What is it really to be "good-looking"? Who set the rules for what is a nice appearance? Are there any kind of universal criteria for how to measure beauty, and should there be?
To be young today is not easy. Everyday, from all directions, we are being affected by pictures and words that tell us how to act and look to be accepted by others. And in a mysterious way we are all, more or less, marked by it. From all kind of media we are daily met by glaring smiles and "perfect" bodies, that say "This is how to be lucky! This is perfection! Dream on…" etc. No wonder that more and more young people (especially girls, but also boys) get anorectic and depressive all the time. The mad ideals that float around in society, telling us how to get better and more suited to what "everyone" think is beauty claim new victims every year, every week, every day. Thousands of people press themselves, almost into death just because they know that they will never get "those long legs, that fit waist or that perfect bottom…" etc. May that in any aspect be good or healthy?
Judging from the outside Of course everyone says that it is the inside that’s important, and that beauty lies within. When you really get to know someone that’s all true, but anyway there is no getting away from the fact that the first thing you observe when you see a new person is what he or she looks like. It is stupid, but however it is true. We do actually judge people from what they look like. If someone wears "crazy" clothes, he or she immediately becomes an idiot. A person who looks shy is extremely boring. A boy who uses make-up is gay (the absolutely worst thing a man ever may be called), and a girl who doesn’t is not really normal. Those ideals for how to be are hitting both girls and boys. A girl is supposed to be "pretty", stand in front of the mirror for half an hour every morning, all to be attractive to the boys. Boys on the other hand, should be like "macho", strong and heroic. Even if there is pressure on both boys and girls, we think that it generally is a bit more difficult for girls. It is a fact that girls’ bodies are more exploited in media, maybe mostly in the advertising. But there are also lots of magazines, both for girls and boys, that every week (or when they are published) have a more or less undressed girl on the front page.
Shy Swedish boys… We’ve done a small check-up to find out a little about what upper high school boys and girls think about the "being good-looking" generally and their own appearance especially. We only asked about 50 students, so of course it may not really represent everyone, but we do at least think it will give some kind of indication. 23% of the boys answered that they some time had had some kind of complex while the same number for girls was 95%. Is this really the truth, or is the one or the other sex more honest? We, ourselves, think that in most cases there are more girls who admit that they aren’t really pleased with themselves. It’s of course probable that there actually are more girls than boys who have complex but anyway we believe that girls find it easier to talk about it. The most common parts of the body for girls to have a complex about are the feet and the bottom. Among the boys there are only 17% who have answered which parts they dislike the most, ‘guess the Swedish boys are very shy… One of our questions was "Are you pleased with yourself?". We had five options were 1 was the least and 5 the most. The result of this made us quite surprised:
According to the statistics girls seems to have just as good, or even better self-confidence than boys. 77% of the girls are pleased or very pleased with themselves compared to the boys 59%. Why then do girls have so much more complex? We don’t know but as we earlier wrote we think that they have much more pressure about their appearance. There is only we, the youth (of both sexes), who can do something about it…

"…Now, who can tell me where and how to begin in a world that thinks of ugly as the cardinal sin and constantly is talking ‘bout the beauty within, but locks up in the cellar everything that is grim…"

The quotation here above is taken from a song named "Beauty is the Beast", made by the Swedish group The Ark (maybe you’ve heard about them?). We wanted to use that verse in our article just because we think that it is quite a good summary of the mentality of this world. The same world that in a serious voice tells us to be ourselves adds, in a whisper: "But…you have to change this, buy that, and (…) Then, you will be accepted." It is all so weird! But we do also think that quite big parts of complex etc. lies inside us. If you once have heard that you are not enough, even if that was said with-out any deeper meaning behind it, that may follow you all the time. The one who actually cares the most about what your feet, nose or bottom looks like is you, yourself. Even if we are pressed from the outside, what if you just don’t gave a damn about it?! Every human being has a unique look, and is worth being proud of it. If you are tall or short, fat or slim, blond or dark-haired shouldn’t really matter. It may be difficult, but if you only try to accept yourself the way you are, that is a big step towards feeling all pleased with who you are. Start wearing clothes because you like them, and not because someone else will like you. Say the things you want (we don’t mean that you’ll try to hurt someone, of course), without being afraid of what people will think about you. At last we think that self-confidence has more to do with ac-cepting yourself, and of course realising that you are OK as you are, than it has to do with what you actually look like. We would like to give you another quotation from Ola Salo, the singer in "The Ark", he said once "…one assumption for being happy is surely to accept what you can’t change with yourself…" So, take a look on yourself in the mirror, and se how beautiful you really are!

© 2002 Freeway
Writers:Frida Johansson (sp04-13@park.se)
Sofia Hagström (sp04-31@park.se)
HTML by: Juha Kangas (te04-35@park.se).