FLAWED

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

BEAUTIFULBEAUTIFULBEAUTIFULBEAU

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

BEAUTIFULBEAUTIFULBEAUTIFULBEAU

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WHAT ISBEAUTY?

SELFIES

PRECONCEIVED PEECEPTION

EDITORS NOTE

Self what would you change?

ObsessedWithin Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

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We all want to be accept-ed, to fit in and to feel spe-cial. But we all do this by looking at an industry that sets the boundaries on what can be beautiful. The industry exposes our vul-nerability to make money. Making money on the cos-metics that can promise to get rid of the wrinkles that show we have laughed, to lengthen our eyelashes to look more feminine or to smooth your complex-ion, to look flawless. We change our identity and alter our features as part of the process of evolving into the person we want to be. However are we losing what makes us unique? What makes us individu-al? What makes us differ-ent? Are we losing sight of what truly makes us beau-tiful?

Rosan Roosevelt was asked if she had any re-grets, her answer was as follows ‘ I wish I had been prettier.’

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Our looks have be-come an advertise-ment of our future;

they show our health, our confidence and our intelligence.

‘I always wonder what my life would have been if I had that wonderful ingre-dient called beauty.’ Said Joan Rivers, a women who ma

de a career

joking about peo-ple’s appearanc-es, but whom was also famous for her dramatic cosmet-ic surgery in order to stay youthful,

and to try and achieve the ideal beauty.

The English dictionary defines cos-metic surgery as; ‘surgery performed to improve the physical appearance, rather than for medical reasons.’

The word ‘improve’ is something that ligers in that statement.

What is it to improve something?

Is improvement making it better?

Making it acceptable?

Making it right?

Improve your appearance to make your-self beautiful. I see improvement as a disguise. It is a hideaway in where we don’t have to be judged. These disguises become our limitations;

they become the comfort blanket to our identity, an identity that we conceal and mask. A mask that protects us from the cruel society, whom judge upon us.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

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Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Beauty was something we embraced, celebrated, en-joyed. It is now something we fear, avoiding the sad-ness, discrimination and ugly heart that we have now given the subject of beauty. We have evolved to be de-sensitised. The constant availability and instant access to information and the people around us has resulted in us losing our kindness, our compassion and respect for one another and in ourselves.

To be beautiful is not to be a certain size or have certain features, but it is to be yourself, embrace your unique identity and see the beauty in your distinct individuality. Altering and disguising your beauty creates a generic, a generic that hides the emotion, the flaws, and the stories that make you who you are.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

I would change my ears. I have big ears.’ When asked the same question, the children’s imagi-nation lights up. ‘I would have a mermaid tail.’ Came one girl’s re-sponse. Another saying, ‘ I don’t think there is anything to change.’

As we grow up we become aware of what is around us, we compare and question to find an answer and solution to everything. Any-thing is possible, but within the limitations, the limitations that we define ourselves. These limita-tions discriminate the norm and we choose to idealise the genetic lottery winners.

We define beauty to looks, a combination of shapes and col-ours that is aesthetically pleasing to ones sight. But what makes one particular person beauti-ful? If asked if you see beauty in yourself, what would you an-swer? A recruiter for Ford mod-el agency in New York said, ‘We know it when we see it, or so we think.’ Beauty is indefinable, unattainable and it intangible. It can be found in everyone, but we only choose to see it in the mod-els we idolise.

Within every flaw there is something beautiful, within everyone there is beauty. ‘If everyone wore a cast in the same mould there would be no such thing as beau-ty.’ Said Darwin. Beauty is not something to fear, but something that should be admired. Embrace the flaws, choose to be your own advertisement, and be bold. ‘Had our perceptions no connection with our pleasures, we should soon close our eyes to this world . . . that we are endowed with the sense of beauty is a pure gain.’ Quoted from George Santayana, it en-forces the magic of what beauty is.

Watching a video by the Jubilee Project, the direc-tor asked a number of chil-dren and adults a question; ‘If you could change one thing about your body what would it be.’ The adults struggled as you could see them trying to just pick one thing from the growing list in their head. A response ‘ummm… Just one?

selfie.Then & Now.

selfie.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

‘Angelina Dolan, 18 years old-

1976.’ The picture is old, the colour fad-

ed and the edges slightly torn. She stands there in the centre. A defined line runs down the middle of her grey trouser suit; the blue button-up blouse is the only colour you can make out from the washed out picture. Her face is youthful; a glow comes from her slight smile, her eyes bright and vibrant. Her stance has a quirky awkwardness. It captures a moment; a freeze in time, instantly bringing back the exact emotion and feeling of when the picture was tak-en. The natural un-posed tone gives the photograph a narrative and a history. The photograph is an ex-ample of a ‘selfie’ before

A selfie is a fixation on oneself, a nar-cissistic act, and an act in which you instantly love your own reflection. The selfie, however is also an ob-session in which we all shamelessly indulge. Stopping the moment to be consumed in our self-image and for it to be posted online in the hope that others will gaze upon us with awe.

A Greek myth tells a story of Narcis-sus. A man so in love with his own image, that he drowned in it. The ul-timate consequence of death for be-ing so indulged with his own image. However this idea of drowning in your own beauty is seen all around us. There is an addiction of the idea that you can become a perfect self. This perfect self can be reflected in that perfect selfie. A self-obsession that goes so far that you metaphorically drown in the vanity and consumption on altering your self-image.

The photo’s that surround us today no longer capture unique sponta-neous moments. They no longer capture a natural essence showing someone’s smile and happiness as they enjoy the moment they are in. Instead they consist of filters and fake posed beauty. The staged smiles are a façade used to mask the vanity and struggle of attaining beauty that lies behind the photo.

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Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

JUDGEMENT

Preconceived

Perception

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Before I see you I judge you. Before I know you I judge you. Before I meet you I judge you.

A preconceived perception is formed. What you wear.How you speak.

What you do.A preconceived perception is formed.

A genuine smile.Or a striking pose.A false re-mark.

Or a warm embrace.Those staged pretences that we all fall for.In those moments judgements are made.

The judgments of a preconceived perception.

A persona, built from my imagination. A character, created by my illusions.

A personality, twisted from my expectations. I judge before I know, I judge before I care.

Judgment becomes my defence, A defence of my territory within my mind.

Judgement becomes a disguise for my jealousy,The jealousy of what you may have over me.

Judgment becomes a justification,A justification for my growing obsession.

But do you do the same?

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The way I walk, The way I speak, The things I do.

You make your judgments. Judgments that are a bias from your precon-

ceived perceptions.

I feel judged. You judge my clothes, You judge my looks,

You judge me.

And so I wonder. Do I fit in with your world?

Do I meet your ideals? Do you envy me?

Do you look down on me? Do I conform to the expectations of

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

And so if we met?What if we met, before our preconceived perceptions?

The learning and interaction of each other,before our preconceived perceptions?

What are our reasons?Why do we judge?

Can we meet, Before our preconceived perceptions?

As though two strangers could know so much.The picture house of our fantasyland is all we really know.

So come. Come along and Speak.Meet.Learn.

For there is much you have interpreted wrongly,Through your preconceived perceptions.

We have created idealism for beauty. However this beauty is indefinable. We look for it in everything, forgetting that we don’t need to look and it is just in front of us. It is time to start embrace the scars, our weakness our flaws. It’s time to bask in our own beauty and not strive for the idealism we have made impossi-ble to achieve.

This issue explores, why we obsess about the way we look. What it means to be beautiful and why we should no longer care.

Aisleen Peterson

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EDITORS NOTE

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.

Within Every Flaw There Is Something Beautiful.