Unconventional Beauty

“Grace Jones is one of the most beautiful women in the world.” However strongly you may feel about this statement it is only an opinion. “Grace Jones is one of the most eccentric women in the world.” Again just an opinion, although we could say that it is Grace Jones’s eccentricities that make her beautiful.                                                     

Does a person need to be ‘conventionally’ good-looking to be beautiful? Or is that how we have been made to think and feel by other people and the media? What is conventional beauty? Everyone has an idea of the ‘ideal’ look, style, body shape which for women and even men has changed dramatically over the years.                                        

Women in history from the 17^th to 19^th Century were more attractive to the opposite sex if they were larger and curvy, with a womanly hour-glass figure. Your bigger size was a sign of affluence; you could afford to live well.                                           

However larger women were soon banished to history with the birth of the ‘Flapper’ girl and her boyish figure. Factors such as World War I and World War II rationing and other fashion movements such as Dior’s New Look all played their part in reducing the popularity of the larger women.                                              

Until that is, actress and style icon Marilyn Monroe helped to show that full figured women can be beautiful with her womanly curvaceous size 16 figure in the 1950’s.This was possibly the last time to date that it was truly considered and accepted that curvy women were more beautiful.                                        

We live in a world where we are constantly judged by our appearance. We also judge and criticise our own appearance harshly, so it is no wonder that so many of us suffer from low self-esteem and a constant desire and need to ‘fit in’.                                                                                                                                         

The media today has left us all with a warped perception of what beauty is about. Size zero celebrities and models that have been made-up and airbrushed to perfection have left us all trying to achieve a level of beauty that is impossible to reach and maybe does not exist, yet we all still strive for it. This in turn leaves us with unrealistic views of beauty and even lower self-esteem.                                                          

So I feel that it is important now more than ever before to be an individual and break away from the conventional. A case of ‘dancing to the beat of your own drum’ has been proven to work by unconventional beauties such as Grace Jones and Tilda Swinton. Two women that are both beautiful in their own right but are not what you would consider to be traditional beauties. Tilda Swinton has said that she is “constantly mistaken for a man” because she is tall and does not “feel the need to wear make-up” and Grace Jones has said that her look “scares men away”.                                                                

But a big part of how they look is their attitude; they have an air about them that radiates confidence. They have a strong almost masculine look yet still retain some femininity. They are women who don’t necessarily buckle to trends or body ideals, they set and follow their own trends and nobody can fault or single them out for their quirky looks because of the attitude they wear it with. Tilda Swinton once said “It’s a real comfort zone for me to feel alien.”                                                         

These women may or may not have a lot of self-esteem and confidence and may even suffer from poor body image, but it never shows; they appear to have a blasé, laid back attitude to the world which makes people a little afraid to judge or challenge them.                  Grace Jones says it best “It doesn't surprise me that people can't see beyond my image. It's amazing but I can understand it. That's what image is for. But it's never a problem for me. It's only a problem for them. I don't really care. I do what I want regardless.”

I personally don’t believe in role models as far as beauty is concerned, I don’t think it’s fair to put that kind of responsibility and pressure on someone; we should be our own role models. We should never look up to anyone and never look down on anyone. However if you were to pick a role model then I think these strong women with their unconventional beauty would be perfect.                                                                          

If we had more people like Grace Jones and Tilda Swinton in the media then I think it would have a very positive effect. We need more strong, independent and confident people that are most importantly, healthy weights. It shouldn’t be a huge controversy to see a larger or older or amputee model on the Catwalk, in a magazine or on the television today.                                                                                                                    

We need to change people’s perceptions of the ‘ideal’ beauty and start to embrace the unconventional beauties of the world.

By Robert Stratton