Woodinville students might want to rethink calling everyone beautiful

Taken from The Jason Rantz Show on KIRO Radio.

What does it mean to be beautiful?

The answer probably depends on your age or your gender. A teen will likely say something superficial about the outward appearance: being skinny, having perfect hair, having flawless skin.

But a couple of Woodinville High School students want to change the perception of beauty amongst their classmates. They want to change what is deemed beautiful in society.

KING 5 reports the students have started an organization called “Real Beautiful Powerful” in an effort to change what is deemed beautiful at their school and around the country.

“The hardest part about being a woman is trying to live up to society’s ideal of what beauty truly is,” student Kaylen Dailey, tells KING 5.

These kids have a good point about our perception of beauty. I think they have a lot of good messages, like reminding people to pay attention to the personality of the person and the character of the person.

But they also have to be reasonable and live in reality just a little bit because an amazing personality doesn’t just make you beautiful. Just “being you” doesn’t make you beautiful, as much as I understand what they’re trying to say and why they’re saying it.

And though they’re not falling into the unhealthy realm of activism (and I hope they don’t), it should be noted that groups out there with similar motives go a bit too far and end up pushing unhealthy advice.

There are a lot of activists out there on this topic who also need this reality check. There are people out there who want to pretend there is nothing wrong with being morbidly obese for example. They say that being obese is beautiful in its own way, that we shouldn’t judge it, that is them being them, and you should be comfortable in your skin no matter what you look like, no matter how much you weigh.

I disagree with that. I don’t think we should shame people. I don’t think we should bully people, but we should absolutely encourage behavior that does not lead to morbid obesity.

It’s not beautiful to be morbidly obese because it’s unhealthy. That is not meant as a personal slight against someone who is obese. It is really being spoken out of their best interest because we actually care about one another.

The problem is if you say what I just said, you’re immediately accused of fat shaming. You’re immediately accused of being a mean-spirited person. But you could actually want someone to be in better shape because you actually care about them.

You’d prefer this person not die an early death. You’d prefer that they didn’t get heart disease or cancer or diabetes. You would prefer that they didn’t get depressed. You would prefer that they didn’t have a lack of energy. You would prefer they don’t develop these problems because you care about them.

It’s really about how you approach that conversation and how you treat that person. You have to approach that conversation with tact. You should not bully anyone under any circumstances about their weight. We also shouldn’t be pretending that people who are morbidly obese are just as beautiful because that is not fair to them.

I think there are activists out there who don’t want to have that conversation. They automatically assume you are fat shaming. They point to the wafer-thin models that you see in magazines and on TV as the worst example of what society deems beautiful.

And here’s the thing, I totally agree with them on that. They are 100 percent right. Not wanting someone to be fat doesn’t mean you want them to be rail thin. Rail thin is unhealthy also. It comes with its own set of health disorders and consequences that are not beautiful. Ideally, you want people to be at a natural, healthy weight.

There are a few people whose natural, healthy weight is 96 pounds or 296 pounds and you have to be able to account for that in the conversation. But you have to have the conversation. You have to be able to be fair about it. You have to be able to be reasonable about it.

I love where these kids are coming from. I just hope, ultimately, they stay on this path and don’tend up sending the wrong messages.

Taken from The Jason Rantz Show on KIRO Radio.

JS