Perfect Imperfections..

When Britney Spears decided to show the whole of 'girl-world' the un-airbrushed photographs of herself in magazines i felt nothing but pure admiration for her. In this day and age, us girls can't go anywhere or do anything without someone or something telling us how we should look, how we should be, and what 'perfection' is. And to be quite honest with you, i'm just a little bit sick of it. Every single magazine we look at, films we watch and images we see in advertising and newspapers are giving us this image of what we should be. It's no suprise that many young girls these days are already considering plastic surgery, girls as young as 8 are noticing that they are 'overweight', and that such a shocking number of young females suffer from eating disorders.

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 Above: The image appeared in the French edition of 'Vogue'. The young girl pictured in this image is just 10 years of age.
Its very true that young girls are 'growing up too fast' and becoming exposed to such 'sexualised images' too young.


The shocking thing is that some of these young girl's mums believe this to be OK!
I remember reading this article in a magazine a while back and was honestly shocked at this mother's view of what she wanted her daughter to be..i certainly wouldn't want that for my child.. (she has bought her daughter a liposuction voucher - she is 7 years of age) 
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There is no doubt that the whole 'airbrushing' thing has gone to far. In the UK, certain advertisements for Loreal have already been banned, accused of 'false advertising' and over-use of airbrushing effects to sell products.
Even women's magazines targeted towards us contain endless airbrushed images. I agree that a certain amount is acceptable, i don't see anything wrong in 'touching up' an image for use in a magazine, but 99% of the time, i think these magazines go a little bit too far..

 

The rise in the number of men's magazines are also fuelling this strive for perfection, as girls are trying to achieve such an unrealistic body image and opting for plastic surgery and dangerous dieting/weightloss regimes in attempt to look like these 'idealistic' women. Personally, i am sick of opening newspapers and seeing women like this staring topless from the page. Not only is it giving men false expectations of what we 'should' look like, they are becoming role models for younger girls. How many girls do you hear of now days of when asked who their role model is, or what their career prospects are, they simply reply "i want to be a glamour model". 

The amount of times i've heard a male species complain about a girl because 'she has 'no boobs' or 'isn't a looker'. It makes me extremely sad to think that this is what they base their ideal woman on.. (oh..look at that, is that your beer belly?)

Yes, i may be slightly bitter about this, but i remember at school there was a group of boys who made my first year absolute HELL by telling me they didn't like how i looked - i can still remember the exact words they said to me but i shan't repeat them on here.. due to the fact it makes me upset when i think of it even now.

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Megan Fox: Before & After cosmetic surgery

Prime example of surgery obsession going to far -  Heidi Montag. How beautiful was she before!? Her surgery was both unnecessary and dangerous - undergoing 10 procedures in one day! And she still 'hasn't ruled out more surgery to maintain her looks'.

So, we are supposed to have tiny waists, curves in all the right places, perfect pins and a generous sized bit of boob-age. It's very false perception of us 'normal' women isn't it. We need to stop focusing on what we don't like and start focusing on what we do like.

So what if you have short stubby legs and have to wear heels as high as the empire state building to look remotely tall (ahem...me?), so what if you have a gap in your teeth, or a few freckles on your face or a forehead you could land a plane on?

I have resigned myself to the fact now that i shall never have massive knockers, my legs aren't going to grow another few inches, and i'm not too fussed about my nose either.. but really, who cares? Becuase I certainly don't. I've learnt to love myself and be happy in the skin i'm in - as you grow older I think you start to realise this. Everybody has something they don't like about themselves.. it's normal!

It's easy to understand why we all obsess over things we dislike about ourselves, but we all need to realise that not everybody is going to be born to grow up looking like Megan Fox. (and she's had quite a bit of help to get there anyway..) I'm sure when she wakes up in the morning she has a few stray eyebrow hairs, an awful case of morning breath and un-volumised hair like the best of us..

So girls, stop worrying about your love handles, your cellulite, your bingo wings and your double chins and start recognising your perfections instead of obsessing over the unimportant things in life that don't really matter. 

Because the truth is, nobody really notices your 'dodgy bits' anyway :)

So, Thanks Britters! Thanks for showing every single girl out there that it's alright to look normal. Because behind all the airbrushing thats all we are anyway..

Even you, Megan Fox..