The Thoughts of an Introvert #2: Beauty Standards

What provoked this post was a chat with a friend regarding odd beauty standards and the idealised image of how men and women 'should' look. We recognised that the definition of beauty in many societies is the 'Western White' person i.e. fair skin, light eyes etc. I do believe that modern society is slightly more accepting of all skin tones but there is still this underlying idea of the superiority of being white. I'm going to point out a few of these ideas: 

Source: Google Images

- This goes way beyond makeup but I still wanted to make this point. Many many many makeup brands only cater for lighter, fairer skin tones. Is there a clear reason for this? The beauty industry is incredibly massive yet there are brands that that will only befit a fairer woman. 

- Deep down, there seems to be an ideology that fairer skin is more beautiful than dark skin. Why do women (what I've heard happens in Pakistan & India) bleach their skin to make the appearance lighter? Somewhere, somehow the idea of fairness being superior has become the supreme ideology and it has been instilled in to the minds of people who may not be as fair. Ultimately this instigates insecurities and leads to the interference of nature because we suddenly become unhappy with how dark our skin is. The way I see it, I believe we should be happy with whatever God has blessed us with because we are healthy, sheltered, with food on our plates and clean water running through our taps. 

I came across a quote today:

'If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how very different our ideals of beauty would be' - Unknown.

I think this is spot on! A beautiful soul is a beautiful human being and I am lucky to be surrounded by many beautiful souls of all colour and race.  Once you recognise a beautiful and fascinating soul, appearance means nothing. I am grateful to have friends of all colours, races and that we are able to 'be' friends because many many years ago that would not have been possible. We are still a long way from equality, but there has been massive progression in the past years which counts for something! 

Whether you have fair skin, dark skin, olive skin, dark or light eyes you are beautiful because that is what God has willed for you to be! And there is no questioning the beauty of God's creation! 

I admit, sometimes I wish I had lighter eyes or there are other things I wish I could change about my appearance but this means nothing when I have so many other things to be appreciative and grateful for when other people in this world have no idea about beauty standards but rather are worrying if they will be able to drink clean water or feed their children that night. 

If you would like to let me know your thoughts on this topic, leave a comment below!
P.S: Sorry my 'Thoughts of an Introvert' blog series have been 5 months apart but sometimes it's hard to get it all in writing! I'll try my best for my next one to be in the near future rather than distant!

Thanks for reading. 

Maryam