2008 Woodie Awards
Natural Beauty Becoming a Distant Memory
By: Carrie Parker
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: Opinion
Carrie Parker
Staff Writer
As warmer weather approaching, bulky sweaters, thick jeans and cumbersome layers are being replaced with shorts, thinner shirts and shorter skirts. When spring makes way for summer, bulky clothing is out and bare skin is in.
Brighter colors and darker skin will be included in the mix. Also, for all the girls and guys who do not have the cookie-cutter bodies that our society longs for, their worst fear is coming: bathing suit season.
With summer drawing near, college students are focusing on getting back into shape from their winter hibernation and are preparing to spend their vacation on the beach or near a pool. Accompanying this need to have the perfect body, looks and skin color, are students making drastic, often unwise decisions about how to achieve what they believe will make them physically perfect.
According to Anred.com, five percent of all males and females between the ages of 10-30 have an eating disorder. Our society has come to embrace unrealistic expectations as standards for beauty. Stick-thin, yet shapely. Tan-skinned, but healthy and wrinkle-free. The television and movie industry has desensitized us, making us accept this view, and even expect it.
How are we supposed to determine the line between a healthy concern for our looks and vanity? There is a thin line to be drawn between caring and obsessing.
We need a serious wake-up call and be reminded of how God made us. We are all different shapes, sizes and colors. There is nothing wrong with staying healthy, exercising and wearing modest amounts of makeup. However, it gets way out of hand when girls spend hours time in tanning beds, salons and in front of mirrors focusing on their outer appearances, fueling impossible expectations. Males are just as guilty as females when they spend countless hours in the gym, focus on having expensive clothes or fancy cars.
The women and men in Hollywood who are idolized for their perfect skin, flawless bodies and amazing jaw lines spend most of their lives working to stay like that. They eat very little, spend hours a day in the gym with personal trainers, and have people on hand to fix their hair and makeup any hour of the day.
Staff Writer
As warmer weather approaching, bulky sweaters, thick jeans and cumbersome layers are being replaced with shorts, thinner shirts and shorter skirts. When spring makes way for summer, bulky clothing is out and bare skin is in.
Brighter colors and darker skin will be included in the mix. Also, for all the girls and guys who do not have the cookie-cutter bodies that our society longs for, their worst fear is coming: bathing suit season.
With summer drawing near, college students are focusing on getting back into shape from their winter hibernation and are preparing to spend their vacation on the beach or near a pool. Accompanying this need to have the perfect body, looks and skin color, are students making drastic, often unwise decisions about how to achieve what they believe will make them physically perfect.
According to Anred.com, five percent of all males and females between the ages of 10-30 have an eating disorder. Our society has come to embrace unrealistic expectations as standards for beauty. Stick-thin, yet shapely. Tan-skinned, but healthy and wrinkle-free. The television and movie industry has desensitized us, making us accept this view, and even expect it.
How are we supposed to determine the line between a healthy concern for our looks and vanity? There is a thin line to be drawn between caring and obsessing.
We need a serious wake-up call and be reminded of how God made us. We are all different shapes, sizes and colors. There is nothing wrong with staying healthy, exercising and wearing modest amounts of makeup. However, it gets way out of hand when girls spend hours time in tanning beds, salons and in front of mirrors focusing on their outer appearances, fueling impossible expectations. Males are just as guilty as females when they spend countless hours in the gym, focus on having expensive clothes or fancy cars.
The women and men in Hollywood who are idolized for their perfect skin, flawless bodies and amazing jaw lines spend most of their lives working to stay like that. They eat very little, spend hours a day in the gym with personal trainers, and have people on hand to fix their hair and makeup any hour of the day.
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