Beauty Ideology Quotes

I think the idea of the social construction of beauty - this idea that beauty is simply whatever culture or society says it is - is on the run. Of course, beauty does arise in a cultural context. No one ever denies that. But there's also a natural response people have to it.

Selling a lifestyle - whether it's a brand or an Instagram post - which teaches not just girls but people that your value is defined by what you look like is the most appalling thing that I could think of, especially as a woman.

I argue that we deserve the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic pressure, and even legal judgments regarding women's appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically.

In the earliest days, make-up and moralising were intertwined. The 'cosmetic slops and washes' of the 17th and 18th centuries aimed to smooth complexions and revive a woman's 'bloom' - but their critics were never far behind.

Looks is a matter of perception. At Cannes, Europeans think I am good looking, while in India, I am not.

'Beauty' is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West is is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact.

Back in England, a girl with thick black hair, dusky skin and big brown eyes will turn heads. It is vice versa in India.

When I was growing up, one or two girls were beautiful, but it was not an aspiration, right?

A lot of people behind the scenes were telling me that I was going to have to do something with my hair, my weight, all of that stuff.

I do sometimes painful things to my body in an effort to conform to culturally imposed beauty ideals.

I think each woman has her own relationship to beauty.

In the 1900s, bleaching lotions and skin-lighteners were a female imperative no matter what her colour, often carrying suggestive names like 'Fair-Plex Ointment' and 'Black-No-More.' The tiniest touch of rouge was allowed, but only if applied with great subtlety.

I have never lived in a time when people haven't told me what I look like.

Being from the Middle East paired with my upbringing in the United States had pretty polarising effects on the way I perceive beauty.

I really like where Tony Robbins says that we're all hypnotized to see beauty this one specific way, and it's true.