Altering your outside appearance to match how you feel inside is considered healthy and can be a lot of fun too.
Altering your outside appearance to feel healthier, younger, happier, and more vibrant, is also considered healthy and highly recommended.
However...
Drastically changing your outside appearance to match how you want others to feel about you is not, because it becomes clear you may not have a healthy view of yourself.
When you look to others and use your social assumptions to decide your look through these unnatural "enhancements", sometimes to gain a slight advantage, what you're actually conveying (purposely or not) is a cry for help, an attempt to illicit empathy, and a transparent look into the emotional mind of someone with low self-esteem.
These are my opinions, some are factual, some are extrapolated guesses and I'm positive you have your own version too.
It would seem opinions or advice given in these circumstances are okay.
When I encourage outward appearance makeovers (from the inside out) and discourage lip pumping or breast implants because they appear transparent to men - it comes across as a helpful nudge to bettering your life.
Yet all this goes much deeper as the complexity of our social lives always do particularly with the advent of social media and public comment shaming.
Such as this...
I recently read a post from a woman on Facebook who clearly had good intentions. It was a well meant heartfelt plea to the young girls in her country to refrain from injecting their lips to make them look more full.
This story was originally part of a "notice the difference" between pictures of two women. Which is fine - except the original post used another (supposed naturally beautiful woman) with pictures and compared the two.
This is when I felt compelled to step in and DEFEND something not thought about often enough when it's all too easy to judge and shame with a post or comment with total disregard for the TRUTH or for the person being judged unfairly.
Throughout the short history of humans, alterations such as lip rings, tattoos, scarring, wearing of colors, headdresses, etc... is proof these types of alterations originated far beyond our modern world.
Breast implants, lip injections, any cosmetic surgery, piercing, tattoos, scarification, tanning, tooth sharpening, foot binding, lip plating, and any body modification, are merely scientifically evolved or newer versions of something which humans have been doing for a very long time.
The earliest known Tattoo was found on a man named Otzi The Ice Man dates back to 3000 BC.
My point is:
Yes - we may judge the bulging lips and fake tits as pathetic, unattractive, a health hazard, proof of a lowered self-esteem, and it can be argued successfully in many of those cases but of course, not all.
But ANY JUDGEMENT is judgement, and when it becomes a negative view of another - as much as to call it out and pass discouraging words to state one over the other - merely by sight or fight for views or to make us feel better about our decisions and how we're better because we aim to live our lives differently...
It makes we think.
WHICH one is actually worse and more harmful to our fragile society?
The select few who appear troubled or are just trying to gain an advantage they believe they need, for reasons of low self-esteem or the desire to secure wealth by any means necessary...
OR the more prominent masses (hopping on common trends to find comfort in being the majority in at least one belief or more) ... who pass quick judgement on others who in reality, play no real role or have no direct affect in their world.
It's all too easy to throw up a Meme which barely scratches the surface of anything.
It's way too easy to scrutinize without thought, whereas thinking and researching something FIRST makes it difficult, so why bother doing the hard work.
It's far too effortless to react quickly to another and pass a negative judgement without regard to facts or feelings.
Nobody, including me, is free from this "affliction" entirely and I'm sure it's a leftover protection process likened to "stranger danger" casually mixed with our struggle for internal harmony.
This is MY opinion...
Do whatever you want with your body - it's yours!
If you think it will help or make you feel better - go for it.
We can surely discuss the reasoning behind it, if you wish.
We can certainly psychoanalyze the "why" and I'm open to getting to the bottom of why one person feels the need to be vocal about that change while others, just... don't... care.
"We tend to think of human bodies as simply products of nature. In reality, however, our bodies are also the products of culture. That is, all cultures around the world modify and reshape human bodies. This is accomplished through a vast variety of techniques and for many different reasons, including:
- To make the body conform to ideals of beauty
- To mark membership in a group
- To mark social status
- To convey information about an individual’s personal qualities or accomplishments
I have my suspicions and I suspect the complainers and "shamers" who feel the need to judge those for doing something they wouldn't do themselves, are actually being unnecessarily vocal and loud for the same reasons that said person decided to get those lip injections.
Do whatever you want with your body - it's yours!
The unfortunate truth is, and those who alter themselves drastically know it, you will be judged either way.
Your reasoning doesn't escape me - I tend to study human behavior.
My mind will sometimes conclude something about you, a mere passing thought that bubbles up from my own internal struggles - and sometimes, nothing - because it doesn't make a difference in my life whatsoever.
But don't get me wrong please.
I'm not advocating a "this is me and if you don't like it, too bad" OR "I like myself the way I am" at all. If you ask me those are statements primarily given by those who want to change but struggle to get it done - especially when their actions are personally harmful to them.
What I AM doing is pleading, because ad-vocation here doesn't seem to fit, is that we ALL find a way to STOP passing judgment so nonchalantly.
Body alterations, drastic or not, are NOT a problem in our society. They are the results of our society.
The REAL problem lies within the Judging, shaming, complaining, and a concerted public effort to have or wish others would conform to our view of what the world should be like as we see fit.
Related posts you might be interested in reading today:
- Are Guys Really Only Attracted To Looks Or A Sexy Body?
- What Guys Think When They Meet An Attractive Woman Who Is Still Single
- The Top Ten Things That Guys Are Attracted To and Why
- Do Looks Trump Everything With Guys? Is Physical Attraction Important?
Credits:
Photo from Derma Store
