Beauty Redefined

In anticipation of the Birmingham screening for "America the Beautiful" on January 31, I thought I'd share with you an article I wrote several years ago. It originally appeared in the November 2007 edition of "Engage Magazine," a Samford University publication.

"I’m beautiful." There I said it… huh… "I’m beautiful"- not so hard… BE-A-U-TI-FUL- that is me… and maybe it is you, too.

Dove’s recent Real Beauty Campaign has women reformulating their definitions of beauty and embracing their own beauty. As part of the campaign, Dove ads and commercials now include real women instead of supermodels as examples of beauty. One recent Dove commercial reveals a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a "supermodel" being transformed from "average" to "glamorous" with the right make-up, lighting, and computer re-imaging.

Researchers at Dove claim that the media has confined female beauty to physical attributes. Furthermore, computerized technology has created an artificial physical beauty that is humanely unattainable. Naomi Wolf (1992) in her book, The Beauty Myth, asserted that the media’s limited physical definition of beauty and exaggerated importance of beauty stifle women and hinder them from achieving their goals and living their lives to the fullest. Wolf reports that women spend more time perfecting their physical appearance through make-up, hair styling, plastic surgery, dieting, and over-exercising than spending time with their families, working to get ahead in their jobs, studying for school, or fostering their spiritual/emotional development.

This mis-prioritization may lead to serious consequences. Internalization of cultural ideals of beauty has been associated with low self-esteem, eating disordered symptoms, negative body image, and depression (Albertson, 2003).

Despite the media’s limited and artificial representation of beauty, the true definition of beauty is broad and multidimensional. Webster’s dictionary defines beauty as "the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit." Helen Keller once said that "the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen… [but] must be felt with the heart." Wikipedia describes an object of beauty…as "anything that reveals or resonates with a personal meaning."

Dove sponsored a 2004 study of 3,200 women from around the world that revealed that women’s definitions of beauty were more consistent with Webster’s definition than with the media’s definition. 73% of the sample agreed that beauty can be achieved through attitude, spirit, and other attributes independent of physical appearance. Women said they feel beautiful when they achieve success (46%), help others (54%), or create something artistic (39%). However, women felt that their definition of beauty did not correspond to society’s definition. In fact, based on society’s definition, only 2% of the Dove sample viewed themselves as beautiful.

How would women be different if they refused to accept media’s definition of beauty? Refreshingly, the Dove studies confirm Wolf’s recent claim (2006) that today’s young women are becoming "bored" with limited physical definitions of beauty.Today’s women define beauty as "transformational" rather than physical, a definition more consistent with the true definition of beauty. Wolf describes transformational beauty as "when your spirit lights you up. And it lights all of you up—your physical presence as well as your emotional and intellectual presence." This is real beauty, a beauty from within that illuminates the soul, emanates authenticity, and inspires others.

When I think about the women in my life who I consider beautiful, they are not beautiful because their skin is flawless, or their waist is 22 inches, or their hair has no split ends, or their teeth are perfectly even and white. The women who I think are beautiful are women whose spirit radiates loveliness.

Beauty is my 88-year-old grandmother who continues to love life, even though she has endured the death of her parents, son, husband, and brother. Beauty is my 18-year-old client who continues to forge through recovery from her eating disorder, even though she is terrified. Beauty is my 21-year-old student who studies abroad for a semester just because she has never seen Italy. Beauty is my 40-year-old sister-in-law who can calm a horse with the sound of her voice. Beauty is my 30-year-old sister whose sings like an angel, my 7-year-old niece whose belly-laugh is contagious, and my 60-year-old mother who never gives up, especially when someone tells her she should. And… I guess I’m beautiful, too… there, I said it again.