Beauty Doesn't Come In a Bottle

I'm not usually one to complain, but this just has me a bit disturbed:

I got an e-mail notification just now from Pinterest letting me know that I was "mentioned" in a pin posted by someone named Tori Sailer to her board titled, "Beautiful" (check it out here: http://pinterest.com/torikrt/beautiful/). First of all, I don't know this person, so this is obviously spam. Normally, when I get spam, I hit delete and block like it's nobody's business, but out of sheer curiosity, I decided to check out this pin to see just what they were trying to sell me. Here is a link to the pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/133841420146154427/?utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=at_mention (Notice the word "campaign" is part of the URL) The caption beneath the photo of a skinny belly in jeans reads, "OMG I do not believe this absolutely worked! I completely got the summer look I needed. Thanks to bit.ly/HReZ62 it's the hottest thing I have purchased all year!" So what's this campaign about? Some new weight loss drug. The pin even links to an article about someone who tried it out with success on what looks like the Channel 8 News website (it's actually a very realistic fake).

I don't need to lose weight, so I get annoyed when I receive ads like this, but even if I did, I don't need some online vulture trying to take advantage of any insecurities I might have. I get that this is classic spam and probably not worth complaining about, but it is the message that such media, real or fake, continues to perpetuate that most bothers me about all this. These photos of women supposedly represent what is considered "beautiful" and the only way to look like them is by losing weight, not with healthy lifestyle changes, but with some miracle drug. I might as well be a target for this ad considering that, although I am skinny, I do not look like them and I probably never will. Does that mean I am not beautiful? Hell no! These ads are targeted at all women, big or small; there is no filter in their systems that determines who needs to lose weight or not. What about all of those girls and women with eating disorders who think they need to lose weight? I could tell them that they're beautiful and don't need to lose weight, but it doesn't work that way and it is not so simple. This ad may be fake, but there are plenty of real fads out there that use the very same tactics that end up putting such girls and women at risk and tell the rest of us that we are less than perfect.

Does this mean I think that women don't need to take better care of themselves as far as weight is concerned? Not at all. Some need to lose weight, while others need to gain weight (me being one of them) for health reasons. When was the last time you saw an ad that offered a solution to women who need help gaining weight? Probably never... because it just doesn't sell. Is this the way of our world, to turn a profit from the insecurities of the masses? How do we move forward with that kind of mentality? It really saddens me to think about it.

The goal shouldn't be to lose or gain weight, it should to get healthy. Health is a lifestyle, not a thing you buy at the store. Beauty isn't something that you put on or take off; it is a way of being that you experience and that you evoke in others. Even if that "miracle" does what it says it will initially, it won't magically grant you self-esteem, confidence, success, or love, which are all reasons why we put ourselves through so much hell. Only you can create them by making positive choices in life, deciding that you are indeed worthy of it all, and making a commitment to yourself each and every day to love yourself and others and live as if you truly mean it.