Yammie Hearts & Curves: "Natural Beauty"

"Natural" Beauty?

Perhaps it means to be beautiful without any effort?

When I asked a couple of acquaintances and friends I have to send me a "clear, picture that revealed their natural beauty, preferably unedited" , in response I got a pattern that showed that for most of them, "natural" beauty meant that they weren't wearing make-up while for the others it was a confusion with the type of hair they have/had(whether it is suppose to be the artificial hair, their own "natural" hair, relaxed or tinted) in order to fit in the "natural" beauty category.

I felt that they all had different opinions to what "natural" beauty means to them. Moreover, when others posed the question whether a picture was "okay" if they have eye-liner on, or if it was edited to have a black and white effect, emphasised a little bit of uncertainty to what "natural" beauty is.

Therefore, can we really have a normative yardstick to what is means to be beautiful?

Can we judge that lady who wants to "pop out her eyes" by applying eye-liner and call her"fake"? Can we really say a person has 'better natural beauty' because they do not put chemicals/artificial on their hair?

Society: "Being beautiful without make-up is a triumph.

Being beautiful early in the morning, while exhaustedly walking the dog or slogging miserably to work= perfection! and the oh so amazing: Being beautiful in sweatpants is a major accomplishment."

REALLY???

Now imagine a woman who has gotten “work done", whether it is applying her eye-liner, or having chemicals/artificials on her hair. "Oh dear, not so great.".A sense of feeling sorry for her arises and snide comments are also made:"she looks like plastic..."

Implying:

she’s already failed, and she’s showing off her failure by trying frantically to correct it.

SAD TRUTH...

I actually read an article once that stated something like:" We praise people for being “naturally” smart, too, “naturally” athletic, and etc. But studies continue to show, as they have for some time now, that it is generally healthier to praise schoolchildren for being hard working than for being naturally gifted. We know now that to emphasize a child’s inherent ability places pressure on that child to continue to be accidentally talented, which is something that is hard for anyone to control. When the children who are applauded for their natural skills fail, they are shown to take the failure very personally." (Kate)

This ties in perfectly with the notion of"natural beauty" -telling someone, that what matters most about them is something that they cannot control whether they have it or not is actually really messed up.

Basically, my point is: Your natural beauty is what you make out of it from the inside, as it will reflect on the outside. It shouldn't be determined by what society thinks. WOMAN, know this: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL