hurting ourselves trying to look pretty for them,” I wanted to flip a table.
Firstly, no “man” will ever judge a woman based on her looks unless she’s eating or starving herself to death and smells like dead things. And this judgment probably isn’t about her aesthetic, but her mental health. Boys will judge women based on how they look, but what woman would ever take advice or criticism from a boy? Grow up.
Women do horrific things to their faces and bodies in the pursuit of “beauty” because of other women. This is a fact, and I will absolutely die on this hill.
No, women like the Kardashians, supermodels, et al., are not exclusively to blame for these pressures. It’s the everyday girl who has the most direct impact on these issues.
Never in my life has a man ever told me to do my makeup differently. A man has never told me (more than once) to change my clothing, appearance, nails, eyelash length, weight. No man, not even a boy, has sent me passive-aggressive DMs containing make-up and “capsule closet” tutorials. But I’ve had women — some of whom claimed to be close friends until they realized I am who I am and that’s that — try to make me feel extremely insecure about my looks and fashion choices.
And ladies, I know you’ve all been through the same thing. I know I’ve also been part of the problem. So have you.
But just like with boys who may have something to say about these things, girls who push unrealistic beauty standards on other women are often the most insecure of them all. Unfortunately, I don’t really know what the solution is to this problem. Women are awful, competitive and will literally stop being friends with a girl because she’s either too ugly or too good-looking. It’s a sad truth, but it’s the truth.
So how about we stop pointing at men as the reason we do this stupid stuff to ourselves, and look at the three fingers pointing back at us?
Ladies, Stop Blaming Men For Your Insanely Painful Beauty Standards. We All Know The Real Problem
Twitter users lost their minds Monday after a video went viral of a woman getting some insane cosmetic work on her eyelashes under a caption that blamed men for women’s beauty standards. But men have literally nothing to do with women’s obsession with aesthetics. We are the real problem.When I was probably around 5 or 6 years old, my dad picked up a girls’ magazine I was reading, turned to the back pages and showed me all of the advertisements for cosmetic surgeries. This was back in the late 1990s, pre-cell phones, and we didn’t have a computer. “A good man will never, ever judge you for how you look. The only people who will put this pressure on you are other women,” he said (or words to that effect), using the ads to validate his point. And 25 years later, his words are still 100% true.
So when a video went viral on Monday of a woman getting some messed up work done to presumably extend her eyelashes, under the caption “men keep setting beauty standards for us women, now we keep hurting ourselves trying to look pretty for them,” I wanted to flip a table.
Firstly, no “man” will ever judge a woman based on her looks unless she’s eating or starving herself to death and smells like dead things. And this judgment probably isn’t about her aesthetic, but her mental health. Boys will judge women based on how they look, but what woman would ever take advice or criticism from a boy? Grow up.
Women do horrific things to their faces and bodies in the pursuit of “beauty” because of other women. This is a fact, and I will absolutely die on this hill.
No, women like the Kardashians, supermodels, et al., are not exclusively to blame for these pressures. It’s the everyday girl who has the most direct impact on these issues.
Never in my life has a man ever told me to do my makeup differently. A man has never told me (more than once) to change my clothing, appearance, nails, eyelash length, weight. No man, not even a boy, has sent me passive-aggressive DMs containing make-up and “capsule closet” tutorials. But I’ve had women — some of whom claimed to be close friends until they realized I am who I am and that’s that — try to make me feel extremely insecure about my looks and fashion choices.
And ladies, I know you’ve all been through the same thing. I know I’ve also been part of the problem. So have you.
But just like with boys who may have something to say about these things, girls who push unrealistic beauty standards on other women are often the most insecure of them all. Unfortunately, I don’t really know what the solution is to this problem. Women are awful, competitive and will literally stop being friends with a girl because she’s either too ugly or too good-looking. It’s a sad truth, but it’s the truth.
So how about we stop pointing at men as the reason we do this stupid stuff to ourselves, and look at the three fingers pointing back at us?
