'Beauty'

A certain family member and close friend has just announced that she is to have a breast enlargement. I hasten to add that she is an attractive girl, whose figure is lovely as it is, and she is not overly rich. She is happily married to a childhood sweetheart, who, as far as I know, has never so much as looked at another girl and because they started seeing each other at a very young age, he hadn’t had any serious relationships before he met her.
What is it about our society that makes us so obsessed with our looks? What makes someone in this situation so desperately want to change a part of their body that is so insignificant and unimportant? We are all so quick to blame this ‘cult of celebrity’ with their airbrushed skin and disastrously skinny figures but those magazines only exist because someone buys them in the first place.
This is something that concerns me, having a daughter. I want her to grow up proud and confident in herself whatever shape her body decides to take, I want her to realise that whatever is inside is one hundred times more important than her bra size or waist measurement. This is difficult when the TV, magazines, even family members are giving out a totally different message.
I’m beginning to realise that there is going to be so much more to this than telling Littleone that she’s beautiful every five minutes, banning Barbie from the house and trying to set a good example myself. Anyone who has got any more tips, they would be gratefully appreciated in the comments to this post.
I once read a really inspirational article in the Radio Times (I think) it was actually related to a programme on the TV which I then promptly forgot to watch (!) So I really apologise for not knowing many details. (Again, if anyone saw the programme and can at least give me the woman’s name, I will be eternally grateful) The girl was born, (and I struggle to find words that are not negative in any way) with what are called ‘facial deformities’ but lets for the sake of our argument say that she was born not adhering to society’s view of physical perfection. Throughout her life she had been offered all sorts of ‘corrective surgery’ but she refused, having the view that there was nothing wrong with her face in itself, what was wrong was society’s reaction to her.
I think those of us who complain that our breasts or our tummies are the wrong size, our eyes the wrong colour or our noses too long or whatever, have got a lot to learn from this woman.