Young women in my home country think their primordial empowerment tool is their breasts. It really is that bad
Ugly women need to stop promoting the ludicrous theory of "
inner beauty", since that is just a poor excuse to justify their hideous looks. If you have ever been told that you are "beautiful on the inside", then I hate to tell you this, but somebody lied to you sister. I will not be apologetic about bringing you the bad news because it was not I who made the discovery, but
Osmel Sousa, the "
king of beauty" and the man behind making all the Venezuelans beauty pageants perfectly beautiful at all costs. All costs!
Sousa is a beauty pageant veteran and president of the Miss Venezuela Organization that is responsible for
seven Miss Universe crowns, six Miss Worlds, six Miss International titles and one Miss Earth. That's a total of 20 beauty crowns, out of which only the three of the Miss Universe winners are said to be "completely organic", that is, surgery free.
The standards of beauty in Venezuela are established by Sousa and so young women and school-aged girls grow up honestly believing that they must look like something that came out of a fashion magazine – small nose, ideal weight, angular jaw line, extremely high cheekbones and flawless skin (yes, that includes no stretch marks) and last, but not least, light eyes, hair and skin.
I was raised by my grandmother in a tiny town within the northern Venezuelan coast, where all you can do is enjoy the Caribbean Sea or watch the telenovelas, where the brown girls are always the maids and the blond Venezuelan girls with big bosoms always have the main roles. Out of my siblings, I'm the darkest one, with a prominent nose and thick brows. I certainly didn't fit Sousa's standards of beauty. I was too dark, so I was called the ugly-duckling, and people on the street would sometimes asked me if I was a boy. The deconstruction of women in society starts at an early age, and we wonder why many women are insecure.
Fortunately, I got over it instead of resorting to cosmetic surgery. But plenty of young women don't. Being Barbie-like isn't enough anymore in Venezuela. Women in my home country think their primordial empowerment tool is their breasts. It's gotten so bad that
even our female mannequins in Venezuela have had boob jobs.
"The boost" is all the rage. Forget laptops and cell phones, Venezuelan girls are asking for breast implants for their special
quinceañera gift. In the US,
apparently girls wait a few more years and ask for it as a high school
graduation gift because after all, they too have a right to
happiness (pdf).
What society clearly needs most is that which incites the senses (especially of men) to the zenith of aesthetic admiration: a surgically enhanced, oversized breasted woman. In Venezuelan society, we know this, which is why a lot of women look as if they hold silicone reserves in their chests, surpassing that of our nation's famed oil reserves. Any ladies who are physically underprivileged, fear not, silicone bags are here. Get on with the program and follow our Venezuelan footsteps, because after all, we (almost) always win Miss Universe, thanks to the beauty standards established by our beloved Mr Sousa.
This is not only about men's visual gratification though, it is also about your right as a woman to choose what to do with yours and your daughter's body. After all, breast augmentation is about defying this patriarchic system, that's why, since the very beginning, in the 1940's prostitutes in Japan were injecting themselves with industrial silicon, "
Eager to do better trade with the occupying US forces".
Women have a right to look in the mirror and feel happy and satisfied; how does society expect you to be happy when you have low self-esteem due to your chest size? It is an unfortunate situation, and you know it; you are unhappy with your body, and the only way to lift your self-esteem up is to get breast implants; but don't take my word for it, do
your own research. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you or your daughter getting humongous breast implants, after all, there are not
serious risks. And if you are a Venezuelan woman walking around looking like an underdeveloped 10-year-old, then shame on you, don't tell me that you heard Ex-President Hugo Chavez
warning on breast implants, because he was crazy anyways.
This is about our South American empowerment, so pay no mind to women like
Sandra Lee Bartky at the University of Illinois who talk about the psychological oppression of women:
Systematically deceived as we are about the nature and origin of our unhappiness, our struggles are directed inward toward the self, or toward other similar selves in whom we may see our deficiencies mirrored, not outward upon those social forces responsible for our predicament.
Are you still there? Have you clicked on some of the above hyperlinks? Don't get confused, this is not about reconstructive surgery, this is about plastic surgery. There is a difference. Having said that, I find it necessary to seriously address all of you sisters, not in judgment but in solid womanhood, love and solidarity. Recently, a woman told me that she was happier with herself after she got breast implants for aesthetic purposes, my reply was, "You should have been happy anyways."
I challenge you to question the current societal standards of beauty, but most importantly, to ask yourself the following question, what standard of beauty are we establishing for our future generations? And to my Venezuelan sisters, stop listening to Osmel Sousa.
