ugliness
By Elizabeth
@Poppylicious (11133)
July 21, 2017 2:25am CST
You walk into the ladies loos in the shopping centre. It is early in the morning {well, early-ish - just gone eight} and a big mirror awaits you. It can't be avoided for at least six paces and it always catches you unawares, even though you know it exists for it catches you unawares every single week.
The confrontation with the big mirror brings with it the realisation that you don't look as good as you thought you did when you left the house an hour and a half earlier.
You have never been a head-turner. The boys wouldn't look twice at you and the girls have never been threatened by your {non-existent} beauty. What you would give for one sexist whistle when passing a building site! But you're passable. Ish. In certain lights people might call you striking. Never pretty. You haven't been pretty since you were a child.
You leave the house feeling fairly confident, happy and comfortable in your clothes. And then the big mirror spoils it by showing you Truth. You sit on the loo and put your head in your hands. You want to cry, but that would make your nose red and you can't be buying a coffee and travelling on a bus with a red nose which screams, Yes, I've been crying! Drawing attention to yourself is the last thing you want.
A part of you just wants to go home, curl up and never - EVER - leave those four comforting walls again.
But you don't. You can't. Chin up love, worse things happen at sea.
*sigh*
8 people like this
9 responses
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Jul 17
Easy to say, difficult to achieve in a world obsessed with how you look. I think I woukd have suited a Tudor existence better!
1 person likes this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
21 Jul 17
Here is a good 70s song that describes that feeling
Janis Ian- At Seventeen (Original):
I learned the truth at seventeen, That love was meant for beauty queens. In high school, girls with clear-skin smiles, Who married young and then retired. Th...
3 people like this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
22 Jul 17
@Poppylicious there's another one about looks, the theme song from the movie " Carrie", but Carrie was a dangerous girl, she had telekinesis. 
2 people like this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
21 Jul 17
Oh dear.
Just to say that the beauty of you inside is much very much more important than what you think you see in the mirror.
Chin up friend mirrors don´t always tell the truth.
1 person likes this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
23 Jul 17
@Poppylicious
There is always something good about everyone.
I once came across a very beautiful girl on the television very nice to look at on the outside nothing on the inside.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Jul 17
But apparently the camera does, and it gives me the same feelings! *grin*
1 person likes this
@RubyHawk (99423)
• Atlanta, Georgia
22 Jul 17
I think we alway look better in our own mirror. But not many of us are beautiful and if we look at women around us and forget movie stars who have makeup artists to make them pass for beautiful we see nobody is perfect and most of us are middle of the road.Personality is much more than beauty. Be proud of who you are.
2 people like this
@crazyhorseladycx (39515)
• United States
21 Jul 17
folks put to much importance'n outer appearance. what 'tis 'nside, how one treats others, etc. should be't the top 'f the 'list'. i rarely go 'nto town, avoid mirrors if'n 't all possible. i aint much 'f a looker myself, the attention always drawn to my hair, backside 'n long legs. later'n life, folks 'saw' the real me, the one filled with compassion. the one who tossed makeup to the side 'n comfortable'n my own skin. those're the folks that matter, not those sucked 'nto the superficial which's fueled by the media.
2 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Jul 17
They're the people I most admire when I'm out and about. And yet I'm not confident enough to throw caution to the wind and join them. It is a shame that society is so focused on beauty and perfection. Imperfection should be celebrated too!
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Jul 17
Oh, that awful realisation that the other woman is actually your reflection ... I've had that far too many times!
@Jackalyn (7559)
• Oxford, England
21 Jul 17
I guess beauty is more than skin deep. One thing I have learned, and I used to turn heads and get the wolf whistles, is that no matter how good you look on the outside it makes no difference at all to how happy you are. These days the shock is that there is an older person than I feel looking back at me with a weight problem and I do sometimes have a similar experience over that. I determine to diet at least once a shopping trip thanks to those mirrors everywhere.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Jul 17
Beauty is definitely more than what's on the outside, but people are so obsessed, they seem to forget that.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21746)
• Canada
21 Jul 17
The stranger in the mirror. I owned a bridal shop for 12 years....there were mirrors everywhere. I avoided them as much as possible. The house we live in. Ow has very few mirrors.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
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22 Jul 17
At work I sometimes have to support students in hairdressing sessions. It's probably the most painful part of my job if they're in practical sessions! So many mirrors!
1 person likes this
@Neiltarquin (1062)
• Rass, Saudi Arabia
23 Jul 17
Looks are superficial. Its either trendy, masked by make up or been modified by a dermatologist. After a few years, it will either be obsolete, sagging or just simply old.
Aestetics are for shallow people. Your deeper than that.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
23 Jul 17
I like to think we are all {mostly} deeper than that. It's just a shame society doesn't really allow it!
