Over the decades, the feminist movement has changed many aspects of women’s lives for the better. Such an aspect is the way beauty is portrayed by society. One of the changes feminism has brought the acknowledgment of threats and harm in women’s obsession with their appearance. In an attempt to create a different look, many women were compelled to compulsive eating and starvation, while sexist medical establishments ignored these issues.
By creating positive, female-oriented health centers, feminists made the medical industry embrace positive attitudes and respect toward women’s bodies. This change is essential because it destroys the patriarchal dictatorship of beauty over health in women and forces medical facilities to provide quality care to women.
Starting when she was a child, every woman has been subjected to the standards of feminine beauty. These standards do not know the difference between a white woman and a woman of color in the West. In the pursuit of beauty, the latter group historically required camouflaging, not accenting, their features. The feminist movement changed how beauty is perceived, helping women of color embrace their uniqueness rather than cover it and pretend to be someone else.
In my own experience, feminism eradicated the need to be beautiful. Every woman is constantly reminded about her worth being dependent on her beauty and prettiness. The feminist movement denounces beauty as the end goal in the lives of females. By ridding myself of the need to be seen as pretty and by honoring the fact that no look nor outfit can fully capture who I am, I feel truly free to be myself.