Beauty

Hello JU....long time no write. As of right now, my brain is running a million miles a minute and I need to write a rant about life, feelings, relationships, and everything in between.

First off, has anyone ever heard of former supermodel Gia Carangi? She was huge in the late 70's and early 80's (about the same time as Surreal Life mega biatch Janice Dickinson) for her unique and exotic looks. She was the meme for many fashion designers including Diane von Furstenburg, Perry Ellis, and Christian Dior.

The late (and great) fashion photographer Francisco Scavullo chose to highlight Gia in one of his noted fashion photography books entitled, "Scavullo Women." In this iconic book, Scavullo chose 15 models and actresses whom which he thought embodied the true essence of "beauty." All of these women were interviewed and then shot (had their pic taken) for a photo layout. The layout was rather interesting. It had one picture of each woman with makeup and one picture of each woman without it.

Each women had something interesting to say. Kim Alexis thoroughly described her transformation from girl with a freckle face to sex kitten. Kristie Brinkley pontificated on about her workout routine. Elizabeth Taylor explained how as you get older, your thoughts on beauty change. Out of all of the interviews, no one quite hit beauty on the head like Gia.

Gia went on to say, "Sure, I'm supposed to be beautiful, after all I am a fashion model, but when I look in the mirror and feel good about myself, then I am beautiful." Sadly enough, Gia was lying. She did not feel beautiful. She felt alone and used. She was the "it girl" in the world of Vogue, Cosmo, and Glamour, yet, that's all anyone cared about. All she wanted was one person to reach out to her. One person to be proud of her, but all they saw were dollar signs. Gia turned to drugs. She died of AIDS in 1986.

In the haunting truth behind her statement, I believe that Gia hit the nail on the head. Being beautiful is about having confidence in yourself. Posessing beauty is feeling it from within and letting illuminate your life for others to see. Knowing the power of your beauty is seeing it through the eyes of the people you come in contact with.

I am able to see this characteristic in others, however, I am unable to see it within myself.

I play headgames with myself. I look in the mirror and see nothing. I do not feel like I radiate. I do not feel like i have anything to offer. I go through the motions of life and feel like a failure. I do not feel attractive anymore. I look in the mirror and all I see are flaws. I do not see what is on the pages of the magazine or what I saw even 3 years ago.

I am 5`2 and 137 lbs (I finally got on the scale...ahhhh!!). I work out and eat right most of the time, but I still manage to put on weight. I have wavy brown hair that falls a bit past shoulders. I have large bone structure. I have such dark eyes that they are almost black. I wear glasses. I am 24 and I am still prone to break outs. I have always had a decent size chest and rather large ass--even when I only weighed 115. I have thick legs from exercising and dancing when I was younger.

(if you want to see a picture, I posted one back in may on here...if I knew how to attach it without losing the article, i would.)

How can any of this define beauty?

My husband thinks that I am gorgeous. Every time he tells this to me, I just want to scream. He knows I feel the way I do. I have brought him to tears on several occasions involving this topic. He says it destroys him when I rip myself apart. He tells me that he doesnt know how long he can take all of my self doubt.

So now, I'm ruining my marriage.

I wish it didn't have to be this way. I want to change, but I don't even know where to start. Do any of you ever feel this way? If so, what do you do to make yourself feel otherwise?
3,361 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
SWEET ALISON time to get thee into some professional counseling and find out why you do not like you so damn much.

Takes a lot of work to keep a marriage together, but both man and woman have to work at it and work damn hard.

I went through similar stuff myself so did colleen, we found out not liking self is a common and human problem.

wish I have more to say on this.
Reply #2 Top
If I were you, and I AM NOT LYING, I would believe your husband. I've SEEN your picture. You ARE gorgeous. I KNOW gorgeous when I see it, TRUST ME!!!. Sigh...If I were only 20 years younger and we were both single...

Reply #3 Top
I remember Gia, saw the movie, know about the book but didn't actually see it. She self destructed really and that was very sad for her.

Listen, I can relate with you about the weight and body issues and about questioning whether you're beautiful or not. I have only one thing to say......you are beautiful only if you allow yourself to be. You said it yourself, beauty is from the inside, it's how a person feels about themself. You're never going to feel beautiful because you keep questioning yourself about it. You have to learn to accept yourself, booty, skin and all. The other day you wrote a nice blog about accepting yourself, perhaps you haven't really done that yet. The thing is we all want to be young, thin and beautiful. But that idea/concept of beauty is made up, created by the magazines and the designers and hollywood producers. It is not the regular man's idea of beautiful. We all fall for it, it's a big SCAM!

I'm not thin, I'm fat by today's standards because I'm not a size 0, 6, 12, 14. In my husband's eyes I'm beautiful. He loves my body (more than I do!) and says it to me all the time. When I get obsessive about myself he puts me in my place very nicely, even if he's a bit machochistic with it. My body is his and he loves it just the way it is. He's muscular and tall and he still looks good even at his age. We still are crazy for each other even after all these years. And I love him for that because he makes me feel so special. We might both be getting old now, body parts sagging a bit, I jokingly told him he's getting a paunch the other day. He's so comfortable with himself. And I know it's easier for most men to be comfortable with themselves.


Me exercising and losing weight has nothing to do with him, it has everything to do with me. I still take care of myself and make myself feel good by dressing nicely and wearing makeup and getting my hair done. But those are not the only things I do to make me feel beautiful. I also take time out to do something I love, that relaxes me and puts me in a good frame of mind. Which means I won't be tense and irate and upset at every little thing that goes on around me.

Most important though Alison is that you have to accept yourself for who you are. If you don't you will never be comfortable in your skin and you will drive your husband crazy as you have admitted to doing. Don't try to match yourself to anyone elses ideal. No two person are alike, unless they are identical twins of course. So your body won't look like someone elses.

And if you really need someone professional to talk to like Elie told you, go do so. There's nothing wrong with doing that. Otherwise if you need a partner in crime to talk to about this, email me, we can compare body parts!! And I still break out too, even at my age! We women are so harmonal!