Made of Adam and Eve, Not Silicone.

We can’t all look the same. From the on start of your father’s sperm penetrating your mother’s egg, our genes are set. We have our mother’s hair or our father’s deep-set eyes. Our nose may go crooked when we smile and our skin may become rather dry in the winter but that is who we are. Perhaps our hair is unruly and doesn’t look like the model’s hair in the Pantene Pro-V ad. Our eyes might not be the “preferred” color for the opposite sex but they are a part of us. Why, then, do you think the beauty industry has such a strong grasp on young and older women? Is it to dissuade us from facing our real “face?” To make us unhappy with what we’ve got and to “better” ourselves? In a simple word, yes. Don’t get me wrong, I of all women have gone to the lengths so as to dye my hair an unnatural shade, to buy colored contacts and to apply anti-wrinkle cream at the age of twenty-four. Show me any magazine ad where the woman has not had 100 pounds of airbrushed makeup applied or twenty stylists succumbing to her every “beauty” need and I will buy that product. Show me a sustainable and un-enhanced beauty product and I might very well try it out. 

The question then arises, should I spend my time and money on such an endeavor in the chance the opposite sex would find me better suited for their taste? A much deeper and unassuming answer awaits. As a woman who has done the “dying,” the “bleaching,” the “plucking” and the “removal,” I can only offer this: If you ever plan on having a career or a family, don’t plan on having time to keep up such appearances. A family and a career and everyday stresses will lead to you looking, well, more like a working woman than a goddess. And therein lies the root of all our societies problems. If a man were to look for a wife who suits his aesthetic tastes, he should be ready to assume she will be spending most of her time preening and primping. Unless she has the money or the resources to hold up such a livelihood, he should be ready to see her bare all, unmasked and unkempt. 

Call me old-fashioned but in the age of woman’s rights, makeup was not a requirement but more of a luxury given to the upper class when the elite were seeking companions. In the same vein I wish to extend my comparison to men. A man nowadays holds much to his name and his credibility. A man in these times, during such economic turmoil needs to hold his own in such an unstable economy. Are these fair expectations for the male gender? I would say if men hold their self worth in their ability to provide for not only themselves but for a family, then they should expect their wife to be of substantial beauty. And by beauty, I mean by strength and respect. If a man cannot prize his family as a farmer prizes his land, then why does he work so hard to obtain such a life? I can only guess that what one finds fitting another finds distracting.