I’ve read The Columbian faithfully for several years and am used to being upset by what has become the normal spray of news about school shootings, natural disasters, economic/wage stagnation, the widening income gap, and crime. I’ve been tempted to respond to articles but have never written before now.
I was absolutely appalled by the July 4 article, “Esther Honig asked people in 25 countries to take this image of her, use Photoshop, and … make me beautiful.’ ” As the mother of two teenage daughters and a woman born and raised in this culture, I am acutely aware of the pressures girls and women feel to be “beautiful.”
The media are saturated with images of anorexic-looking young women and that is the standard my daughters and their friends are held to. And many times, as suggested by the article itself, the images themselves are doctored, not even an accurate reflection of reality. No one has wrinkles or blemishes or bad hair or cellulite. And certainly no one is old.
Nowhere in the article is it even suggested that beauty may come from anything other than physical appearance; not from service to others, generosity, talents, creativity, intelligence, hard work. It’s as if someone who has all of those attributes but is overweight or acne-ridden or any other host of physical imperfections has no worth.
