Dear Society

Courtesy of Mackenzie, a high schooler and frequent Operation Beautiful poster!

Dear Society,

I am a tad bit confused about something, something that should be simple. Something that you should have made clearer, instead of sending millions of other people like me on a wild goose chase in search of truth. What are we searching for? Let me put it simply; we are searching for the correct definition of true beauty. We are searching for what exactly beauty is, because the ways you define it are very obscure. As if you’ve drawn out a map for us, in invisible ink and in a foreign language that only those in the inner most circle understand. 

The way you (society) seem to define beauty for women is; you need to be thin, your need to be blemish free, your boobs and butt need to be big yet proportional, your hair needs to be impeccable, and any imperfections need to be done away with cosmetic procedures. Now all though, your view of society has been mapped out it’s a challenge to take the first step. The first step is hard to take, because we can’t seem to decide where our foot goes. We use magazines, news, Hollywood and the media as our compass. And they all lead us running around in circles, because they can’t even decide what you want from them.

Everyone’s left running in different directions, and then we end up pointing and critiquing the others. The others who think they know what’s “in style” or what’s “fashionable”, and we are also left with one question. Who has the right to judge another person, for what they look? And when this question is hung above us like mistletoe, we can’t help but kiss each others butts under it. One person likes some else’s shirt, and suddenly it’s a fashion statement. Fashion seems to be creating an army, an army of society’s beauties.

This army is full of zombies, or should I say robots? Because they are programmed to feel no pain, considering what they go through to reach beauty, they’re programmed to scan people and destroy if necessary, and they are programmed to do as society says. They are pristine robots, perfect in every way, and none of them revolt. They don’t revolt, because they are scared of falling from their popular graces, from their beauty.

But what about the rest of us, where do we stand in the war on beauty? We’re fighting every day on the front lines, just trying to stay alive. Our weapons of choice are kindness, optimism, and love. We also pour water on the robots, so their makeup washes off and the fake shell they live in explodes. Society your army is filled with the millions who have been left behind, and have no where to go but with the flow. As for our army, well we’re all here by choice. We could’ve been brainwashed by you, but we escaped that fate. And made our own path, one that hasn’t been walked on by everybody else. 

So when we saw your map, and couldn’t quite figure it out. We decided to make our own, that everyone could understand. Instead of invisible ink, we used bright colors. And there’s no crazy language, it’s made so that whoever you are, you can understand it. And everyone draws their own path; you don’t have to go a certain way to get to your destination. Everyone picks up their own marker, and draws the line they choose to follow.

So society, consider this the official Declaration of The War on Beauty. Because we are a thousand voices strong, and a beauty that’s our own, we are so beautiful. More SIMPLY saying; bring it on.