STOP THE MADNESS

It happens to all of us. We get judged on our appearance. Some may say this is a normal part of life and we just have to deal with the fact that the prettier people get further in life - this could not be more wrong. Girl's and women these days are growing up with the wrong ideas of what it is to be beautiful, and how much importance should be placed on striving towards the ideal standards of appearance - the belief that if they look better, they are better. 

That's where the  Stop The Beauty Madness campaign comes in. They have said 'Enough of the impossible standards. Enough of the "ideal" image. Most of all, enough of feeling of NOT ENOUGH when it comes to your own beauty'. This campaign is forcing us to challenge the view that a woman's beauty determines her value, and rather than attempt to fit more diverse types of women into an already narrow definition of beauty, Stop The Beauty Madness questions the value we place on beauty in the first place. 

In an interview with Huffington Post Rice explains, "My main mission is to say if women are worried about their weight and their looks to the point that they're not actually putting themselves in the world, then we're missing out on some really extraordinary individuals and some really important conversations we need to be having. Women need to be helping the world move in a more beautiful direction — a genuinely beautiful direction."

Rice explains how beauty seems to be a double edged sword, "Even if you fit the mold, you get in trouble for fitting the mold," Rice said. "You can't win." Rice goes on: "Naturally thin women, or women who choose to work out and have really buff bodies, or elderly women, are not excluded from this conversation. They get their own backlash,". 

"We look at beauty magazines and fashion photographs and whether we theoretically believe in them or not, we've seen so many of them and they've been put into exactly the right light and ratio that something inside of us has said 'That's beautiful,'" Rice explains. "Whether or not we believe in it intellectually, something deeper has set in and we compare ourselves to that."

Rice admits that beauty culture won't change overnight, but hopes or now that women can rely on themselves not to fall victim to it.

"Maybe the next time you look at a magazine, you may have a split second in which you question whether or not that gets in your head again," said Rice. "We want to create that split second where you think, 'Wait a minute. Do I really believe in this?'"

Bit of a heavy post today, but something to think about. What are your views on this? I'd love to hear them.

Lots of love, Anna x