Authenticity and the beauty myth

The first Miss England contestant in the global beauty pageant to compete without make up made the finals recently and made global headlines at the same time.

I don’t wear make up, unless the TV or photoshoot people insist on dusting my face to make sure it’s not too shiny under the lights!  But I’ve been aware of the constant feeling that I should my whole life.  That as a woman I’m considered less pretty without it or failing in some way, not making an effort with my appearance or under selling myself in some way.

For years our social norms have been that women shouldn’t leave the house without make up.  I felt the pressure as a young teen to wear make up, everyone else was and the media were constantly convincing me I’d not be beautiful without it and people wouldn’t love me as a result.  It helps of course when they’re trying to sell millions of dollars worth of product for us to feel less than without it!  I’ve realised since my twenties that I was wearing make up because I felt like I should and not because I wanted to or that it did something positive for me.

Now I’m not against make up if it makes you feel good and for some women it does.  This is less about wearing it and more about why we wear it.  Is it because we feel like we should or that we’re not beautiful without it?  Is it a mask behind which we hide?  Or is it just because we enjoy it?

Hilary Clinton was shocked to find she spent 600 hours getting hair and makeup done during the 2016 presidential campaign, that’s 25 days she lost compared to her male counterparts who didn’t need to bother. That shocks me too and what a disadvantage!

The amount of time and effort it takes to paint over our faces means it’s unlikely to be something I adopt.  I also don’t like the feeling it brings.  I feel like me face can’t breathe and doubt if it’s good for our skin health covering it in paint every day.  I also believe it’s wrong to think a woman is made more beautiful by covering up her natural face!

It covers up what’s real and doesn’t prioritise the inner beauty that actually makes the difference.  After all the physical body is just a container for the stuff that really matters and really makes us beautiful, it’s a container for our soul.

Beauty on the inside is a cliché but so true.  Our image will change despite what we try and do to prevent it artificially, we’ll all age and physically change. But it’s just our body, not our kindness, our courage, our intellect, love, empathy, strength, creativity or our wisdom, all the things that really make us beautiful.

Body image has been given such importance in our modern world, combined with unrealistic expectations linked to our self worth and the airbrushing that sets us up to fail.  Self image gets in the way of self love and if we feel we have to change something about how we appear we’ll always feel like we’re not enough.

Do you know when we look most beautiful? It’s when we’re comfortable in our own skin regardless of the make up, fake tan or designer brands we add to that.