Just as real, just as hurt

A lot of girls make posts about how they don't fit the culture's idea of an "ideal body." Sometimes they say they're "real" because they aren't really skinny or blog about how much the twisted idea of beauty harms the girls who don't fit it. I agree to an extent, but I think there are issues on the other side of the problem as well.

The culture's idea of an ideal body is also harmful and even painful to those who do fit it. Unless all a girl cares about is attention, being called ideal can hurt. It makes her feel like an empty object. So, please, just remember this: valuing people by physical appearance doesn't just hurt those who aren't deemed physically beautiful by the culture. It also hurts those who are. Girls who are angry about the culture's twisted sense of beauty seem to label everyone who fits it as "fake" or "unrealistic." Instead, they need to recognize that harm is done to girls on both sides of the culture's faulty definition of beauty.

I wouldn't mind selfies IF...

1. People were creative.

There are millions of ways to take a self-portrait.

2. People made them their own.

To me, most selfies are the same picture... just with lots of different faces. Make them original, please.

3. People cared about photo-quality. 

If you have a good camera, please use it. iPhone cameras are not good, by the way.

4. People smiled when they're happy instead of duck-facing. 

Do you really think that's attractive?

 5. People did not post them on Facebook (okay, maybe twice a year at the max).

That's what Instagram and Snapchat are for.

6. The pictures related to the captions.

If the caption says you're going somewhere, the picture should not be of you in the car on the way there. Ugh.