The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

WITH the numerous medical advancements available today, women have almost endless ways of manufacturing beauty.

While some settle for putting on a little extra makeup, changing up their hairstyle or purchasing body shapers, others go through life-changing measures – all for the sake of beauty.

Increasing pressure from the media and other sources have led many women to go to extreme lengths just to meet the so-called “standard of beauty”.

But when it comes to beauty, how far is too far? We asked several Bahamian women to what extent they were willing to go in order to achieve their ideal, or maybe society’s ideal, of beauty.

“To me nowadays society has brainwashed women into its definition of what beauty is,” said Sylvian Rahming, a member of the Her’Spective talk show cast.

“Media and magazines tells us to be thin with the ‘right’ amount of curves. Women are placed under extreme pressure to have the perfect teeth, healthy hair, a hot body and flawless skin. Often time the gorgeous women on the cover of a magazine have been retouched, and though we know that, we still seek to become what we see the world is responding to.”

Ms Rahming said in her view, the need to achieve the accepted definition of beauty is at an all-time high.

“Women are now having surgical procedures, tummy tucks, liposuction, nose jobs and butt lifts to keep up with what society deems beautiful.”

Social media has significantly contributed to the growing pressure to be a certain type of beautiful as well, with women putting much effort into posting their best photos and garnering the most ‘likes’. Software programmes like Adobe Photoshop come in handy for those who want to add enhance their images or change their appearance all together.

“I believe if you retouch your photos so much that you’ve created someone else, you’ve gone too far. If you’ve had so much plastic surgery that your health is at risk, you’ve gone too far. If you’re making alterations to your body to please someone else, you’ve gone too far. If you’re doing anything to your body that erases away your sense of identity, you’ve gone too far. The most beautiful thing about you is the fact that you are you,” Ms Rahming said.

“I believe it is OK to enhance your natural beauty and features you were born with, but as women we must find our own definition of what beauty means individually and become that. Beauty to one may be having an amazing personality, to someone else it’s having a big, round butt, to another it may be being thick or full-figured, and to yet another it’s having a small waistline. Do whatever makes you happy as long as you’re not doing it to the detriment of your health, or trying to live up to another person’s view of what beauty is. Love yourself just the way you are, knowing that your physical appearance is fuelled by the level of confidence you exude. How far is too far when it comes to beauty? It’s lies in you losing yourself in the process.”

Samita Ferguson, founder of the CHAMPS group for girls in the Bahamas, said she has encouraged many young women to love the skin they are in.

“Personally, I think that women should be confident in the skin they are in. In terms of weight loss, you hear of so many women trying to lose weight and not doing it the right way. I think it is vital that women, especially black women, to appreciate who they are. For me I have learned to appreciate who I am,” she told Tribune Woman.

“The Word of God is our foundation, and if we understand that we are made in God’s image and likeness, then we do not have to enhance so much of our physical appearance. We learn to love and appreciate who we are. But women go to deep depths, for example like trying to have surgery that shows that they are not appreciative of the body they are in. And I think the media plays a dangerous role because women try to enhance who they are to be like their idols.”

Ms Ferguson reiterated that there is absolutely nothing wrong with enhancing one’s beauty, but when a woman wants to go “under the knife” when it is not necessary, that is going too far in her opinion.

Young Bahamian Ashnell Brown added: “I was the girl who always had to keep up. When there was any fad in makeup, beauty or hair, I had to be a part of it and would purchase all of the latest products. I was once the woman who wanted the hourglass figure and contemplated on several occasions to actually have a procedure done so that I can look just like the celebrities and some of the other women I saw on social media. But then I realised that none of that was helpful to me and would have harmed me. I began changing how I saw myself and just became fine with who I was and how I looked. And when you come to that place where you are OK with you, that is the most freeing thing in the world.”