Some of you may know, last month on Twitter, some Christina fans were playing a game that required them to write "essays", some where about Dirrty, Christina's charity work and, Beautiful. Some where good, some were terrible, and some, well,...some were just moving.
Below is an essay written by LaurenPippa and if you aren't moved by this, you have no heart. That is all.
Discuss the cultural impact of Beautiful.
We live in a society where judgment is a part of daily life; where we are constantly scrutinised because of what we wear, what our sexuality is, what music we listen to, how much we weigh etcetera. Everything from our physical appearance to our personalities is put under a microscope. People are made to feel like outcasts, like freaks, like losers simply because they don’t wear a certain type of clothes, or because they are overweight, or even because they are attracted to the same sex. People are made to feel ugly because they don’t look like the girl on the front of Vogue this month, or the ripped guy on the front of Men’s Fitness, because they’re anything above a size 0. We are constantly faced with this image of perfection. Think about it, how many times in your life have you heard someone say ‘they’re ugly’, ‘they’re fat’, ‘they’re stupid’? How many times have you seen or heard someone knock a person down because they’re not the stereotype? Because they’re not what society accepts? You’re probably reading this and are even thinking of a time in your life when you’ve felt like that. You may be reminiscing to a time you wished you were someone else, you wished you were different, you were bullied and abused and made to feel like nothing.
The society we live in is negative. It’s pessimistic. It focuses on the bad, rather than the good. It focuses on the extremes, rather than the normalities. For example, have you ever seen a headline that says: “Celebrity maintains a healthy weight!”? Nope. You’re seen “Celebrity piles on 50lbs!” or “Follow this new celebrity diet and lose 50lbs!” or even “Celebrity looks dangerously thin!”. Over and over, we are made to feel like we’re not good enough. We’re too this, we’re too that – we’re not enough. Some of us try and try to change ourselves to conform to this delusion of perfection, we go through these phases. Some people pretend they’re not gay, some people are forced to wear specific clothes because they’re ‘fat’. And some of us, a lot of us, sink lower and lower until we find ourselves enveloped in nothing but darkness. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, there is nothing but misery and this feeling that no one will ever accept you for who you are. Some of us develop mental illnesses; eating disorders, depression, personality disorders, addictions to everything from drugs to self injury; we lose ourselves in this constant battle to fit in.
In 2002, Christina Aguilera released a song named ‘Beautiful’ and immediately, thousands upon thousands of us connected to the lyrics of this enchanting track. Some of those people who were suddenly hearing Beautiful play on the radio were never Christina Aguilera fans, but they couldn’t help but find themselves in the lyrics, written by Linda Perry. The combination of the deep lyrics and the emotional and gentle way in which they are sung caught attention all over the world. It resonated in hearts of millions because of how personal and introspective the words were.
Every day is so wonderful…
We wake up, it’s a new day. We’re alive, we’re healthy.
Then suddenly, it’s hard to breathe.
We remember what world we live in. The harshness of people. The bullies. The people who don’t accept us. The people who keep pushing us down. It’s overwhelming.
Now and then, I get insecure from all the pain. I’m so ashamed.
That internal monologue that you try and try to push away: “I’m not good enough, I’m ugly, I look horrible today, my hair isn’t right, my clothes aren’t fashionable enough, I’m not smart, I’m a freak, nobody likes me, nobody loves me.”
People who were fighting neverending wars with themselves heard their life story and they heard a message:
I am beautiful. You are beautiful. We are beautiful.
How often have you heard this? More importantly, how often have you FELT this? How often have you felt truly good about yourself? Not just comfortable or ‘okay’, but truly great in every possible way? I bet you’ve felt ugly more times than you’ve felt beautiful. It’s almost a shock to hear these words being sung. It’s not the usual pop song about sex and being hot. Instead, we’re being told we’re beautiful. In a way, it’s almost cliché, except it’s not. It’s… beautiful. It’s amazing to hear these things. You start to feel the hope building inside you. Yeah, I am beautiful.
We are beautiful, in every single way.
Your appearance, your personality, your beliefs, your sexuality, your weight… all of it is beautiful. People are constantly try to push us.
Word’s can’t bring us down.
If you’ve ever been bullied, you will know how the words make a much longer lasting impact than a physical altercation. Someone pushing you over, or into some lockers, or busting your lip – it hurts, but eventually words heal, bruises fade… but words, they always stick. Words don’t make a mark on your body, but they leave scars on your minds. They affect you years after they’re spoken. But no longer, these words can’t keep harming us. We are beautiful and we don’t deserve to keep living inside this darkness from the venom of bullies.
So don’t you bring me down, today.
We can stand up for ourselves, we won’t let you hurt us anymore. I’m not going to be defenceless anymore, I’m going to hold my head high and be proud of who I am because I am beautiful.
Beautiful is empowerment in a song. It’s four minutes of love. Christina reassured millions that it’s okay to be different than these people you see on TV and in the magazines. Perfection is a lie and our uniqueness is what makes us beautiful. The song makes us lift our head high and find some confidence and find some fight within us not to let mean and rude and hurtful people destroy our lives. It makes us feel like we’re not outcasts, like we can be proud of who we are, like we don’t have to conform to these rules that Hollywood has defined for us. It fills us with bravery. We are not ugly, we are not losers, we are not insignificant on this planet, we are BEAUTIFUL.
Beautiful taught a culture that there is beauty in differences, that you don’t have to be a certain way to fit in. You’re beautiful as you are. The video dealt with topics that had been almost considered taboo in society: anorexia, homosexuality, bullying, transgender and although Christina Aguilera became a controversial figure, just look how many people followed in those footsteps. Acceptance began to spread. Of course, there are still bullies, there will always be bullies, but there is always that song and there are always the people who listened to it and who understand and respect that people are different, and it really doesn’t matter if someone is underweight or obese, or if someone is gay or straight, or what music they listen to or what they choose to do with their life and their style. Life is bigger than that, and besides, it’s these difference that means we are beautiful.
Now one of the best pop songs in history, Beautiful paved the way for not only worldwide acceptance of differentiation but self-acceptance, too. People on the verge of suicide found a reason to live, they found confidence and belief in themselves. It taught people that you should never bully, that you should never hurt someone because they are different than you, because whether you like it or not, they have every right to feel beautiful. Instead of more discrimination, Christina gave us motivation. And so beautiful is not only a generic pop ballad, it is an anthem of respect, it is constant support to those in times of need, it is a life saver. And that’s why millions upon millions of people across this messed up world can sing the chorus and feel something in their heart, whether they’re an avid Christina Aguilera fan or whether they don’t like her at all.
Beautiful gives the underdogs, the victims, the lonely and the hurting the right to be happy, and really, isn’t that what we all want?
Twitlonger
Below is an essay written by LaurenPippa and if you aren't moved by this, you have no heart. That is all.
Discuss the cultural impact of Beautiful.
We live in a society where judgment is a part of daily life; where we are constantly scrutinised because of what we wear, what our sexuality is, what music we listen to, how much we weigh etcetera. Everything from our physical appearance to our personalities is put under a microscope. People are made to feel like outcasts, like freaks, like losers simply because they don’t wear a certain type of clothes, or because they are overweight, or even because they are attracted to the same sex. People are made to feel ugly because they don’t look like the girl on the front of Vogue this month, or the ripped guy on the front of Men’s Fitness, because they’re anything above a size 0. We are constantly faced with this image of perfection. Think about it, how many times in your life have you heard someone say ‘they’re ugly’, ‘they’re fat’, ‘they’re stupid’? How many times have you seen or heard someone knock a person down because they’re not the stereotype? Because they’re not what society accepts? You’re probably reading this and are even thinking of a time in your life when you’ve felt like that. You may be reminiscing to a time you wished you were someone else, you wished you were different, you were bullied and abused and made to feel like nothing.
The society we live in is negative. It’s pessimistic. It focuses on the bad, rather than the good. It focuses on the extremes, rather than the normalities. For example, have you ever seen a headline that says: “Celebrity maintains a healthy weight!”? Nope. You’re seen “Celebrity piles on 50lbs!” or “Follow this new celebrity diet and lose 50lbs!” or even “Celebrity looks dangerously thin!”. Over and over, we are made to feel like we’re not good enough. We’re too this, we’re too that – we’re not enough. Some of us try and try to change ourselves to conform to this delusion of perfection, we go through these phases. Some people pretend they’re not gay, some people are forced to wear specific clothes because they’re ‘fat’. And some of us, a lot of us, sink lower and lower until we find ourselves enveloped in nothing but darkness. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, there is nothing but misery and this feeling that no one will ever accept you for who you are. Some of us develop mental illnesses; eating disorders, depression, personality disorders, addictions to everything from drugs to self injury; we lose ourselves in this constant battle to fit in.
In 2002, Christina Aguilera released a song named ‘Beautiful’ and immediately, thousands upon thousands of us connected to the lyrics of this enchanting track. Some of those people who were suddenly hearing Beautiful play on the radio were never Christina Aguilera fans, but they couldn’t help but find themselves in the lyrics, written by Linda Perry. The combination of the deep lyrics and the emotional and gentle way in which they are sung caught attention all over the world. It resonated in hearts of millions because of how personal and introspective the words were.
Every day is so wonderful…
We wake up, it’s a new day. We’re alive, we’re healthy.
Then suddenly, it’s hard to breathe.
We remember what world we live in. The harshness of people. The bullies. The people who don’t accept us. The people who keep pushing us down. It’s overwhelming.
Now and then, I get insecure from all the pain. I’m so ashamed.
That internal monologue that you try and try to push away: “I’m not good enough, I’m ugly, I look horrible today, my hair isn’t right, my clothes aren’t fashionable enough, I’m not smart, I’m a freak, nobody likes me, nobody loves me.”
People who were fighting neverending wars with themselves heard their life story and they heard a message:
I am beautiful. You are beautiful. We are beautiful.
How often have you heard this? More importantly, how often have you FELT this? How often have you felt truly good about yourself? Not just comfortable or ‘okay’, but truly great in every possible way? I bet you’ve felt ugly more times than you’ve felt beautiful. It’s almost a shock to hear these words being sung. It’s not the usual pop song about sex and being hot. Instead, we’re being told we’re beautiful. In a way, it’s almost cliché, except it’s not. It’s… beautiful. It’s amazing to hear these things. You start to feel the hope building inside you. Yeah, I am beautiful.
We are beautiful, in every single way.
Your appearance, your personality, your beliefs, your sexuality, your weight… all of it is beautiful. People are constantly try to push us.
Word’s can’t bring us down.
If you’ve ever been bullied, you will know how the words make a much longer lasting impact than a physical altercation. Someone pushing you over, or into some lockers, or busting your lip – it hurts, but eventually words heal, bruises fade… but words, they always stick. Words don’t make a mark on your body, but they leave scars on your minds. They affect you years after they’re spoken. But no longer, these words can’t keep harming us. We are beautiful and we don’t deserve to keep living inside this darkness from the venom of bullies.
So don’t you bring me down, today.
We can stand up for ourselves, we won’t let you hurt us anymore. I’m not going to be defenceless anymore, I’m going to hold my head high and be proud of who I am because I am beautiful.
Beautiful is empowerment in a song. It’s four minutes of love. Christina reassured millions that it’s okay to be different than these people you see on TV and in the magazines. Perfection is a lie and our uniqueness is what makes us beautiful. The song makes us lift our head high and find some confidence and find some fight within us not to let mean and rude and hurtful people destroy our lives. It makes us feel like we’re not outcasts, like we can be proud of who we are, like we don’t have to conform to these rules that Hollywood has defined for us. It fills us with bravery. We are not ugly, we are not losers, we are not insignificant on this planet, we are BEAUTIFUL.
Beautiful taught a culture that there is beauty in differences, that you don’t have to be a certain way to fit in. You’re beautiful as you are. The video dealt with topics that had been almost considered taboo in society: anorexia, homosexuality, bullying, transgender and although Christina Aguilera became a controversial figure, just look how many people followed in those footsteps. Acceptance began to spread. Of course, there are still bullies, there will always be bullies, but there is always that song and there are always the people who listened to it and who understand and respect that people are different, and it really doesn’t matter if someone is underweight or obese, or if someone is gay or straight, or what music they listen to or what they choose to do with their life and their style. Life is bigger than that, and besides, it’s these difference that means we are beautiful.
Now one of the best pop songs in history, Beautiful paved the way for not only worldwide acceptance of differentiation but self-acceptance, too. People on the verge of suicide found a reason to live, they found confidence and belief in themselves. It taught people that you should never bully, that you should never hurt someone because they are different than you, because whether you like it or not, they have every right to feel beautiful. Instead of more discrimination, Christina gave us motivation. And so beautiful is not only a generic pop ballad, it is an anthem of respect, it is constant support to those in times of need, it is a life saver. And that’s why millions upon millions of people across this messed up world can sing the chorus and feel something in their heart, whether they’re an avid Christina Aguilera fan or whether they don’t like her at all.
Beautiful gives the underdogs, the victims, the lonely and the hurting the right to be happy, and really, isn’t that what we all want?
Twitlonger
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