Wether you're a man or a woman, no matter how sheltered you are form the outside world, you cannot completely escape social media, regular media, Hollywood and all those things that dictate what beauty is supposed to be.
In this era more than ever, thanks to technology, we are being chased by certain ideas of what beauty is. And, like in each era, this one has a sex symbol that changed the perception of what is considered beautiful. That sex symbol is no other than the infamous Kim Kardashian.
She might not be your cup of tea but there's no denying that her presence in pop culture is what made her body type "trendy" and considered as the ideal body type. The thing with her body and her face is that both were altered by plastic surgery. And she made the obviously fake, unrealistic sex doll body the must have. Since she got famous, the number of plastic surgery increased dramatically and mostly for butt implants and fat transfers.
Her body became the ideal body type. Girls started doing squats, eating carbs to become "thicc" and those who could afford it did plastic surgery. BUT her face and makeup type also became THE trend. She started the "contouring" trend and as I said before, people started having more plastic surgery. And for some you can obviously see that she was the influence.
Girls and the younger they are the most affected they get, are exposed to unrealistic unattainable beauty ideals on a daily basis and some actually fall in depression.
Some people say that with a curvier body type being "in", more bodies are considered beautiful thus the "body positivity" movement that have been trending these past years with models such as Ashley Graham or Iskra Lawrence. But those girls are "slim thick" too in a way.
They all have small waists and curvier bottoms and bigger girls who are just as stunning do not identify with them or feel that they pave the way for them. Plus I've heard bigger girls often say that those girls have "skinny faces". (Look up youtubers talking about those "fake plus size models")
On top of that, instead of that "all bodies are beautiful" message, curvier girls who somewhat have the ideal body type started hating on perfectly healthy and beautiful slimmer girls.
Just look at the Meghan Trainor hit "All about that bass" that can easily come off as a hate song towards skinny girls.
There are skinny girls who get praised for their bodies but once again, it's because they have curves. So once again it's all about the slim thick body.
So to sum up things if you're slim thick, you're good. If you're bigger and don't have a small waist, you're not attractive and if you're slimmer and don't have a big butt, you're not attractive either. Does that seem inclusive ?
The only, kind of good, thing that came out of those trends is the "fit body" trend because it pushes people to be healthier and not to have an eating disorder.
BUT there are still negative aspects of it which are the expectations. Girls expect that when working out their body is going to become like Sommer Ray. Well it's not.
No matter how much you workout, a lot depends on your genes, on your morphology, on your skeleton and on the way fat gets distributed in your body.
If you go to the gym, don't expect to get the same results. If you do, you're most likely going to be disappointed depending on your body type.
As far as the face goes, the trendy look is the big fake lips and tiny nose. Kim's sister Kylie contributed a lot on making those things trendy. And a crazy amount of girls have been saving money to look somewhat similar to her.
The worst is that brands like Victoria's Secret get shit for not including heavier girls body because they supposedly set "unrealistic" goals while all the angels and models have natural bodies. (besides boobs sometimes) And while they are all thin, some of them have small waists, others straight waists, some of them have perky boobs, others have small boobs... and they workout and have a healthy lifestyle.
Other brands get praised for promoting what they call "plus size bodies" which are just girls with butts and tiny waists that are either blessed with great fat deposition genes or with a good surgeon.
It's a shame.
Side note: Ashley Graham the famous body positivity advocate said something interesting which is that women of color always had curvier bodies and were praised for it within their communities but crititicized for it by pretty much everyone else.
Until a half white half armenian girl made it a thing.
Now my message is, in real life, none of this matters. Be healthy, have a good hygiene, take care of yourself BUT don't try to be like those girls. You don't really need to.
Most people prefer natural beauties and both men and women like different body types and faces. Sad, isn't it?
A wise, naturally beautiful woman called Dita Von Teese who is far from society's standards (being fake, having a huge butt etc.) and still is considered gorgeous once said :
"You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches."
And those are words to live by. You will always be beautiful to some people and unattractive to others and that's okay because first, there are more important things in the world and second those criteria are insane, most likely temporary since beauty standards evolved tremendously through time and most people don't even care for them.
You're beautiful just the way you are. Remember that.
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