The nation’s brightest minds are busy in labs finding ways to prolong erections and restore hair. Bombs are dropping, the ozone depleting, the sea level rising, the nation’s politics corrupting…and we can’t get our minds off of silicone breasts.

The Generation Y has been labeled as “brand conscious” - in other words, ostentatious. Women and men alike are running to brand name clothing stores, desperately trying to attain beauty. Once they think they’ve got it, it slips out of their grasp as the seasons change and the new line of Prada is showcased on the catwalk.

Beauty was a word that once described something that holistically had features that were charming. Beautiful has not been duped, but much worse; it has become synonymous with the word hot, a purely sexual perversion of the original word. Beauty has come to mean anything that has to do with sex. Anything that encompasses sex encompasses beauty. Curious it is then that prostitutes are not construed as beautiful. In this sex crazed world, beauty has lost its meaning. Many social issues that our generation is experiencing stem from the deviation of this simple word.

As I’ve mentioned before, the new generation has been labeled as brand conscious, as among other things such as tech savvy. Many don’t seem to understand that brand consciousness is an indicator of a society that has become materialistic and has begun to idealize the petty things in life. Beauty is one of the finer things in life but it is now being associated with the latest fashion, in other words, the petty things. The latest style of jeans isn’t beautiful nor does it make you any more beautiful. The latest fashions are another story; they subject women into becoming sex objects. It seems as if fashionistas are convinced that wearing the latest Italian garb will make them more beautiful. In the conventional definition, yes, it will make them more beautiful. The pursuit of beauty is what is causing the materialism in our generation. As value for material goods rises, morality inevitably sinks.

Beauty, as I’ve known it, is much more than sexual appeal. Today’s definition of beauty is only skin deep. The old adage “It’s not what’s on the outside, it’s what’s inside that matters” proves to be true about beauty. Although this statement has become a cliché, the veracity of it is undeniable. Anything that evokes charm is beauty. And not everyone is charmed by the same thing. Therefore beauty is left for the individual to define. A single mother working two jobs and still has time for her kid - that’s beautiful. A prosperous man who came from humble roots but hasn’t developed an ego - that’s beautiful. Women with make up caked on their faces, latest purse in hand, skirts that grandma may confuse for underwear – that’s not beautiful. It would be a lie if I said that beauty has nothing to do with appearance. Beauty has a lot to do with appearance, but to an extent. To me, beauty is a culmination of several characteristics that are charming, including appearance. Society has taken the physical appearance aspect of beauty and has ran with it. More importantly society has convinced people, mainly women, that beauty is unattainable. Changing your physical appearance is unattainable, for most. Does that mean that you are ugly? Unfortunately society says it does. Go get breast implants and a nose job.

It’s ok. According to society’s definition of beauty, I too am ugly. Men are supposed to be “tall, dark, and handsome.” Chiseled abs, muscular arms, sense of fashion, and the list goes on and on. I am five pounds underweight, I stand in between five and six feet, and I have a thin frame. I talk too fast, I stumble over my own words when I am thinking faster then my mouth can speak. My laugh is like the sound of a horse - “HEE HAH.” The list of things wrong with me, according to society, would have caused me to jump off a bridge years ago. But I am still alive, simply because I am a firm believer that beauty is more than society’s sex crazed definition. To be sane in a world that has perverted the definition of beauty into the sexual manifestation of an individual – that is beautiful.