Tell Her She's Beautiful Day

Hey Jeannie, I really love what you wrote. You are so right, the US promotes harmful standards and many people think that pushing themselves to the limit and not taking care of themselves is a good thing--that means they are hard workers. This is why the US faces such high levels of people suffering from anxiety and depression as well as other health problems. The fact that we preach to women that they should be super thin and look perfect all the time doesn't help either.

Reading your post made me think of the event I participated in on Facebook called, "Tell Her She's Beautiful Day"--a day devoted to telling women in your life you think they are beautiful in order to promote self-esteem and positive self-image. I thought this was a great, easy, way of activism, and I still do, however, it makes me sad and almost angry that we have to do things like that. Why do we have to devote days, weeks, and events to promoting self-image and positive body image?

I understand why and I know it is fueled by not only the unrealistic beauty standards America has held so long, but the capitalist and consumeristic society we live in. I still am angry and hurt by it though.

To make a different we have to start with ourselves, promoting our own self-esteem and liking the way we look. Then we move to others and encourage them to ditch the beauty standards in our culture. We need to start early, with our daughters, nieces, cousions, and just the young girls in our lives--and the boys--and teach them that they are beautiful no matter what.