Today I was complimented. No big deal, right? Wrong. I am your average woman in her mid twenties and I am not the most glamorous of people, but I do tend to wear makeup.
The compliment was specifically about the makeup I had around my eyes.
So what's the issue? Outside was a stunning park lit up perfectly by the summer sun. That's beauty to me, so why is it that the media only ever uses it to describe how someone looks?
Here is the meaning of the word beauty (shortened), straight from Google:
"a beautiful or pleasing thing or person"
Notice that extra word? It doesn't always have to be about a person, but when you come across "beauty" websites or a beauty section in a larger site (usually found under a woman specific section) you tend to only see articles about hair and makeup.
What is worse about this is that whenever I get compliments it's only ever about the way I look, as lovely as the compliments are I'd like to think I am more than that. I'd like to think I am also charming, smart and fun to be around.
You'll probably have seen a lot of YouTube videos going around on some ladies showing off a half makeup and have natural face, here is one by makeup blogger Nikkie on YouTube. There's even a helpful article here on BuzzFeed to help illustrate my point called "28 Before And Afters That Show The Transformative Power Of Makeup" by BuzzFeed's own Tanner Ringerud.
Now I'm not saying that makeup isn't a godsend for some, it can totally transform you; but that's exactly my point. It's staggering how different some of the women look, like they're a totally different person. My point is that they are exactly that, a different person. To me everyone should be described as beautiful with AND without their makeup on, instead people are shown the be "transformed" when they were beautiful in the first place.
Because the media misuse this word so often it's now made its way into our everyday lives. Men seeking to give a woman a compliment are given an array of visual aspects, but they're hardly ever told to look much deeper into that person. The same goes for women, I hear many calling men "buff" when perhaps that man would rather be told how insightful he is.
This is how men tend to get in trouble when it comes to complimenting women, they learn from the media that it's okay to compliment women on solely their looks as they only ever show horridly photoshopped women with a sack of makeup on. In fact many women, even those with lots of makeup on, aren't fishing for visual compliments.
A good example of how bad the media is can be seen by an email my other half was given by Vevo about a new Rita Ora video. The description was as follows:
"Rita Ora's new sexy, seductive & proper steamy video is here!"
Is that not a tad rude? I mean she probably slaved away for hours recording vocals and wasn't dressed to impress when she was spending her time with songwriters creating the song. Not to mention the effort of actually creating a music video in the first place. I would rather it say "Check out the super talented Rita Ora in her compelling new music video", but I guess my other half wouldn't click on it if it said that.
To top it off you've got apps like Tinder to make you feel even worse, getting people to judge you on your looks and a worryingly short bio. Why can't we just ban the use of the word "beauty" altogether? It's such a subjective word anyway as beauty isn't defined to specific things or people. Anyone can find anything beautiful, yet the media makes it very clear that some things just aren't. They forget that there are people out there who love bats and frogs rather than puppies and kittens.
I vote that we all lose the word beauty in favour of other, more complimentary, words that describe that person (or thing) from the inside rather than out. That way we can all get along and stop this god damn nonsense once and for all.
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