My four-year-old grandson suddenly complimented his mother: “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world!”, And she replied, “Thank you. And grandma?” He added: “She’s the most beautiful in the world”. “And Tita?” Same answer. After inquiring about all the women in the family, the amused mother was silent, but then continued: “Why didn’t you ask me about grandpa?” The small boy remarked, “Yes, he is the most beautiful in the world too!”.
Certainly, children’s categories of beauty are different from ours. They look at a person in his or her totality. On the contrary, growing up, they develop an idea of beauty which conforms more closely to the criteria for perfection of the female or male body. These criteria change over time: being thin is synonymous today with being beautiful, whereas long ago it would have been a defect.
Media hold up and highlight these standards, proposing them as models to imitate, and teenagers try to copy them at the cost of sacrifice, diets, gym workouts, and behaviors dangerous to health. But is beauty all that important?
Talking to some young people, I understood better how they think. For example, appearance is a key factor in order to find a job. We know from studies done that obese people have difficulty landing a job. In relationships with the opposite sex, beauty can help at first; afterwards, however, that other beauty takes over – that of the whole person, of one’s heart, of one’s soul.
Being too beautiful can lead others to unrealistically high expectations of you or, worse, it may invite inappropriate advances. Those who can rely only on their abilities, instead, do not raise other people’s expectations of them; in the long run they are judged for who or what they are. In short, even being beautiful can have its problems.
Marina Gui
From a youth
Beauty is very important. In my opinion it is impossible to find a young person who doesn’t care about their appearance. This is probably due to the excessive media ads we are bombarded with every day.
People generally think that being beautiful can bring happiness, love and success and this is undeniable: it is of great importance in choosing a lifelong partner as a first impression can help build one’s career. It almost seems that the fulfillment of one’s life is “to be perfect and to be judged beautiful”.
I cannot lie. I too take care of my appearance, and it is not wrong to do this. It is good to engage in sports and keep one’s body fit, develop more abs, put on good clothes before going out, take showers., apply perfume, and style one’s hair, etc., but we should not overdo it and become obsessed about our physical appearance.
Some people overreact to the extent that they begin to suffer from bulimia, anorexia and depression. It is increasingly important to take care of one’s image, but most importantly of one’s inner self. It is good to take care of one’s body without neglecting one’s soul. This must certainly not happen, because the soul is that which really
distinguishes us.
It is what we really are and does not “age” unlike our physical body. We must prioritize the care of our character, our personality. These are what count in life, those traits which will allow us to get along well with our partner, friends, and colleagues…
Having a good character will allow us to accept and enjoy our daily life and relationships with others. We must stop being conditioned by what others think about us and concentrate on what we really want from ourselves. Perfect beauty does not exist here on earth (of course in God, there is perfect beauty).
Yes it is important to spend some of our time taking care of our external appearance, but with the goal of getting to know and improve our inner selves.
