Every woman is beautiful; are all women equally beautiful?
As a photographer, beauty is such an interesting subject and also kind of tricky. Firstly, I believe we are all brainwashed by the mass media who decides what we get to see and what is beautiful. The algorithm helps with what you get to see and what you don’t. Secondly, we ourselves keep those beauty standards alive because of our preferences. Yes, we are all beautiful, unique, with a one-of-a-kind beauty no one else has. I see beauty in all women, especially older women, but are all women equally beautiful?
Who is and who is not attractive?
What is considered beautiful most people don’t even know why they consider someone pretty or not. Nevertheless people worldwide generally agree on who is and who is not attractive. What we find attractive appears to be ingrained in our biology. When it comes to physical attraction, it seems to come down to several aspects like familiarity, skin tone and texture, eye color, hair texture, color, and style. Many studies have shown that nearly symmetrical faces are considered highly attractive; we rate faces that are more symmetrical as more attractive than those with less symmetry.
Crazy, isn’t it? I also notice my preferences every day when I look at photos and videos. I am aware of my automatic preferences still I fail sometimes to be objective. To change the narrative is precisely why I photograph all sorts of women with all types of body and facial features. I believe that by seeing different kinds of beauty, we learn to look differently. Very slowly but steadily, I see the small changes around me. To go against the overall beauty images isn’t always easy, not even for me, wanting to change the beauty image of women over 40, I feel that what you see regularly influences what you believe in.
We just can’t help it
So what it ultimately comes down to is more fundamental than we think. Deep-rooted preferences determine what we like or don’t like. Trends also have a significant influence because what is considered beautiful has gradually changed over the years. Still, if you look at the changes, they are very subtle and small. It isn’t necessarily fair, but physical attractiveness has significant social consequences. Individuals that are considered attractive are far better represented in the media. And our minds are trained to like the attractiveness stereotypes in people.
Apart from facial features and facial symmetry, other things make a person attractive or not. Indications of health and vitality are prized and considered alluring. People are considered more attractive when their features indicate socially valued traits such as kindness, contentedness, or cheerfulness. Because we live in a society that values how “beautiful” we are, this can be hard to ignore precisely because they are such in programmed preferences. The superficiality of this should also change in an age of awareness, right?
Funny, intelligent, and thoughtful
Although this is what a little internet research tells me on beauty, these studies cannot inform us of how beautiful it is to meaningfully bond with someone funny, intelligent, and thoughtful. Not everything can be measured, and the loveliest of things are on the inside and unquantifiable. That is why for me, as an image-maker and photographer, it remains the most beautiful challenge to capture the beauty in every woman. Even if most of us don’t live up to society’s beauty standards, we are still all uniquely beautiful human beings. Normalizing that which is different from that standard is a task that we can tackle together as a society. I think awareness is growing regarding the individual. Fortunately, there are now many movements that create awareness because to be different should mean to be differently beautiful.
And so I circle back to the topic of this platform and why I started AndBloom in the first place, the under-represented “older women” in the media, and the question “what is beautiful?’. If you study the list of beauty ideals, the features of the aging woman are certainly not among them. We now see a slight change in this, and older women may be seen more in the media. However, they are often aging stunningly beautiful compared to their peers. With features that, despite their age, still meet the same ideals as beautiful young women.
The choice of my portraits in this article is based on diversity. My work aims to show people more variety in what I consider beautiful. I hope to influence the overall concept of beauty. Because yes, all women are beautiful, we just have to learn to look differently.
