Think Piece #2

 According to Tolentino's article the ideal women is a lot of things. The ideal woman is always "optimizing." In other words, this woman makes the best of everything around her. She takes advantage of technology and what the world has to offer. She has a great romance life but is also very independent. This woman is always trying to improve her self image and has a very specific way of doing so. It seems as many people would envy her due to her presentation and self care. Since this woman can afford to tackle any obstacle she is considered carefree. She is all about perfecting herself to then share it with the world, or in other words, "lifestyle." The article talks about how "getting better" at life or being a woman is ridiculous. This leads to what is supposed to be pleasurable (social media, lifestyle, etc.) becomes more of a trap than something that is meant to be enjoyed. The writer made a comment about young girls and eating habits. She refers to how eating disorders are spread like the plague amongst girls. This is such a sad statement that really made me think about the standards of beauty today. Another thing stated was how specific things are geared to specific lifestyles. The examples used are Sweatgreen and Pure Baree. These things essentially are the same thing, in the fact that they are both mechanisms to help adapt to agony. To me this is such an interesting way of explaining it. Simple things like where you workout or where you eat are distractions from agonies of life. These things also are used for people to maintain that lifestyle that everyone supposedly wants. It makes this even more worthwhile because of looks. Sweetgreen to keep your figure, and Pure Baree for real results on your physical appearance. The writer then begins to ask the question, is this ideal woman really happy? Of course there is a difference in looking a certain way and actually being this way. This is such a problem with the internet and society as a whole. It is frustrating to me that people feel pressure to look, act, think, and talk a specific way. It can become very toxic and harmful especially to young people. When I think of how this relates to me, the first thing that come to mind is beauty standards. Like many other young women, I have felt pressure to look a certain way. Weather it be in how my makeup looks, how my hair looks, how much I weigh. These are common struggles for a lot of people and social media usually never helps. As a female I do feel compelled to wear makeup and watch my weight. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy looking presentable but I think there is a very fine line between caring about how you look and being obsessive over it. I never want to get to a point of obsession. I think to myself maybe I wouldn't even care about wearing makeup if everyone else around me didn't. Social media plays a huge role in these impossible standards of beauty and the idea that women should look perfect 24/7.