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Photo Credits: Nouman Ahmed, fb page_Arts by Nouman Ahmed
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One
of the first thing which comes in our minds when we think of woman is “ beauty”
other than human instincts credit goes to beauty industry which made it a
compulsory factor. Beauty has always been a trade from stone ages till to date
including fine jewels crafted with stones and molluscan shells to the recent
trends of cosmetic surgeries. As desire of woman to stay young and beautiful
kept on growing, the industry kept on flourishing. Since 20th
century, the industry introduced new trends and achieved many milestones being
a business growing 5.9% annually and experienced least or no inflation.
I
exactly remember the day I met a young, energetic and of course beautiful Saima
Imran in an institution I started my career a few years back. She stopped me in
the mid of stairs we were crossing and said, “Look there are lots of good
products available in the market which help you look fresh whether you spent
your nights sleeping, working, reading or simply changing diapers one after
another- get a few for you”. I smiled and moved on but took the advice
seriously. A new quest started and I realized that its not exactly the prize of
product but of feminism which most of women are paying because majority of skin
care products for men with similar ingredients and same brand tag are available
in quite economical price. There are multiple factors which control the price
of a particular category/product. One of the most important is product demand
in targeted market. At times, need actually exists but most of the times its
created in the minds of audience through proper marketing and management. Like
you have to wash your hair to keep them clean is a need, but a shampoo with
keratin or multivitamin or essential oils to transform hairs into silk, that’s
a need created. And usually in this era it became easier than ever to create
unlimited needs associated with beauty. Because majority of us still believe
that being woman beauty is a Must.
Beauty
has always been a must since human existence but the perceptions of beauty kept
on evolving and still growing. In different civilizations the concept of beauty
is different and facing perpetual change. Some cultures has also set difficult
and painful standards. Like Chinese consider small feet as a beauty symbol and
some cultures still practice casing young girls feet into metallic molds so
that their feet don’t grow in size- and all this associated with marrying a
nice man in future. Hello??? In Thailand similar rituals are associated with
long neck, woman wear metallic rings around their necks. Some African tribes
still cut lips of young woman so that don’t kept by enemies during wars as they
are no longer beautiful. In India, they cut hairs of widows as they now don’t
belong to any man and hence don’t deserve to show their beauty. And it’s a kind
of never ending list of different cultures.
Regardless
of any nation or any particular society till to date women are raised in a way
that they stay more than conscious about their beauty. May be because
generation after generation we have accepted this very much human instinct as a
source of admiration. Admiration for one and negligence of other who doesnt fit
in our narrow concept of beauty. In my opinion it’s not beauty, its beauty
sickness. This beauty concept of masking color tones and shaping features is
becoming more challenging for today’s woman who wants her recognition other
than just being beautiful.
I share with all the responsibility and pain
that these are not actually societal standards set for woman but woman herself
who has been the biggest barrier for her self-growth, emotional health and
instinctive intelligence. Because that is woman who has chosen beauty over
skill. she has an innate nature to love and be loved which she achieves either through
total submission, service or beauty. Although man uses his emotional
intelligence and innate intellect to mentor his skills unlike woman who has
selected aesthetic aspects to be revered and of course exceptions are
everywhere but this is a matter of global perception we have grown with passage
of time.
I often hear by many of my female and even
male colleagues that it’s very challenging for a woman to move with all of her
choices her way she made for herself in a manmade society. May be true in
certain circumstances but how come a manmade society? Is a big question mark
for me.! Women are giving birth to man, raising man, training man, educating
man and setting him free to peruse things his way in his life for whatever he
can be and wants to be. Then, how a manmade society? It’s a woman made society-
Good or bad is a matter of another debate. We need to ACCEPT this great
responsibility of which woman has always been hesitant. What you teach man
today, he will become tomorrow. If woman can nurture nature of a man to excel
his human instincts then why she surrendered it for herself???? and Persuaded
beauty in longer run than achieving her innate skills in general. And those who embraced their natural human
intellect, they excelled as role models in every sphere of human activity.
All
beautiful woman out there, whether you are milking cows or cutting a rice
field, working in a theatre or doing laundry, exploring gene codons or mining
deepest parts of ocean, running a space
craft or making mud pots, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. You are beautiful beyond the
perceptions of beauty. it’s a beautiful feeling to set yourself free from the
concepts of right doing and wrong doing, it’s beautiful to free yourself from
someone else criterion of beauty and to free yourself from any judgments. Being
yourself purely is being beautiful and no one will do this for you untill you.
Regardless of any culture and race, cast or nation, tall or dwarf, fair or
dark------let your SKILL be your beauty-Its Better To Be Respected For
Your Skill Than Being Loved For Your Beauty. Stay Beautiful💗
