blubiblum:

From a young age, girls are sold dreams about lives of fairytales. This entails the desire to be a princess. A beautiful entity who created in love, sits away in her castle awaiting for prince charming to sweep her off her feet and live happily ever after.

This is a very diluted perception of what the purpose of a woman’s life should be. However it has been restocked, replenished, resold, and reiterated time and time again. So much so that women harbour these emotions throughout their life span. This taps deeply into the insecurities that women face on a daily basis. For most women it is not enough to be enough, condensed ideologies of beauty have been brainwashed into her making her aspire for perfection. For her it is not enough to be beautiful, she has to be the most beautiful girl in the room. It is not enough for her to be desirable, she has to be the most desirable girl in the world. And if she isn’t, then she feels lesser than what she truly is.

New media carry out this illusion of the ideal women with how they market our worth. The width of our hips, the span of our breasts, the thickness of our lips, the richest of our complexions.. every inch of a woman is analysised and crutinised not only by her peers but by the world - and more importantly, herself. There is a line thin between what is right and what is done, and unfair standards have been placed upon women in the hast of fulfilling a fantasy. Commerically women are sold as commodities, the price of her distinguished in ‘attributes’ she possesses that many wish to attain. The unfortunate truth of the matter is none of these attributes are traits in which I believe define beauty. It is not intellect or insight, vision or drive, nor compassion or humility that a woman strives to attain, it is in superficial beauty and manufactured sexuality.

Women are not completely to fault for this error, as it has been registered in the origins of our being that we must be more than what is perceived to be normal. Men desire women of extreme uniqueness to any other woman they could easily attain thus, there is an underweighing struggle within women to be this object of lust. Maybe the issue is actually more deeply rooted in love and the lack of it. Or maybe the issue stems from the unrealistic approach the media takes in representing ‘real’ women. It may even be caused by our men - who do not take the time to adhere to a woman’s desire to be treated like a princess, to be made feel as though she were the most beautiful woman in the world, to him. Whatever the cause there is an obvious problem.

A lot of girls grow up to despise themselves. Even more grow up wishing that they were someone else - that they looked like this or that, that they didn’t have this or had that. Never fulling valuing or appreciating what it is that they do have.

It’s unfortunate because from a young age by father told me that I was a princess and that no matter what anyone had to say to hurt me, I would always be one. Maybe it was the innocence in my spirit, that I’ve held onto into my twenties, that has allowed me the freedom to love myself regardless of what I do or don’t have now as woman. From that day that I was told I was a princess there was no two ways about it, I was one. Whether I was the fairest princess of the land or the richest or the most desired did not take away from the fact that I was.

That for me was probably where I first time I had tapped into understanding my self worth as a woman. I understood through fairytales the treatment that a princess receives - and although real life is in no inaccordance to any of these fables of princesses and princes, I knew that my beauty stemmed from love - that which had been given to me and that which I had given in return. And though I am an imperfect women, with many flaws, I embraced the idea that all women were beautiful, because I thought, and I still do to this day, that they all are princesses.

However it’s sad to know that a lot of women in the world today did not grow up as princesses. They weren’t taught that they would do well to receive someone worth something if they became something worth having. They weren’t shown how their individuality makes them beautiful. They weren’t taught to love themselves regardless of what others thought, had or what they lacked. It’s sad to know that a lot of girls weren’t princesses growing up.