Beautiful?

By call to arms

How is beauty defined? Is it one, set, stereo-typical "look"? Is it inside or out? Can anyone find it in themselves, or are some just destined to be "ugly" their entire lives?

Is it found in the emaciated faces of girls institutionalized and fed through tubes? Can it even be found in their hearts anymore? Starving to be beautiful, thin their favorite taste. Goal weight? Zero.

Can it be found in the toilet bowl of a bulimic on the verge of a heart attack? Fingers jammed down her throat, just trying tried herself of everything. Her eyes were once vivid and full of so much hope. Are her eyes beautiful?

Super models are always beautiful. Stick thin, an eight ball and a half a day cocaine habit, but you cannot forget that perfect runway walk. Perfect bodies, perfect face, perfect hair, perfect clothes. Slender, and graceful, their ribs poke at their skin as they snort lines off of bathroom sinks, even toilet seats. Numb lips, numb throats. Numb. Beautiful, right?

The girl that every guy dreams about having must be beautiful. Every girl at school envies her. Syphilis and Herpes never even phased her. They don't love her, but they want her and that's enough right? She's been going strong since she turned thirteen and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Beautiful? She must be. Why else would she be the subject of so many wet dreams?

Dying to be beautiful. Broken and flawed and anything but. So very far from perfection. Destroying themselves. Yet this is what we crave. The fatalities are ignored as long as hundreds of thousands of beautiful carbon copies are produced. Is the empty shell of American culture so influential that it has blinded everyone from what true beauty is? If society continues to push, then eventually we'll all fall and succumb to being "beautiful", rather than ourselves.

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© 2006 mismatchedhearts
Published on Wednesday, October 4, 2006.     Filed under: "Reflective" and "Essay"
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Comments on "Beautiful?"

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  • Reefer_rave On Friday, September 14, 2007, Reefer_rave (139)By person wrote:

    Forgot what I was going to say...

  • soul dancer On Monday, November 27, 2006, soul dancer (95)By person wrote:

    It has taken me 34 years to start accepting myself for who I am and how I look. I am far from "perfect". I feel for all the teenage girls today. May them survive somewhat unscathed.

  • beautifulfallenangel On Friday, October 6, 2006, beautifulfallenangel (62)By person wrote:

    thought provoking, but to be truly on the outside, you must be just as on the inside, society is addicted to the outer ware, of our skin, but on rare occasions can beauty be found without superficial marks, without the fake, without the make-up. society i

  • Jenni On Wednesday, October 4, 2006, Jenni (40)By person wrote:

    just thought i would let you know that when i was in high school, all the pretty girls did have herpes, 75% of my graduating class had herpes, all the preps... luckly, i was a loser in high school

  • elisa On Wednesday, October 4, 2006, elisa (1595)By person wrote:

    don't you think you're pretty...?

  • elisa On Wednesday, October 4, 2006, elisa (1595)By person wrote:

    American culture...?...the cat walk was born in Paris, along with fashion. Most news papers around the world claim Americans are the fattest people in the world. i'll have to come back to this.

  • call to arms On Wednesday, October 4, 2006, call to arms (31)By person wrote:

    America also has the highest percentage of mental disease. Every teenage girl has felt it...there's an overwhelming pressure in this country to "fit the mold"

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