Craving to be Beautiful

Commercials, magazines, the Internet, and even celebrities today are all portraying women as being what all women want to be: beautiful.  They all make it look so easy!  Whether it is as easy as Sofia Vergara’s sexy appeal drinking Diet Pepsi or Kim Kardashian’s curvaceous toned body selling a chicken Caesar salad, every woman out there knows that it is just not that easy. 

Let’s be honest, by just eating Yoplait yogurt you are not going to have to convince the dry-cleaning lady that your clothes need to be let in.  For women, becoming beautiful does not just happen like that!  And for those of you who think it does, please eat a normal meal at any fast food restaurant and let me know how it goes.  Because of this constant battle between looking beautiful and eating what you want, many women have dropped the latter part of the battle to obtain this need to be what they consider beautiful.  As much as we try to look past it in today’s society, when a lady walks past you at the mall with her clothes looking more like drapery because her bones do not fill them out you cannot say you do not automatically consider that she is anorexic, bulimic, or any other eating disorder.  I believe that through advertisements, society today is making it difficult for women to be what they consider beautiful.  Not only is this seen in real life, but it has also been portrayed in novels as well.  In Women’s Literature, food is often the center of all the action.  This reaffirms that “the crave to be beautiful” is a constant battle for women.

 

First, let’s start with the question, “What do women consider to be beautiful?”  Is it that sensation of feeling good mentally?  Or maybe it is how you feel on the inside?  Possibly it has to do with thoughts and actions?  It is more than that though.  Although those “feelings of beautiful” may be on the inside, more people today, I believe, focus on the outside.  We, as humans, judge before we really know, and with people, that means we often judge their appearances.  Is this what has caused women to feel the need to crave this worldly, pleasing to-the-eye, “acceptable” image?  What really is it that pushes women over the edge to feel the need to be beautiful? 

I believe the answer of this to be our emotions.  Emotions play a huge part in our lives.  They build up from the pressure of both ourselves and others.  This pressure from the outside world to be beautiful causes emotions to boil over, leaving us with one of the only things we can control, our body image.  While reading The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood, I realized that emotions affect everything in women’s lives.  Often, women are overwhelmed by all the priorities put on them, like being the supporter and nurturer of their own family.  This novel was able to portray that sense of overwhelming priorities to its readers.  Marion, the main character often feels overwhelmed by pretty much everything going on in her life.  She first feels stress from her immature roommate, Ainsley.  Then at work, she sits at her impersonal desk surrounded by her self-centered women co-workers.  At work she feels completely worthless, like anyone could fill her undesired position.   When she feels as if she has had enough with those issues, Marion is additionally confronted with the problems of her controlling boyfriend.  This part is not even his fault though because she willingly lets him control her.  For example, when eating out, Marion lets him decide their meals.  She feels safer this way.  It is only when she meets an adverse person named Duncan that she realizes she has no control over her life at all.  This is when her unconscious emotions take over her life.  Slowly and unaware of it she stops eating almost all food by omitting any food from her diet that she imagines to still be alive.  She, herself, cannot understand her odd motions and is hesitant to tell anyone else in fear that they will not be able to understand her situation either.  Deep down, her emotions had taken over, and now, her sub conscious was consuming her physical aspect, as well as her mental control.

I recognize this feeling that Marion exhibits of not having control.  A couple years ago, I had been feeling overwhelmed by working two jobs and coaching different teams during the summer.  What happened is that I worked odd hours that were inconvenient with my eating schedule.  Therefore, when I stopped home for my couple rushed minutes before hurrying to my next job, I ate whatever was handy and available, and that was not much.  Over the course of a couple months without me even realizing, about twenty pounds had vanished from my physique.  I was so caught up in my hectic life of constantly being occupied with something that I hadn’t recognized my weight loss.  Others noticed it for me.  Once I heard the compliments of how great I looked, I really started feeling “beautiful”.  This feeling that Marion reveals of not having the control over her body and mind was set off by her emotions.  Just like in Marion’s case, I also believe that through my experience, emotions were the key component that controlled my body and mind. 

This leads me to wonder, are emotions completely to blame for woman craving to be beautiful?  Could other items like peer pressure or just the stress of life be to blame for this crazy thinking that our body image is all that counts?  Are those items just as guilty as our emotions or do those items just contribute to our emotions that rule over it all?  Through my research and critical thinking I am led to believe that all items, whether it is stress or priorities in our lives, add to our emotions.  Our emotions are the center of our lives and they rule over and control us.  Emotions are completely to blame for us women craving to be beautiful.