Here’s How You And I Can Break The Age Old Beauty Conventions In India

Audrey Hepburn once said that the beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives and the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

When I look back at my childhood, I think of several aspects that made me feel that I can never be beautiful.

It was nothing but the definition of beauty itself that made me believe that. Our country has messed up standards of beauty, and it is shattering the confidence of millions of women every day. Luckily, I had my father to tell me that my appearance doesn’t define how beautiful I am. But so many girls don’t have anyone. And for them, we need to change that definition altogether.

Here’s what we can do…

1. Stop associating words like fair, tall and slim to beautiful.

A matrimony ad which calls a girl beautiful because she’s fair and slim can possibly be the biggest sham on the name of beauty. When someone describes a beautiful girl to you, keep these adjectives out of your head. The same goes for describing someone you find beautiful to others.

Talk about their grace, their poise, their elegance, their confidence, and passion. Not the colour of their skin or the size of their waist.

 

2. Stop tagging a certain ensemble, culture or attire as more pretty, trendy or fashionable than the other.

A beautiful girl wears whatever she likes with confidence, and carries it with panache. It doesn’t matter if it’s a traditional attire or a happening one piece dress.

 

3. Stop airbrushing and editing pictures you put on social media to make them look conventionally ‘beautiful’.

We need to remind ourselves that every photo in the media is airbrushed and digitally manipulated. Every woman we see on TV and magazines are not really the women we see in real life.

The real life women are around YOU. Embrace authenticity.

 

4. Stop telling your friends and colleagues that they look dull/sick/cried out because they aren’t wearing makeup.

“Oh my God. Go put kajal right now! You look like a different person to me right now.”

No, she won’t put kajal because she doesn’t have to, and doesn’t need to. Stop forcing conventions on girls who are trying to get out of it.

 

5. Understand that what is plain and unattractive to you can be beautiful to someone else.

We have been reading since we were kids about beauty lying in the eyes of the beholder, but I don’t think anyone gives a second thought to that. You can not like a person because of a certain style or a particular taste you have, but that won’t make them ‘not beautiful’. Always remember that.

 

6. We need to remind ourselves that we need to love our own body. This love, confidence, and good health are a better and sexier attire than any other designer label.

Trying to stay slim to ‘look good’ and deciding to get fit are two very different things. Love your body, take care of it, have confidence in carrying it and you will radiate beauty more than any edited Facebook or Instagram picture does.

 

7. Remind yourself that a few decades ago, being stick thin was not considered to be beautiful, as it is today. Conventions are temporary, beauty is forever.

The beauty standards you are trying to achieve will change with time, but your inner grace and elegance will not.

 

Dove has always inspired women to embrace their original self and its new campaign invites women to make their own features as celebrated as existing stereotypes.

“Let’s Break the Rules of Beauty” film is shot by Indian film director, screenwriter, and documentary maker, Pan Nalin and captures “Real Women” from diverse states in India. Eighty-Five women have been filmed in their own avatars celebrating their own idea of beauty.

To help Dove change how India feels about beauty, click here. 

A woman whose smile is open and whose expression is glad has a kind of beauty, no matter what she wears.

Stay happy. Stay beautiful! ❤️‍

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This story is brought to you in association with Dove.