To See Or Not To See

     Yesterday I watched a Ted Talks called "Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model". Who could pass it up? It sounded interesting. We talk about feminism and beauty and society a lot on this blog. I guess it's because it matters. At least, I hope so. In all honesty, I don't have all of my ideas straight about what I think about beauty and feminism and society. If you provide me with a convincing argument, I'll listen. I might even agree. That said, I will always disagree with the person who thinks that feminine beauty is tall, thin, tan, and Caucasian. Because it's not. Beauty is so many things. Beauty is laugh lines and happy eyes and brilliant smiles and dirt under finger nails and gray hair from growing old. Beauty is so many shades, so many shapes, in a million different sizes. Trying to categorize beauty is like trying to hold water in your hands. Yeah, you'll get some, but a whole lot will fall through the cracks. When we categorize beauty, we find a few select things that are beautiful and hold on to those, like those few drops of water. But all of those other things that are beautiful that we ignore, it's like the water we lost. Okay, I lost the water metaphor. But I'm sure you can see my point: We make our worlds small because it's easy. But when we take a look at all that we're excluding, we realize that there are some really great things in there. Cameron Russell explains how she became a model: "I won a genetic lottery, and I am a recipient of a legacy. For the past few centuries, we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we’re biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures with femininity and white skin. This is a legacy that was built for me, and that I’ve been cashing in on.” She goes on to criticize this narrow idea of beauty and sates that "image is superficial". She tells the story of how she once forgot her wallet and was given a dress for free simply because of how she looked. Another time, she was pulled over by a cop and let off the hook, again because of how she looked. She admits that she does not deserve this. People judge her simply by how she looks, not who she is. She shows several photographs of herself as a model, contrasting them against other pictures of herself around the same time, in picures of her that hadn't been retouched, modified, photoshopped, or otherwise manipulated. After she shows the pictures she says "I hope what you're seeing is that these pictures are not pictures of me, they are constructions... They [the make-up artists, stylists, photographers] build this. That's not me." 

     But I'm no better than the next person. I am just as affected by society's ideas of beauty as anyone else. Watching Cameron Russell's Ted Talks- even as she rails against the idea that only tall, thin, tan, Caucasian women are truly beautiful- I still believe she is beautiful. A few well-spoken words cannot reverse 16 years of seeing, reading, hearing this idea of beauty. It will not leave easily. I still see women like Cameron Russell as more beautiful than the average person because that is how I have been trained. It will take time, and conscious effort, for me to untrain myself from this limited perspective. But I can do it. You can do it. We all can do it. We just have to want to. I am tired of seeing this same small slice of canvas. I want to see the whole painting. I am also tired of expecting myself to fall into that small slice of canvas. I am not tall, tan, or model-thin. I am Caucasian, but I have no control over that. And that's just the thing: I did not pick this face. I didn't pick this body, this hair, this nose, this mouth, this skin. I was born with them. And to judge me, to judge anyone, on something they have no control over, well, it's the worst possible thing because you're not seeing a single part of that person that matters. This is cheesy, but in the movie Avatar, to the indigenous people to "see" someone is not to see their physical body with your eyes, but to see their soul by knowing them. I wish that's how it was here. 

Day 250 Song Recommendation: "Afterlife" by Ingrid Michaelson. 

- SE Wagner 

Click here to watch Cameron Russell's Ted Talk: http://youtu.be/KM4Xe6Dlp0Y