Opinion piece:
Who is the most beautiful celebrity? Maybe... Zendaya or Billie Eilish, Lili Reinhart, or Emma Watson? Regardless of the answer, I'm sure it was a thin, model-shaped woman. I'm sure you didn't think Chrissy Metz or Gabby Sidibe. At our school, how many people do you think are truly confident in their bodies? So many people may think that they are extremely confident but in reality, they degrade themselves every day. It reminds me of my oral interp piece: she talks about how beautiful she is but then she talks about all the things she needs to fix about herself. I would admit that I'm insecure; I wish I looked like the perfect woman, but I don’t because nobody really does. It's all photoshopped.
Men also struggle with these things. There is a newspaper headline entitled “The Sexiest Man Alive”. Why do we think it's okay to judge someone based on their looks? John Legend was the winner of this title in the past. Does every man look like John Legend? No, but now young boys are going to think they have to look like John Legend to be attractive enough. Now, I'm not perfect. When I see an attractive person, yes, I still think that they are attractive but I do not judge that person based on their appearance. Someone could be conventionally unattractive and be a good person, or someone could be conventionally attractive and be the rudest person you’ve ever met.
So who decides what is attractive? I believe that the media is who is responsible for these views on beauty. You scroll through Instagram and see all these models are typically underweight, men have a 6 pack, and women have large breasts and a big butt but a small waist.
The hourglass figure began in the 1830s when women would tight lace corsets to give themselves an extremely small waist, give them more cleavage, and exaggerate their natural hips. Many of the corset practices were dangerous due to breathing issues. Nowadays it's desirable to have a natural hourglass shape without the assistance of a corset. However, the corset is also coming back into style in the ’20s - perhaps you’ve seen the photo of Billie Eilish in a tan corset. Corsets can also be worn as a fashion accessory and not only used for slimming down the figure.
Men would also use dangerous methods to look “better ''. One of the things that men would do is put pigeon droppings on their heads to cure baldness. That's one of many gross and dangerous things people would do because it was trendy and cool. This is a perfect example of how not all trends should be followed, and a healthy body image should be the goal.