What is beauty? This question came to me after meeting up with seven beautiful natural women this past weekend. This question has stayed with me and I do feel it is an important one. The subject of hair of course was our main discussion and within that subject we discussed how kinky or curly our hair is and the obstacles/challenges that are presented when styling it each morning to face the world. Beauty to me is subjective, intangible and fluid. It cannot be caught and bottled and than pulled out to measure someone's beauty whether it be by hair or other physical features like skin tone, lips, breasts, etc. I have seen couples together and thought "wow, how did they meet," and what were the dynamics of their relationship. I don't want to come across as superficial, looks are not the only things that count but I know we have all seen a man and woman walking together and taken a double take to confirm their pairing.
I view myself as beautiful, inside and outside and no one can take that from me. I look at my hair and see beauty, this did not happen over night, it was a process from the unknown to the known. I cannot tell you the date I saw my hair and loved everything about it but I will say I and my hair grew together, through trial and tribulation. Their are women who "get it" early in life and that manifest into sex appeal, a "je ne c'est quoi." I applaud the mothers that instill love of self within their daughters, from the crowns of their heads to the souls of their feet they are taught that they are beautiful, they are loved and it must be guarded as sacred. I think it is safe to say that we have all met someone when upon first glance we were not attracted to them but their 'swagger' caught us and than we learned a few things about life.
We all come in layers, we all grow and yield fruit that others see as attractive. Beauty just is, the word holds so many meanings. One of which for me is beauty translates into love of self, and when we love our selves nothing can tell us differently, how we feel about ourselves becomes unchanging when we get to that place of acceptance, isn't that what beauty is?
2 comments:
I really love this post. ‘What is beauty?’ is a question that I’ve pondered for quite some time. In the past, I always just assumed that definition of beauty was absolute in that anything not depicted in magazines, television and on the runway did not qualify as beautiful. As a black female with ‘ethnic’ features, you can imagine the inner struggle that this led to. Similar to you wondering about seemingly mismatched couples, I’ve wondered about where the confidence came from in girls that do not fit the narrow Eurocentric ideal of beauty. I’ve since realized that two factors must be true for one to be deemed beautiful: 1) one must be beautiful on the inside and 2) one must believe that they are beautiful. Once those two factors are in place, everyone else will categorize you as beautiful.
@ Anonymous
Thank you for your comment. The value of what is beautiful is based in eurocentric ideals and many times a woman who doesn't fit that mold that is accepted as beautiful by the establishement is seen as the exception. We cannot allow others to dictate to us what is beautiful. Your point about being beautiful on the inside and than accepting your self as beautiful is on point.
Thank you for sharing:)
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