The practice of Photo shopping women into unreal proportions, reflections on turning 40 and the expectations of modern beauty women feel they must conform to.
I had a birthday last week. I turned 40 and while I wasn't exactly upset by it all, I can't say that I was particularly thrilled either. I have spent quite a bit of time this past month or two reflecting on how things have changed since I was a girl. When I was a kid, women in their 40's looked much older. Grey hair and stretch pants were the official uniform as only the youngest women were allowed to wear the newest styles. It is nice that now-a-days, if you still have anything worth flaunting, you can. The down side to all this though is the pressure to keep flaunting it even if you just don't want to anymore. I stopped buying "beauty magazines" many years ago. The problem being that they only make you feel ugly. Turning 40 was a lot like spending an afternoon reading beauty magazines and then standing naked in front of the mirror.
I received the standard cake and presents from my family and friends this year...thankfully without the "black balloon treatment... but the best gift I received came in the form of an e-mail the eve of the big day. It was a link to a photo of country singer Faith Hill, a woman I consider to be stunningly beautiful, and it really made my day. We all know that photos are "shopped" to the point of ridiculousness these days but I needed to be reminded at that moment how unreal those women really are in the magazines. The photo was one of those flash deal-ies that first shows the picture that made the cover of the magazine, then "flash", it suddenly becomes the original untouched photo so you can see what they did to it. First I saw an impossibly angelic looking Faith with luminous smooth skin and a perfect body then...flash!...she suddenly looked a lot like me. A slim forty-something mother of three kids with laugh lines and sun freckles. I thought she was beautiful. I needed that. Thanks.
