Our beauty Standards

Lupita Nyong'o has been named the Most Beautiful Woman of 2014 by People Magazine in their annual list, a major contrast against last year's title holder, Gwyneth Paltrow. Whether it was a strategic and intentional move to go with a black woman who made her mark with a performance in a movie about slavery is irrelevant, because she really is stunning to look at. Yet, this façade about what the media deems beautiful seems to be just that to me- an illusion.

I'm guessing that the People list is supposedly a reflection of public ideas and feelings, and not at all about creating celebrity buzz and molding an impression of the way America thinks. So they name Lupita; a dark skinned African woman with barely any hair, and Mindy Kaling; a short, thick, dark Indian girl on their list of most beautiful, yet everyone seems to be chasing the latest bleaching creams, longest weaves and strongest diet pills known to man.

I see the Instagram posts with Lupita's face, and the comments about how gorgeous she is. Yet, I can't help but feel that she stands out to so many people solely because she is so different from all the other faces that have been labelled "Most beautiful". Does anyone really want to look like her? Is Lupita our new standard of beauty or are we all just falsely trying to prove the point that we appreciate and celebrate non-traditional concepts of beauty? Are Indian girls all over the world looking at Mindy Kaling and saying, "Gosh, I need a tan so I can be nice and Bronze like Mindy! I need to eat some more to get curvy like Mindy!" I'm guessing No. Yet, when she is celebrated for her looks we are all jumping up and clapping in agreement. But we still are chasing Rapunzel locks, thigh gaps and lathering on sunblock. (I have a friend who drives around with a black jacket draped over her to prevent any sunlight from penetrating her windscreen and God forbid, activating her melanin. I Love you still. But that's fucked up.)

My point is, that we are excitedly calling these women beautiful, and holding them up as symbols of pulchritude in our new age, yet we do not look to them as models for our "changing" standards of beauty. For years the media has been "embracing" curvy figures with the growing popularity of women like Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez. However, despite their round backsides, they both have rock hard abs and are not what I would ever call Plus Size.

We want to appear accepting and open minded but are we really? Do you think that the standards of beauty are really changing, or are we just pretending that they are so that we appear less shallow and to have a less than archaic way of thinking?

The irony is that a lot of us really do look like Mindy and Lupita! Yet we do not find ourselves beautiful. The real life Lupitas are dying to look like Beyonce and the Mindys want to look like Aishwarya Rai!