What makes a woman beautiful?

[Marissa Lily]

Women always want to be attractive and be considered beautiful (i think most would consider that a better compliment than "hot"). The question is, what is beauty anyway? I do have to say that Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" ads are good at trying to get that message out that beauty comes in many forms. I think pin-up is the epitome of that, really embracing femininity and the female form in general. I have noticed that men seem to find many more things beautiful about women than we do ourselves. So everyone, chime in with your thoughts, what is beautiful to you?

[Marissa Lily]

Good point about seeing various forms of beauty in media. I think it is definitely getting better though. Have you ever seen the show "How to Look Good Naked"? It was on Lifetime and was a great show about getting women to see themselves as beautiful and accept themselves. it also focused on teaching women to love themselves for their intelligence, strength, caring, whatever and not to base their self-worth on looks.

Anita Fixx said:

What makes a woman beautiful? Hmm...well yeah I've heard about those scientific studies that say the face can be measured and rated as "beautiful" if it follows their guidelines. You learn that in art too that the face should have a certain symmtery to look "beautiful". But it would be nice to think there's something more to it then that. Something like "inner beauty" or whatever it's called...especially you have unusual features. I'm not gonna deny it, I know I don't have the "traditional beautiful". But then again I'm Hispanic and my background is a mix of everything (well mostly European and Native American) you rarely if EVER see women like that on TV, movies, magazines, etc. Not much representation going on there..well not accurate representation anyway.

[Stephanie Jay]

Confidence, very very true. I need to work on that definitely! Hoping that my confidence will increase lots this year, I'm going to try to ignore the little voice in my head that frequently puts me down. And I shall try to listen to my boyfriend more and absorb his compliments with a "thank you" rather than a "ooh shush you silly moose".

Pin-ups Hair Design Inc. said:

What makes a woman beautiful? Simple. Confidence. Nothing less attractive than needy people, that have to be told that how wonderful or attractive they are.

Confidence, my dear, Confidence!

~Rob/Pin-ups Hair Design~

I watch the "How To Look Good Naked" series with Gok Wan whenever it's on (if I remember) and he does great things for those women. He makes sure they know they're beautiful in their bodies and the amount their confidence increases is amazing. Lovely lovely man. My future mother in law saw him in a shopping centre last year - I was so jealous though I think I would have pounced on him and made him work his magic on me!

[Stephanie Jay]

Gok Wan also did a series called "Miss Naked Beauty" which was good. Check it out if you can find it online. Basically stripping women of their make up, making them accept the bits of them they hate and giving them a confidence they never had before. Lovely!

This stupid image the media is putting out there at the moment of boyish looking stick thin women is ridiculous. What a way to make nations of women feel inferior physically. When infact we're not. We're all proper women who come in all shapes and sizes, hey..variety is the spice of life and there are people out there who find all different shapes and sizes attractive. From what I've heard most men like a woman with a little extra - something to grab hold of.

If any of you know who Michelle Heaton is she was told she was fat when she looked like this:

Now if that's not ridiculous...what is? Now she's "trimmed down" but I think she looks fine and dandy there. Bloomin' media pressure!

Also...what annoys me is in the Ultimo bra range all their D cup + ranges are modelled by women who have had breast augmentations. Just get a real girl in there! It would look much better.

Ahem. Sorry. Rant over.

[Poppy Fields]

Oh, don't even get me started on this!!!!! Or when they advertise D+ cups but it's modeled by a girl with perfect little floating B's. Or demi and 1/4 cups modeled by the "enhanced" - thanks, yes, I can totally imagine my meat flaps looking like that with a string to support them *GRRRR*

Sorry. Derail over :)

Stephanie Jay said:

Also...what annoys me is in the Ultimo bra range all their D cup + ranges are modelled by women who have had breast augmentations. Just get a real girl in there! It would look much better.

Ahem. Sorry. Rant over.

[Anita Fixx]

Yeah the image of beauty that's marketed to women these days is just REALLY sad..you've probably heard that if Marilyn Monroe were around today she would be considered "fat". Now that's sad..I used to be really really skinny..people (who didn't know me and my appetite) would think I was anorexic. I was just naturally that way but I hated it. I'd much rather have curves, so my stomach's not flat anymore..whatever. Were women meant to have flat stomachs anyway? Just look at paintings from the Renaissance and beyond, the women looked like women NOT 12 year old boys.

Stephanie Jay said:

Gok Wan also did a series called "Miss Naked Beauty" which was good. Check it out if you can find it online. Basically stripping women of their make up, making them accept the bits of them they hate and giving them a confidence they never had before. Lovely!
This stupid image the media is putting out there at the moment of boyish looking stick thin women is ridiculous. What a way to make nations of women feel inferior physically. When infact we're not. We're all proper women who come in all shapes and sizes, hey..variety is the spice of life and there are people out there who find all different shapes and sizes attractive. From what I've heard most men like a woman with a little extra - something to grab hold of. If any of you know who Michelle Heaton is she was told she was fat when she looked like this:

Now if that's not ridiculous...what is? Now she's "trimmed down" but I think she looks fine and dandy there. Bloomin' media pressure!

Also...what annoys me is in the Ultimo bra range all their D cup + ranges are modelled by women who have had breast augmentations. Just get a real girl in there! It would look much better.

Ahem. Sorry. Rant over.

[Cassie Wanda]

Confidence.
/End Story.

[Marissa Lily]

well maybe it does boil down to confidence, but i still think it is a very healthy discussion to have.

Cassie Wanda said:

Confidence.
/End Story.

[Cassie Wanda]

So true. that was my own end story though. not a end story for all.

Marissa Lily said:

well maybe it does boil down to confidence, but i still think it is a very healthy discussion to have.

Cassie Wanda said:

Confidence.
/End Story.

[Anita Fixx]

What exactly do you mean by confidence? It can mean alot of different things.

[Wink Holliday]

confidence |ˈkänfədəns; -fəˌdens|
noun
a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities : she's brimming with confidence | [in sing. ] he would walk up those steps with a confidence he didn't feel.

A woman who appreciates her own qualities will stand a little taller, keep her chin up, meet someone's gaze... and comfortably laugh at herself if she trips over the curb while doing so. :)

Anita Fixx said:

What exactly do you mean by confidence? It can mean alot of different things.

[Mimi DuBois]

beauty and confidence are epitomised by world famous *BOB* any of you girls who feel down about yourself and are in the New York area go to one of her classes. She did a one off over here in the UK and i came out a different person. She teaches you to love yourself for who you are and as soon as i came out people were commenting on how radiant I looked. Confidence is everything!

[Anita Fixx]

Problem is this quickly becomes ARROGANCE in most people.

Wink Holliday said:

confidence |ˈkänfədəns; -fəˌdens|
noun
a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities : she's brimming with confidence | [in sing. ] he would walk up those steps with a confidence he didn't feel.

A woman who appreciates her own qualities will stand a little taller, keep her chin up, meet someone's gaze... and comfortably laugh at herself if she trips over the curb while doing so. :)

Anita Fixx said:

What exactly do you mean by confidence? It can mean alot of different things.