I think people have always been judged by their appearance. “He has such big muscles, he must be stupid.” “She’s so beautiful, she can’t be smart.” “They’re wearing glasses, they must be smart.” “They like to wear black, they must be weird in a particular way.” Brunettes are smarter than blondes and redheads have nasty tempers. That list could go on all afternoon.
I suspect every single human feels that there is some way that they have been unfairly judged based on their appearance, including all the Beautiful People. And I think we have all taken in societal expectations so much that we are our own worst critics.
I am hoping that talking about what those expectations are and how ridiculous most of them are is helping us to do 2 things that are sides of a coin. One is to quit being critical of ourselves and the other is to look at each other without looking for norms. But, instead to see the fabulousness that abounds.
Public conversation about it has helped me unlearn a lot of expectations. In particular, who gets to wear what. I wish the “why did I buy into that?” moments had come sooner. But, they didn’t.
I love this. pictolic.com/article/what-do-athletes39-bodies-look-like-in-different-sports
I am the Audience 