Her Beauty Was Skin Deep

I was walking in the mall the other day with my beautiful daughter, had no makeup on... just jeans, a turtleneck sweater, flats and a leather jacket. ..43 with gray hairs peeking out from the rinse that is wearing off. I notice when I am being noticed (and love it!) but I try to be respectful to my admirers, smile and just move on. I never disrespect an admiring brother because they get enough of that from others. Anyway, we came upon some very handsome what seemed to be like 25 to 30ish, 6-foot plus tall, fashionable brothers and I noticed them checking me out. I played it off and simply smiled (I did noticed one of them had turned completely around to follow me and made sure that I had noticed him looking). My daughter exclaimed, "Wow, Mom...that guy did a complete 360 just to look at you and watch you walk by!!" I merely replied, "Oh really?". In my mind I thanked him for boosting the ego of a 43 year old, married 20 years sister.

I was always a shy timid girl growing up and fealt that I was ugly. Why? Because not one boy in my high school ever asked me out. When I got my driver's license and started to visit the local mall, I began to realize that I was wrong. It wasn't that I didn't look pretty enough...the problem was that I was the only Black girl in the school. The only other Black boy was my brother. It was in the country in upstate New York in the '80's. Ahhh...you say...that explains it! Yes! That explains it all right! Anyway, when I started to go to 'town' I noticed the black boys would try to talk to me and give me compliments. WOW! I really wasn't ugly after all! It was just racism or fear. I think that if someone did 'like' me at my school, they were afraid of what others may say. They just could not get past the racism but I sure got past thinking I was ugly!! But, that's another subject all by itself for a future blog.

I am thankful that it is better for my daughters. They are growing up in a world that often does not care about your racial ethnicity (to a point). Don't get me wrong...racism still exists. In fact, the problem of racial identity and the idea of beauty still exists and may be more prevalent now. Black women not only braid, press and straighten...they have turned the clock back and are starting to wear wigs again. They shave everything and even wear foundation on a daily basis. Sad, sad, sad...Asian women are getting operations to 'open' their eyes, make their noses more European...African men and women are addictively bleaching their skin. European women have their own set of problems as bolemia, anorexia, plastic surgery, etc. continue to be bigger and growing problems. Teens are now going under the knife and asking for a boob job as a sweet 16 birthday gift! The list goes on.

I read a story the other day about a Korean singer/model who was obsessed with her appearance and plastic surgery. She went under the knife many times and received silicone injections illegally. The first picture below are the after results. In Japan she was able to find doctors who performed many surgeries on her face until she was unrecognizable. She went home to Korea where her parents sough psychological help. That worked for a while until she again found a doctor who not only gave her the injections, he gave her the syringes so that she could inject herself. After she could not afford or get the silicone injections she did something else. I guess the silicone must have reminded her of vegetable oil because that is what she decided to use when she became her own plastic surgeon!!

After

When I saw the 'before' pictures, I was floored!! I could not believe that such a beautiful woman purposely made herself look like a monster!! What does this say about society today? What was she thinking? Was she mentally unstable? Is she suffering from the same apparent mental issues that may plague Michael Jackson? I don't know.

Before

What I do know is that the image of beauty is greatly distorted. Women are trying to make themselves look like something that is not the norm in any society. The average woman does not look like the examples in the magazines nor on television. Heck, the ones in the magazines and on television don't look that way either...they are made up to look like that and it takes a staff of people to make the 'look' complete! But you already know all of this. There's no need to preach to the choir, right? My only hope is that women stop disfiguring themselves in the name of beauty and learn to love themselves for who they are. So at least once a week, go out without makeup. Be comfortable in your own beautiful skin.

Here's the YouTube Link to the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1JLL51ox3k&NR=1