I recently received a link to a Newsweek piece on “What it Costs to be a Diva.”  The little slide show was shocking as they added up the total beauty costs a woman in each of 4 categories might pay to stay beautiful over the course of that period.

For example, the survey suggested that a woman will spend approximately$65,865.00 in beauty treatments in their teens/20′s – including botox injections and microdermabrasion sessions.  I researched microdermabrasion and the office visits can run upwards of $250, while an in home treatment will cost you more than $20.

(Image courtesy of AdClassix.com)

It’s shameless, the way advertising and media define gorgeous.  Advertisements have never been hesitant to tell us to buy products that will preserve youth and radiate beauty .  The phenomenon has been successful for ages – starting in the early 20th century with advertisements telling wannabe flappers to wear this color lipstick or she’d have a hard time finding a date.  Even in this age, I’ve been told, “never leave the house sans mascara.”

From “1920′s Fashion and Music“:

Flapper culture was bombarded by ads–everything, from the “cure to bad breath” to the “cure for ugliness”, seemed to be sold through the guise of finding the perfect man for a woman to marry.

Entire maladies were invented by creative marketing firms and the newspapers’ need to sell advertising.

To the marketer, the lack of marriage could be remedied through the effective use of many hygiene and beauty products. Even the counter-culture flappers with their progressive thoughts, energetic dances, and modern fashions couldn’t escape the grasp of consumer culture.

We’ve been told since the jazz age, by a barrage of advertisers trying to sell us the next face cream or miracle beauty secret, that our features aren’t beautiful enough.  It’s amazing that anybody could still think beauty comes down to a waist size, a height, a skin tone or a face shape.  It’s even more ridiculous that the standards we hold ourselves against have been edited, altered and airbrushed down to the very last eyelash.

One link lead to another and I was catapulted into an article on how young girls and even 20-somethings have turned into “Generation Diva” – they (we all) are trying to achieve a standard that is so far out of our reach.  And for what??  To forget how beautiful we truly are?  Sometimes it seems like we forget that beauty is a myriad of things, like how you look when you’re happy and the way you laugh and that funny face you make when you’re concentrating.

Beauty isn’t some gift to the omnipresent beholder – and we’ve got to stop focusing on the unrealistic standard the media sets.  I realize it’s natural to be aware of how we’re perceived, but in realizing that standards are often skewed by our visual culture, we have extra motivation to believe our real, true beings are beautiful.  Knowledge is power, in this case and when you know what you’re being measured against is unreal, it makes it easier to accept how beautiful you are.  Beauty is in all that stuff that comes together and makes up that person who gets up in the morning, looks into their mirror and begins their adventure by putting on a smile.

Related posts:

1. More Beautiful Than Fiction
2. Role Model
3. Wholestyle Manifesto

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