The #beautychallenge – change the way you perceive beauty…

Think you’re ugly? What if we said to you that you are as beautiful as Adriana Lima? What would you say to that?

We’re betting you’d laugh at the idea and say something like “yeah right. Whatever. Nobody is as beautiful as Adriana Lima.”

But we think if you didn’t have a perception of beauty that was shaped and controlled by external influences, you would never regard another human being as being more beautiful than you are. You would think that you are as beautiful as anyone else.

So we dare to repeat: you are as beautiful as Adriana Lima…

But we’re realistic. We know that if we went around insisting that we’re as beautiful as Adriana Lima people would laugh in our faces. So we get why you would not want to embrace and believe the idea that you’re as beautiful as Adriana Lima. You know that people will laugh. Because, by their measurement of beauty, you’re ugly and Adriana Lima is beautiful. So you would have to be seriously delusional to be going around claiming that you’re as beautiful as a woman who is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. And you don’t want people to laugh at you.

Some people can’t see beauty in a woman if she doesn’t meet a particular criteria.

For example, some people think that in order to be beautiful a woman has to have blonde hair and blue eyes. So unless a woman has blonde hair and blue eyes, she can’t by definition be beautiful. Show these people a picture of Adriana Lima and ask them if she’s beautiful and they’ll say she isn’t beautiful. They might grant that she’s attractive; but you won’t convince them that she’s beautiful.  Because she doesn’t have the physical characteristics with which they equate beauty.

We realize that beauty is subjective. Or more to the point, the perception of beauty is subjective. We like what plastic surgeon Robert Tornambe, M.D.  writes in his 2011 Huffingtonpost article titled “What Is Beauty? A Plastic Surgeon’s Perspective”

The word “beauty” is the most overused, misunderstood, poorly defined word in the English language. What makes a woman beautiful? The Holy Grail of beauty has never been completely understood. The cliché, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is incorrect in my opinion. Perception is the key. It is “perception of beauty” that is in the eye of the beholder. Each of us, however, has a different perception of beauty. We all have different tastes, likes and dislikes, and this affects our definition and perception of beauty with regard to the American woman. As a plastic surgeon, it is my job to counsel people about this perception of beauty because so many misconceptions exist. (source link)

We also like the Confucius quote that was printed at the top of Robert Tornambe, M.D.’s article

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~ Confucius

We appreciate and respect everyone’s right to think one person is beautiful and another person isn’t based on their own criteria for estimating beauty.

But we argue that one of the greatest crimes people can commit against themselves is to consider other people beautiful while thinking they are themselves ugly.

We all have the freedom and ability to create our own vision and definition of beauty. You’re not required to accept an idea of beauty that when applied to yourself brings you to a conclusion that you’re ugly.

After all, what is beauty? What is the value of it in reality?

Sure, if you look through the glass houses and gawk at the lives of the women out there who are on top of the world entirely because everyone in the world (or what seems like it) considers them to be supremely beautiful, you’ll have to conclude that the value of beauty is quite significant.

It’s like Britney and Iggy sing in their song “Pretty Girls”

All around the world, pretty girls
Jump the line, to the front
Do what we like, get what we want

Yes, when the rest of the world thinks you’re beautiful they step aside and allow you to jump the line to the front. They allow you to do what you like. They give you everything you want and then some.

Is it fair? We don’t think so. But enough people think it’s perfectly acceptable for it to be the way things work. And whether or not it’s fair, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change it at this point in time.

What we can change is what we think of ourselves and how we treat ourselves

What we’re trying to say is that most people share the same point of view as to what’s beautiful and what’s not beautiful, because most people subscribe to an idea of beauty based on what the media tell them is beautiful.

From the article “What Is Beauty? A Plastic Surgeon’s Perspective” – Unfortunately, we rely on “beauty authorities,” such as Hollywood, fashion designers and style experts to define beauty for us. The standards and criteria of beauty set by our society have been manipulated and bastardized and are wrong, absurd and unrealistic. (source link)

But some people have their own ideas about beauty and might not necessarily agree with the majority point of view. Most people will agree that Adriana Lima is beautiful. But some people might not agree because Adriana might not meet their particular criteria.

We think Adriana is beautiful. But we don’t think you have to look like Adriana Lima to be beautiful. We don’t think beauty is limited to having a certain color, length or texture of hair, a certain complexion, a certain shape of face, a certain color of eyes, a certain shape of nose and mouth, a certain size and shape of body, a certain composition of facial features.

We think if the concept of beauty cannot be done away with altogether, then there needs to be a movement to challenge the standards and stereotypes and encourage people to tap into the depths of their intellectual capacity in order to rise above the limits of their ability to appreciate the beauty in one and all.

So dare to think you’re as beautiful as Adriana Lima and every other woman in the history of the world who has been classified a beauty. And start treating yourself as well as these women are treated for being beautiful.

Celebrate yourself and sing your own praises. Don’t let people bully you into treating yourself the way they think you deserve to be treated based on how they perceive your looks and evaluate your worth. You can’t control how society sees you. But you can control how you see yourself.

So we challenge you to start changing the way you perceive beauty.

If you’re a woman who considers yourself not beautiful, even if it might not be that you think you’re ugly, we challenge you to change the way you see yourself and the way you see others as far as this concept of beauty is concerned. Why are you not beautiful because your face looks the way your face looks? Why are so-called beautiful people considered beautiful because of the composition of their faces? Why does someone deserve to be celebrated and rewarded because of the composition of their face?

Don’t just accept and go along with the idea that you’re worth less than someone else because of how you look. Or that someone is worth more than you because of how they look.

We’re not saying don’t see other people as being beautiful. But if their being beautiful means you are not beautiful, or worse that you are ugly, then yeah, get on board and start challenging the definition and perception of beauty. Because this concept of beauty is born of perception. Some people like to say perception is reality. They will say that even if the concept of beauty is born of perception, because perception is reality, the concept of beauty becomes the reality of beauty. Well guess what, perception comes down to individual judgement. So use this notion of perception as reality to your own advantage. If, as they say, perception is reality, then by perceiving that you are as beautiful as Adriana Lima, you are in [your] reality as beautiful as Adriana Lima. And that is all that matters. Who cares if no one else agrees? Their perception is [their] reality. Take yours, own it and empower yourself with it. Because you can.