With increasing publicity drawn towards the beauty campaigns launched, and recurring media emphasizing what true beauty is, many of us question why do we, women care so much? After some thought, I realized how many bottled up emotions that I need to keep hidden all the time because sometimes in order to keep a certain image I cannot say certain things or control my anger. Things like the image of a woman and who she should be or who should become was built upon layers and layers of societal values/ opinions. It’s extremely hard to suddenly make progress in reassuring that women can love themselves without giving a crap of how they choose to look or how they look on the inside.

I want to start with a quick story, for the most part of my life up until I got bullied because of my appearance, I never judged other people from their first impressions or cared about their appearances. I didn’t feel any girl was prettier than me, or anyone was thinner than me, or that I was fat, or ugly. I seemed to look at the world all the same, or more accurately I looked at everyone for who they were not how they looked like. This deeply saddens me, because no matter how hard I try, I can’t get back to that point in life. And I constantly compare myself to the standards set by society and values that weave their way through my life.

So let’s get to why women care.

It’s understandable that women love to talk. Talk about this, talk about that, but I think all the women out there including myself understand that there’s one thing we love and it’s gossip. Even me, I sometimes like a bit of gossip here and there. And it’s not a good thing, even though I keep my mouth closed, I can’t help but listen to the comments about other people. The really crude and mean things that women say about their close friends. Yes, FRIENDS!!  So while I’m in the interaction, I can’t help but wonder what then do my friends say about me behind my back? It must happen, and blah blah blah.

The thing is women care a lot because there’s so much hype, it’s on the media, it’s in their everyday lives, it haunts them because their insecurities are flaunted to them at night. When everything’s still, and the only thing that can be heard is the heaving of sobs.

It’s hard to diminish the importance of appearances because society is built on it. But we ourselves, can take charge of that. We can choose to emphasize the importance of the mind, of the soul, instead of the ephemeral things like appearances.

Let us be still, and compliment other people. Let us tell them how beautiful they are for the people they are instead of the way they were born.