Hey Sweeties,
On Thursday this week, I was just finishing my lunch break and doing a quick scroll through Twitter when I saw a this from InStyle.co.uk –
“The Oscar winner has been named People‘s World’s Most Beautiful Woman for 2017 and it’s an honour she has earned for a record fifth time.” –InStyle.co.uk, 19th April 2017
My reaction was to question, ‘aren’t these sorts of polls and shit a bit outdated now? I mean, how do you really judge beauty?’ which then made me think that how I really feel about this can’t be hashed out in 140 characters or less.
Examining this trail of thought deeper, I just think it sounds quite sad that there is a group of people somewhere, scrutinizing a selection of famous women and judging them on their beauty and trying to determine who is the prettiest of them all. I mean, the same award exists for men also so my argument here is how these kinds of awards are even still a thing. Who even really cares? Moreover, how possibly can you award someone (in this case Julia Roberts) ‘the world’s most beautiful’ title, without I assume, considering everyone in the world? And if you were taking into consideration everybody in the world, regardless of it being just women for the sake of this argument, you would have to have categories in which to group people into first, such as age, ethnicity, country of origin. And are you saying that in this instance of Julia Roberts, is she prettier than someone else who perhaps wears a headscarf because you can see all of Julia? Are we then judging Julia on her hair as well as her face? Is she more beautiful than say, Kirsten Stewart because Julia is seen smiling more? Is Julia Roberts prettier than the likes of Lupita Nyong’o because she is white?
Do you see what I mean? I know I am being a little extreme here but to judge a contest fairly, all of these factors would need to be considered.
For many of us, beautiful people exist so we have something to inspire our visions for our own bodies and appearance, in the same way Instagram of a gorgeous sunset helps us calm our minds and helps us think about what we want from life. I’ve written before about two particular (conflicting) role models I had in my teens that I drew inspiration from (here); 1. Kendra Wilkinson for her fitness (mostly), and 2. Carrie Bradshaw for her fashion. As someone that is very visually motivated I need things to inspire me, as do many of you no doubt, and why some genius somewhere invented Pinterest. If we did not like looking at pretty things and people, magazines, YouTube, and even advertising, would not have the selling power that they have today. In fact, would the world even turn? I’m not sure.
In conclusion, I just think that as a society, we need to re-evaluate the type of messaging we are putting out there to others.
What are your thoughts on this? Do we still need awards and polls to determine the world’s most beautiful people?
Until next time x
