THE digital age has managed to rip our self-esteem to shreds. The facade set-up Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat has made us unconsciously internalise unimaginable beauty standards from comparing oneself to downright starving.

Negative emotions about one ends up donating the notion that ‘others being better than you’. This leads to having serious psychological impact, especially in teens. The constant need to appeal to your social media and audience can take a toll on a person’s behaviour and possibly make them loath their mere existence.

The anger and disgust eventually spirals out of control thus making them vulnerable to suicide. The irony in this is these toxic standards one sets for oneself are that they are nothing but social constructions i.e., we as humans have invented them.

Put it simply, beauty is entirely conceptual meaning it needs to have an opposing force to exist like good cannot exist without evil, ugly cannot exist without beauty. In its own essence, pretty doesn’t even hold a meaning.

In the 21st century, beauty by definition would be physical attractiveness to a point where features become aesthetically pleasing.

However, in different eras, interpretation of beauty was different with reference to historical context. In ancient Greece, unibrow were regarded desirable feature worn by the most intelligent women. In Japan, young girls would shave off their eyebrows and draw smudgy ones near the hairline.

In the 18th century France, an oval face, double chin and long curly hair were commonly associated with wealth. While in Renaissance Italy, woman with a high forehead where considered virtuous and beautiful. The same features we try to remove from our body were the most sought after a few decades ago.

Beauty is ever-changing and ultimately subjective. When you look at yourself in the mirror next time remind yourself that there is nothing such as beautiful or ugly.

Suhaima Jawad Majeed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2019