We Are Beautiful

"Of which beauty will you speak? There are many: there are a thousand: there is one for every look, for every spirit, adapted to each taste, to each particular constitution." ~ Eugene Delacroix

"Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror." ~ Kahlil Gibran


     I promised I would write this post, and here it is. As many of you know from my activities elsewhere on the internets, I've spent a great deal of time lately thinking about equality, justice, love, and all of those other concepts that seem so difficult for us silly humans to comprehend or agree on. I've read article after article about hatred towards homosexuals, gender stereotyping, and society's concepts of female beauty. The last of these has led to this post. I don't think I'm articulate enough to give any of those topics the champion they deserve, but at least this particular subject can be expressed visually. Still, let me insert a brief (haha) little rant for those of you who know me well enough to expect one.

     I know far too many women who are constantly changing their lifestyles and threatening their health for the sake of "beauty." We live in a society that has decisively labeled people as underweight, average, overweight, and obese, thanks in small part to a little thing called the Body Mass Index. Unfortunately, these labels come with all sorts of connotations, most of them inaccurate. People who are overweight or obese are seen as lazy, ugly, and dangerously unhealthy. And even though, logically, most people know that underweight isn't meant to be a good label either, it is still something people often aim for, because underweight is seen as beautiful. Take a look at runway models, magazine covers, and even some of the world's most famous actresses, and you get the message that underweight is good. Underweight is pretty. So people change their diets, do cleanses, take pills, exercise until their whole body hurts, skip meals, get plastic surgery, do anything they can to achieve this body. Then you have people like me. People who are above the "average" classification. Ugly people. Fat people. Chubby, chunky, unattractive. Me and 63% of the American population.

     Well recently, I dropped down into that "average" group for a few weeks by losing twenty pounds. You'd never know it. My body type didn't change. I looked slightly thinner, but not enough to be considered a "pretty" weight. I still wore a size 12 dress, though I did manage to fit into some jeans that I haven't been able to wear for a few years. And how did I drop enough weight to fit into that "average" category? I got so depressed that I couldn't eat. I stayed in bed so much that my legs felt weak anytime I had to get up and go somewhere. Yeah, losing weight totally made me healthier and more attractive, right? Now that I'm getting back to doing things and eating two or three meals a day, I'm back in that overweight category. And you know what? I'm happy here. I like my body just the way it is. I had this body even when I was doing ballroom dancing and walking all over a giant college campus. I had this body even when I didn't have access to as much of that junk food that I so adore. I've had this body when I was healthy and unhealthy. I've had this body when I was single and when I was dating. This is my body. Why shouldn't I like it? Because everyone knows that beautiful people are thin?

     When did we decide that this is what a beautiful woman looks like? When did this become good enough to be named "Sexiest Woman in the World?" I love Keira Knightley as much as the next person, but this isn't what your average woman looks like. According to one website about Keira Knightley's diet and exercise plan, her height and weight are listed as 5'7" and 112 pounds. If that information is accurate (and there's really no telling on the internet), that means she's underweight according to the Body Mass Index. But barely. Underweight is a BMI of less than 18.5. Knightley's BMI is 17.5. If she gained just six pounds, she'd be considered "average."

     So when did we decide that the average, beautiful woman had to be super skinny? It hasn't always been that way. So here's the main point of this article. Here's where we take a look at what a beautiful woman has been in the past, depicted by some of the world's most famous artists.

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

c. 1486

Psst. That "chubby" lady there in the middle is the goddess of love and beauty. 

The Three Graces by Raphael

c. 1504

Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer

1507

The Judgment of Paris by Peter Paul Rubens

1639

See those three women on the right there? Yeah, they're all goddesses.

Bathsheba at Her Bath by Rembrandt van Rijn

1654

In the Bible, King David found Bathsheba so beautiful that he had her husband killed so he could have her.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

1830

The avatar of liberty is one curvy lady.

Salome by Alphonse Mucha

1897

Salome's beauty and skill led King Herod to offer her whatever she wished, even half his kingdom, if she asked it of him.

Ionian Dancing Girl by John William Godward

1902

     So there you have it. Eight portrayals of beauty across the span of four hundred years, and all of them have plenty of curves. Whoever first decided that women need to be skinny to be beautiful and healthy, I'd really like to clobber them with a canvas. No one is denying that obesity is a problem that can lead to serious health issues, but having a little extra fat on you certainly isn't anything to be ashamed of, and it doesn't automatically make you unhealthy or unattractive. There's a huge difference between having a full figure and being morbidly obese or ugly. So ladies, when you stand in front of a mirror and see all those curves that you've hated in the past, think about these paintings and how beautiful they are. Think about your lifestyle and about whether or not you're going out of your way to attain some ideal image someone has put in your head. Think about why those curves are there and whether they're because you're unhealthy or because that's the way your body is naturally built when you stop fighting against it.

     We are beautiful. Plain and simple. It doesn't matter if you're labeled as underweight, average, or overweight. It doesn't matter if your body looks like Keira Knightley's or like Queen Latifah's. I guarantee you that, no matter who you are, there is someone out there who has found you beautiful, whether you know it or not. And even if you disagree with everything I've said, even if you think those women in the paintings are ugly and that every woman should be thin, let me ask you something. We don't place a man's entire value on whether or not he is attractive, so why should we place a woman's entire value on her outward beauty? Even if you think there's absolutely nothing physically beautiful about you, why does that have to matter so much to you? The world still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to gender equality, ladies. As it is now, men can be successful regardless of what physical characteristics they've been given, but if a woman wants to be successful, she'd better be as beautiful as she can possibly make herself according to society's ideals. But change has to start somewhere, so it might as well be with us. Once we start valuing ourselves the way we are and based on ALL of our wonderful features, not just our physical ones, maybe others will start to value us too. Whether you're smart, funny, artistic, athletic, motivational, nurturing, ambitious, or whatever else, find something to love about yourself on the inside as well as the outside, and make other people love it too. In addition, help your fellow human beings to love something about themselves as well. Tell them they're beautiful and praise their unique talents and traits. Change starts with us.

Curvy and Proud,

Kaitlin

P.S.: For those of you who read my last post and now find this one extremely hypocritical, let me just add that I'm nowhere near perfect when it comes to loving myself the way I am. I have days where I feel like the ugliest, most pathetic thing on the planet. But if loving yourself the way you are and feeling beautiful were easy, I wouldn't have to write this post. Everything here applies as much to me as it does to any other person reading this. Hopefully this post will help all of us to have less of those ugly days.

P.P.S.: Oh yeah. Here are some links that you also might want to look at. Very interesting stuff.

A photoshoot that highlights body image in the fashion industry

An article by a man who has realized his role in making women feel worthless