Re: “EveryBODY is fine”

Upon reading the article “EveryBODY is fine,” I felt the need to voice my opinion.

William Shakespeare wrote that “love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

In an ideal world, that’s where beauty derives from: our minds, personalities and quirks.

The idea of the campaign Celebrate EveryBODY is to celebrate just that: everyone and their uniquely beautiful differences.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that isn’t to suggest that the only interpretation of beauty is based off of appearance.

Markus Zusak poetically wrote that “sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks.
Not in what they say. Just in what they are.”

Inner beauty is something to be valued, as is celebrating everyone’s physical appearances.

This campaign isn’t suggesting that celebrating every body is the same as the physical beauty encouraged by beauty pageants.

I would agree with the article if the point of the SRSC’s campaign was to celebrate physical appearance for the sake of it.

Look at the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.

Those women aren’t stick thin nor do they look like airbrushed goddesses.

They are realistic and beautiful-looking women.

Young girls can look to those women and not feel pressured to look like the starved runway models.

Beauty is subjective to everyone’s opinions, and it’s not an ideal that’s going to disappear.

However, if we can celebrate the uniqueness of everyone and the beauty that all people bring to the world, we’re taking a step in the right direction.

“EveryBODY is fine” just appears to be an article written by someone in the mood to rant for several paragraphs without taking real consideration into different ideas and definitions of what beauty can be.

As Audrey Hepburn said “for beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

Hopefully the next time an article is written about beauty and projecting healthy attitudes of celebrating all body types, it won’t be written with such angst.

­— Kate Hershberger