Beauty Inside-Out

Lupita Nyongo’s speech at the Oscars hit many where it hurts most.  In many ways, I could identify with everything that she said – I have been called ‘dark’ by the very people I believed loved me the most. Sure, it can hurt one’s sense of self-esteem; but, thankfully, I learnt early enough not to let it. 

We live in a world that lays too much accent on looking good and, unfortunately, much less on being good. And, sadly, much of it begins in our very homes, even if inadvertently so!

And so, an aspiring actor worries about not having ‘the looks’, a bride-in-waiting is a target for ‘fairness’ creams, and the ‘beauty’ industry scrounges on unholy desires to become beautiful. Unhappy with the way God has created us, we play God and change the shape of our nose, plump up our lips and enhance our breasts to become prettier and more acceptable to a world that judges us by the way we look. Sad. 

Come to think of it, we are more excited about our little girls looking ‘pretty’ than we are about them being kind to someone; we spend copious amount of time on activities involving/related to beauty, demonstrating an unnecessary importance to it; what, even birthday parties of young girls has less of musical chairs and games of darts and bull’s eye and more of nail art, face painting and henna-tattoo!

I wonder who is to blame, when it is we who are the market and we who exploit as well…

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