Forget the Beauty Standards

Gone are the days when a woman should have been tall, blonde, blue-eyed, flowy-haired, slim (but perfectly proportioned), and pink-plump-lipped to be considered a beauty. Not so long ago, however. The approach to beauty has significantly changed (for the better) in the last few years, and the shift came with social media platforms that gave space to women of all colors, shapes, sizes, and styles to shake off the traditional beauty standards. And when the shift occurred on social media, the beauty and fashion world followed suit. The existence of cellulite became acknowledged on fashion web shops, models with vitiligo started appearing in beauty ads, women of color embraced their beautiful, frizzy hair textures on red carpets, and the brands started including women of all sizes and ages in their campaigns.  

Beauty Throughout History

The idea of beauty has always been shifting. Ancient Greeks saw perfect proportions of one’s face as a standard of beauty. When Europe started prospering in the 17th century, and new types of cereals, grains, and meat (as well as sugar!) became widely available, plumper bodies became a new beauty standard (just take a look at Peter Paul Rubens’s paintings).  

The Victorian Era praised small rosebud lips, and the 1920s marked a significant style shift for women with bob haircuts and short skirts. Coco Chanel played a significant role in that period, revolutionizing women’s fashion as well as beauty standards. She shifted from restrictive ornate clothing to sporty, casual chic, introducing pants to women’s clothing and an idea that women should be able to move freely in their clothes - just like men did.  

In the 1950s, the ideal female figure was extremely thin and delicate, an image which Marylin Monroe shook off with her curvy figure and attitude. She brought sensuality and self-assurance to the scene. The world’s first supermodel, Twiggy, introduced a new beauty standard in the 1960s: a thin, androgynous look with short hair and big, emphasized eyes. Then, Naomi Sims entered the world of the predominantly white fashion industry in the 1960s and 1970s as one of the first African American supermodels. However, it wasn’t until Sudanese model Alek Wek appeared on the now iconic cover of the U.S. edition of Elle magazine in 1997 that the traditional notion of a cover girl changed, and the way for inclusivity in beauty and fashion was paved.  

Big-Tent Beauty

The progress lies in the notion of beauty shifting towards more inclusive, or the so-called "big-tent beauty," where everyone is welcome - plus-size women, bald women, gray-haired women, women with disabilities, women with skin conditions. While that shift brought a tremendous change to (especially young) women worldwide, they are still largely judged by their looks in their workplaces, schools, and society in general. "In every country and culture, women are perceived and judged, advantaged or disadvantaged, by their appearance in ways that men are not." writes Robin Givhan for National Geographic. 

That leaves a lot of room for improvement, but we're celebrating inclusivity and breaking off the traditional beauty molds this Women's Day. In modern beauty, everyone is welcome, and everyone is beautiful. Beauty is our distinctive features, "unperfect" hair, asymmetries, skin, and diverse shapes and colors of our eyes and lips.  

F the Traditional Beauty Standards

This Woman's Day, we're inviting you to embrace the notion of the "big-tent beauty" in all its diversity, and to detach from the traditional beauty standards and the expectations imposed by society. Remember that beauty is cultural, and what impresses one group leaves the other indifferent (and vice versa).  

We at MYSA reject the idea of uniform, conformist, and painful beauty. Instead, we believe in uniqueness over uniformity, pleasure over pain, and in a world where "smile and try to fit in" isn't the script women follow. We believe that women should be free to follow their own ideas on how to live, love, and care for themselves.  

Take Care of Your Body and Mind

We also believe in beauty as a reflection of taking care of our health and feeling good in our bodies. That's why we came up with a list of ideas on how to take care of your body and mind this spring:

• Eat healthy, unprocessed food (with occasional day trips to whatever makes you happy)
• Find time to cook for yourself
• Take time off the screen to read, dance, and breathe slowly
• Massage your face for 5 minutes when you wake up and watch how instantly awakened and radiant you’ll feel
• Wake up a bit earlier to write morning pages or have a cup of coffee by yourself before going to work
• Wear SPF to protect your skin (and all its imperfections)
• Go for an evening walk to breathe in the scents of spring
• Browse your neighborhood (or the entire city to find the blossoming trees and pin them on Google Maps for next year)
• Create a perfect spring outfit for Saturday mornings
• Buy yourself flowers
• Go for a micro adventure - is there a mountain, a river, or a wood near your town? Sunday is a perfect day for a day trip.
• Make cleansing and moisturizing your skin a daily routine (because clean, hydrated skin feels a million times better!)
• Declutter your closet, kitchen, or bathroom, and watch how a decluttered space eases a cluttered mind

Treat Yourself if You Feel Like It

Suppose you want to treat yourself this Women’s Day to the possibility of countless spa days at home. Whether it's a deep pore cleanse, finger-tapping eye massage, or hydrating spa facials, we’re offering an additional 10% off already up to 50% discounted FOREO devices with the code FTHERULES (expired). Because every woman deserves to feel good in her skin. (And if you feel like buying yourself flowers, we’re rooting for you, too.)