beauty standards

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Dark

Fat, Pretty, And Soon To Be Old: A Q&A With Kimberly Dark

Fat, Pretty, and Soon to be Old is a moving, funny, and startlingly frank collection of personal essays about what it means to look a certain way. Read...
Team Ravishly
Ravishly TeamErin Khar
My staring was a compliment; she saw it as a criticism.

Mirror Mirror, On The Wall: Who Is The Most Insecure Of Us All?

Mirror Mirror on all these walls, who is the most insecure of us all? My staring was a compliment; she saw it as a criticism.

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Diane Goodman OF Role Reboot Erin Khar
Drag isn't one-size-fits-all femininity. (image credit: Thinkstock)

What A Drag Queen Thinks About Female Beauty Standards

Being a Drag Queen isn't one-size-fits-all femininity. Not all real life women are glamorous and fabulous at all times, nor should we feel we have to be.

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Annie Walton DoyleJenni Berrett
Just — no. Absolutely not.

Dove Just Launched Its Most Ridiculous Body Positive Cash Grab Yet

Yeah, no. No one wants their bottle of body wash to look like their actual body.

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Rebekah KuschmiderJenni Berrett
"My illness creates the standard for myself; the rest of me has come to ignore beauty standards altogether, especially when it comes to other people."

Why Can't I See My Body The Way I See Other People's Bodies?

I have particular standards of beauty that I believe apply to my body — my body, and no one else’s.

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Jenni Berrett
"My illness creates the standard for myself; the rest of me has come to ignore beauty standards altogether, especially when it comes to other people."

Why Can't I See My Body The Way I See Other People's Bodies?

I have particular standards of beauty that I believe apply to my body — my body, and no one else’s.

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Ilana Masad Jenni Berrett
"I spent quite a few of my preteen and early teen years enjoying taking pictures. But because of the combination of racism, fat antagonism, and lookism, I wasn’t always comfortable getting in front of the camera." Image: Thinkstock

The Right To Be Ugly: How Lookism Affects My Ability To Be Carefree

[W]hy must the acknowledgment of my beauty be predicated on how well and how often I contort to attempt to fit into some kind of ideal? Why can’t I be all the iterations of me and still be beautiful?

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Denarii MonroeIan Anderson
The most beautiful thing you can be is happy. Image: Thinkstock.

Beauty Is Only Skin-Deep

Recently, I was looking through some old pictures of myself.... Like every other person on this earth, I have my insecurities. As I was looking at these photos, I found myself picking out my faults, finding things that I would like to change, putting myself down for looking a certain way or not looking a certain way.

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Leah KavanaghIan Anderson