Corpse Bride

By Audrey Hwang

The beauty standard starts from the second society believes your looks determine your value and doesn't leave you, even when you’re dead.

A funeral director or embalmer will dress the body and apply makeup to the face as part of a long process of preparing the body for an open-casket service.

I find it funny that everyone seems to have an issue with the way a woman looks, going so far as to recommending workouts or applying makeup on the deceased. 

Why does a woman have to look socially acceptable and wear make up, even when she’s dead?

Does the beauty standard really matter so much to the point where it follows you even after your life is over?

You’re told and taught from a young age that you should never leave the house unless you look acceptable. Hair brushed, make up done, outfit neat, everything must look good for you to leave the comfort of your own house.

But don't wear too much makeup because then it looks cakey and you’re trying too hard. 

Your makeup should just look natural and enhance your features, but the only tutorials you see online are suited towards ‘copy-paste white girls’. How am I supposed to look socially pleasing to everyone when beauty is subjective?

Someone can look beautiful to one person and average to another.

So if everyone has a different definition of beauty, how do I please everyone?

The reality is you can't. No one is beautiful to everyone, you have to learn that your individual features are a mural. Decades of family lines crossing over to create your own beauty, showing the history and culture of your ethnicity. There is no ugly. 

Instead of teaching young girls how to do their makeup and learning how to cover up insecurities, let them grow into the person they are and tell them that they are beautiful no matter what. 

When did society start caring so much about everything a girl does? Why do you care if she goes out with no makeup? 

The beauty standard has become too unrealistic, creating insecurities where none were and forcing girls to see their worth only on their beauty to society.

A girl is so much deeper than how she looks on the outside. She does not need to prove her worth to society by putting on a fake face and trying to meet unrealistic beauty standards. She's a person, just like everyone else on the planet.