Apparently, a guy started the event that February 11-14, people everywhere will "tell her she's beautiful," meaning any girl. He gave his background story for why he wanted to create such a movement on those designated days. He said he hates seeing how so many girls/women struggle with appearance and acceptance of their bodies and faces, and skin and everything that is a part of them. He mentioned how it breaks his heart to see how girls destroy themselves in attempt to recreate what they feel is not enough. He said the event was to grab people all over and to tell girls that their beautiful. And not in a creepy, "hey baby let's dance" kinda way, but in a heart to show girls they already ARE beautiful, and don't need to BECOME beautiful by changes and altering what already has reached the destination.
So, while I can say, "Heh, that's a cute idea, but kinda weird," I also can see the other side. I'm a girl. I'm usually surrounded by girls. I am well versed in the language of girl. I witness everyday, usually quite a few times, how desperately we try to be beautiful. Some of us get up an hour earlier than we really need to just so we can know we definitely put the effort into looking our very best. No bags under the eyes, no eyelashes awkwardly stuck together... we make sure those things are taken care of before any one of the opposite sex can see us.
I admit I'm the kind of girl that will opt for more sleep than trying to conceal any blotches on my face. I supposed laziness could be a culprit here, because it's certainly not because I don't want to look nice. But what saddens me very much, is how our world has become. Our "beauty" in our country is fake. Ok, maybe not fake entirely... make up only enhances what is already there. I like make up. I'm not anti make up at all. But the extra color and stuff we use is synthetic. It looks so cool, and can be so much fun to use! But it makes me so mad when we're judged on account of how much powder we put over top our real faces. I loathe hearing one girl put down because she weighs more than another girl. I hate that so many girls opt for a salad instead of chicken because there are less calories. I hate the pain girls endure to be seen as beautiful. We just want to be beautiful.
Now, I know a lot of guys would probably say, "If I just randomly handed out 'You're beautiful' to any girl, she'd be attached to me for the rest of her life." And in a lot of ways, that'd probably be true of many people. But I think the reason for this, is because affirmation like that is so diluted that we suffer the consequences of the famine. The media does not affirm. Even if a girl IS 98 pounds and six feet tall. She needs to change something else before she's really achieved beauty. And often in the Christian world, it's so easy to just say, "A girl needs to grasp that her beauty is not in outward appearance and in the Lord." I kind of think that is cliche though. I think we all know beauty is internal too, and that Jesus shows through us. But I'm not really commenting on inward beauty. I'm really talking about outward right now.
I also think that when girls actually do hear someone else, a girl, say, "You are SO beautiful!" they don't take the compliment seriously. They probably think to themselves, "Wow, that was a lie... I KNOW she doesn't really think I'm beautiful."
Why do we do this!? It's terrible! It's so sad, and is just so speechlessly upsetting that this is what has become of verbal affirmation sometimes.
I think the world is not sincere. I think that's contributing to the issue. I think there in insincerity to the point that attempts to be sincere are heard as mockery. For example, when someone says "You're beautiful," it sounds so untrue. It sounds like it's just the thing to say. It does not sound like the truth.
Then, I think girls get to a point where it's hard to even distinguish truth from lies. Anyone who says the word beautiful, truly or not, is better than someone who doesn't say it at all. Again, the famine of words like "beautiful" can be so blinding. Anyone who uses it, is gold, even if they're untrue.
I know this issue is not limited to girls too. The same thing happens to guys just as often, but in different ways. One example, is the world says "Guys only want one thing." So what about the guys who try so hard to live against the tide, and live above the traps grasping at their feet every step they take? What about the guys that struggle every moment, desperate to be stronger than a weakness? And then in the end, guys still somehow gain the titles girls love to award them-- jerk, douche, stupid, loser, creeper... even though some of those sound sorta silly... the list certainly does not end there. Why do we still use these names for our brothers in the Lord, and even those who are not Christians? Why do we have to tear them down, just because we feel torn down ourselves?
There's a horrible tug-of-war here... for example, how desperate girls are to be found beautiful... so the world says guys just want the bodies... so girls try that. But that doesn't always end very well. So the girls feel like they destroyed themselves all in attempt to be accepted and beheld as lovely. And then the guys think of the girls as sluts, and insulted that girls would treat themselves like their meat, and treat them (the guys) as animals on the prowl.
I think we all are feeling legitimately what we are created to desire. Girls want to be beautiful. Guys want to be heros. But the world is corrupt... it's "bent" as a book I just read would say. And all of our attempts to accomplish these things we desire is a little bent too sometimes.
I actually really don't have a conclusion to this. It's kinda of just my thoughts. As a girl, it burdens me. It burdens me that so much pressure is awarded to every girl who is born a girl. And that so much untruth is branded on guys as well. I don't have any profound ending. I just can't stand to see so much pain sometimes for what has been lost in the fallen world.
In my mind, I think we desire sincerity. And the only place we will always have it without fail is in the Lord.
V insightful best friend.
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