Skin and Bones and Beauty by Zoe Merold

This is just a thought I’ve had in the past and have wanted to write about. I felt it was a curious concept, and that it was worth sharing.

Why is it that when an animal’s skeleton is outlined in their fur, their skin pulled unnaturally tight over their bones, they are starving, neglected, and suffering, but when a young woman looks the same, she is seen as beautiful, desirable, and even admired?

When an animal is put in that condition, people immediately see it as in need of help. They want to care for it, to take it into their homes, and provide the food the creature is so desperate for. They want to rescue it from its pain. So why don’t people want to do the same for the girls who are in pain? Can they not see the agony they’re in?

Those girls who are visibly weary, who have an ever dullness in their eyes, who look frail enough to be blown away in a breeze, are suffering as well. Their anguish is both mental and physical, as they abuse themselves by filling their minds with hatred towards their bodies, and by emptying their stomachs as much as they can. They may not have been forced into it, but if you look a little further, they really are pushed to be that way. How can they help neglecting their own bodies, when they constantly see how the women who are thin are the ones who are adored, who set the standards for everyone?

These girls are practically indoctrinated to be unsatisfied with their physique. They begin to pinch at their skin and convince themselves that they need to stop eating, in order to lose what they believe is excess weight. They’ll constantly be examining their reflection, projecting how they believe they are overweight into the mirror. Nobody can blame them for this sickness, for how they are mentally inclined to do this to themselves, no matter how much it torments them. They don’t know what else to do, how else to feel beautiful. But how and why do many people fail to see this?

            These girls need help and, believe me, they are all around us. They may not appear to need help as obviously as the starving animals you see photographs, but that doesn’t mean they don’t. They need to realize that beauty is not how much someone weighs, or what their size is. Beauty does not have a set standard anywhere. It is defined differently by everyone, and they need to see that everyone is beautifully different. If you find someone hasn’t figured this out yet, tell them. Help them accept what they look like, and how beautiful they are.