Beauty

Recently a study showed a higher rate of suicide among women who had breast augmentation surgery. Some of the responses to the article at Huffington Post talked a lot about insecurities and depression, but little about why.

We've created a society where women would rather be cut open and mutilated than learn to be comfortable with themselves. Where self esteem comes from a knife and a bottle instead of from within. Where we tell them they must look anorexic, but with disproportionate breasts and plaster faces. Where if they look natural and age normally they're ugly and somehow less valuable. And if they commit suicide they must be flawed.

The flaw isn't so much in the tortured soul as it is the sick machine that causes the pain in the first place. The fashion industry. Hollywood. Advertising. Television. Cosmetic medicine. And a gullible public that has come to believe their propaganda.

We were outraged when the truth came out about the tobacco industry and how they lied. We tried to make them responsible for the deaths they caused. Yet we are silent when our daughters suffer and die from eating disorders. When women jeopardize their health with fad diets and pills. When we spend many millions every year so doctors can inject poison in our faces and other, more brutal procedures so we can look the way we're told we must look.

Real beauty can't be painted on or carved into the skin. It doesn't come from a syringe. No amount of cutting or stretching can create it. It comes from within. It shines from a smile. It twinkles in the eyes. It radiates from a woman who knows & likes herself, and as a result can love others. It comes from the joy of serving others. From loving and being loved. From appreciating happiness after enduring sorrow. It's a reflection of the eyes of her children.

I've seen plenty of real beauty in women who society would consider plain or even disfigured. I rarely, if ever, see it in those who are obsessed with their looks. If you think about it seriously, I bet you'll agree.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/08/study-women-with-breast-_n_59719.html