This blog post is dedicated to all my female readers who put too much focus on their physical imperfections.
I posted this photo of myself on Sparkpeople the other day:
And I got this comment:
You are a very pretty lady.
Who? Me? Seriously? Maybe the photo was too small and she was looking at it without her glasses. Me pretty?
Then I stopped myself. I am horrible about accepting compliments, especially in regards to my looks. I know I’m not gorgeous, but if the commenter saw something she liked in the photo, who am I to argue?
This whole inner conflict got me to thinking about the importance that we, as women, tend to put on beauty and how hard we tend to be on ourselves in that regard.
Have you ever met a woman who actually thought she was beautiful? I know I haven’t. Even the ones who I consider to be drop dead gorgeous think they have chubby thighs or not enough boobs, or whatever it might be. And don’t get me started on faces…
Dove conducted an experiment they call “Real Beauty”. They hired a police sketch artist to talk to women about their looks. Here are the results. It’s a short video. If you haven’t seen it before, you need to:
Did you notice that the self-described drawings were much harsher and much less close to reality than the observer-described drawings? Why are we so hard on ourselves?
I’ve decided for today and every day this week I’m going to take a moment to look in the mirror and name one thing I like about my looks. Won’t you join me? Let’s take back our beauty!!
My favorite part of my face is my eyes. What do you like best about your face? Please leave a comment below.
