The Long History of "You're Not Ugly, You're Just Poor" [RANT]

At 70 something years old, Dolly Parton was told "Wow! You look like a million bucks!" Her response: "Good! That's about what it costs!" She is my queen 😂

I wish we could normalize aging, its sort of crazy how women in their early twenties are afraid of wrinkles. I'm totally guilty of that, not sure why

I had said it to my friends a lot, I was raised in a "old fashioned, strict house hold". My mom didn't allow me to see "teenage" shows because she thought they would create body images not good for me, no social media. I am from Argentina but 3 of my grandparents are from Italy and one from Austria. They had always told me how my "doe eyes" were cute and how my "rosed" cheeks made me always look blushed (I have rosacea). University came, I moved along, 2016, I was 17. My classmate made me an Instagram for me to be in touch of "what is the Kardashians do" ... Everything went down hill, I didn't have mate tan skin, my cheeks were always blushed, my eyes weren't lifted, sharp and almond enough. I was too fat in my legs but not in my ass, etc etc. Suffered severe ED. My grandmother couldn't believe it, she was desperate because she couldn't understand why would I feel ugly. I told her that I wanted to look like "her" show her a picture and HAHAHA oh boy she put the most "wtf" face and said with her Spanish mixed with Italian "you want to look like an alien? Those people aren't real, I have never seen a person look like that" Mind changing.

When my mother found my brothers’ stash of Playboy and Penthouse, she got one out to show to my brother and his friends. They were mortified, as she pointed out where there was air-brushing, and told them she’d been a nurse for 30 years, and had never seen a body like that.

Oh yes, cats are just so naturally beautiful. No Photoshop, no operations,not fillers. Just fluff and sass and naps.

"Imagine you're a peasant" gurl I don't have to.

It makes me sad for their biological children. I grew up finding my features in the faces of my loved ones and it making me feel beautiful and more connected to them. What are their children supposed to think when they inherit a feature that the celebrity felt wasn't good enough. How are their kids supposed to have self-confidence? I might be reading too much into it but it has crossed my mind multiple times seeing some of their children, thinking "they don't even look like them" and then seeing a before picture and it all making sense.

“If you worked at a Victorian factory you’re probably more worried about getting bread for your 11 children” - my brain heard “getting bred for your 11 children” and was horrified 😭

I'd add that another level of toxicity here is not that these plastic surgery/edited beauty standards are totally unattainable for working class people - it's that cheap, unsafe, and at times deadly plastic surgeries are being aggressively advertised to working class people alongside these images of impossibly beautiful rich celebrities.

"What are we?" "Regular people!" "And what do we want?" "Bread to feed our eleven Victorian children!"

I love the term "professionally pretty." It's some peoples full time job to be visually appealing. That's literally how they pay their bills. That puts their decisions on a whole other plane in my mind. But I agree. They should be transparent about it and we should expect that of them.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I, as a POC, grew up being told that "my skin was too tan" and "my brows were too thick". 15 years later, it's in fashion and people are paying big money to look like I did when I was being bullied for it. And u bet ur ass it's all gonna change drastically again in another 15 years. So it doesn't even matter if you conform to societal beauty standards or not right now, they'll change and you'll have to get more stuff done to keep up. Or maybe you'll just fall into what's in fashion at that moment, it really doesn't matter.

I heard a story once about a female reporter who was interviewing one of the classic movie beauties of the 1950’s. Maybe Rosalind Russell or Bette Davis, I don’t know…. The reporter was admiring the actress’s picture in a magazine and said, “I wish I had legs like that!” The actress replied, “So do I, so do I.” Hollywood is all an illusion.

Another important thing to remember is that celebrities can afford to have ALL their clothing custom fitted, so if you're wondering "why does this garment look so much better on them?" it's probably because it fits really well. The mass produced clothing that most people wear isn't going to fit perfectly because it's made to standard sizes and humans come in a wide variety of shapes.

Bella Hadid- named “most beautiful woman in the world.” Has had multiple plastic surgeries to her face but does not admit to any of them. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The joke is: when youre young you look good but feel not confident. When youre older you dont look like the beauty industry wants you to look but you feel beautiful.

I look at aging as a privilege. My wrinkles, my scars, stretch marks, etc. are signs that I have been lucky enough to live and are an account of the different time periods of my life and stories I have to tell.

I was dating a guy and we were shopping around together one time. He saw a picture of an underwear model and told me he wished he looked like that, and I was like, “You know this model doesn’t even look like that in real life right? Most models are photoshopped into oblivion for ads like this.” This guy’s mind was blown. I was so sad to see this person (who I found actually incredibly attractive and fit) feel like he needed to look like something that isn’t real.

I babysit a young girl who asked me why people even care about looking fat. It was so cute, I'm sure I haven't thought her way in a long time.

As someone who is in their 30s and into kpop, I feel sorry for the teens and early twenty-somethings who are also into Korean media. Plastic surgery is common, and people know it happens even if they don't blurt it out as soon as they get something done. But that 'glow up' and 'lost weight' ect has started to appear in comments in kpop, too, even though we know plastic surgery over there is relatively cheap and common in their entertainment industry.