The MILO Manifesto
Since the dawn of time – the beauty industry has told us to be one thing. Has had us wanting this one thing. Has had us poking, prodding, contouring ourselves to become this one thing.
It’s what makes us suck in our cheeks when we look in the mirror. Notice the bumps in our noses, or clock that our left eyelid droops just a little too much. It has us analyzing our faces to see how symmetrical they are. Slather our skin in stuff we can’t pronounce. Fill our lips. Accentuate our hips. Smooth ourselves. Shrink ourselves. Do jaw yoga, for fucks sakes.
This one thing. We chase it. Feverishly. Early morning. Every night. Constantly weighing ourselves against it. And of course, we know it’s superficial. Or rather, not merely skin deep. Of course, we know the truth of it. But we want it, all the same. The perfect body. The ageless skin. We chase a thousand hollow things, for the promise of just one:
To be beautiful.
In our consumerist-ridden times, the pursuit of beauty is a pursuit of perfection. How do our faces, our noses, our bodies, our tits – measure up to what our algorithm tells us is worthy of attention?
We sculpt and snatch ourselves into a pretty little box. One that’s been ingrained in us since childhood. But one that fluctuates with the latest in big beauty - red light therapy mask anyone? - our feeds shoving the message of “BE BEAUTIFUL OR FEEL INVISIBLE!” in our SPF-protected faces.
But here’s where BIG BEAUTY gets it wrong. BEAUTY is not singular. It’s not a set of lashes. Or a number on the scale. A BBL-esque butt. Or “glass skin.”
BEAUTY is a mindset. An awakening. To the majesty of everything. The poetry of it all. Seriously, look at a fucking tree and try not to be completely and utterly moved by it? Beauty is the crack in your voice when you’re nervous. Or your lover’s protruding ears. The smell of your daughter’s hair. The ache of your awareness. A pink stripe across an early morning sky.
Maybe, what we’re all chasing is bigger than what BIG BEAUTY deems beautiful.
Maybe, what we’re all actually chasing is:
To feel alive.
ALIVE ISN’T SIMPLE. ALIVE is messy. complicated. confusing. ALIVE is confronting. inconvenient. Sharp.
SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME – the beauty industry has told us to be one thing. Has had us CHASING BEAUTIFUL as if we too, are one dimensional.
But identity is not fixed, it’s fluid. Tribes have been replaced by current trends. And SIMPLE? Simple is BORING. MUNDANE. UNORIGINAL. UNINSPIRED. Simple is the antithesis of ALIVENESS.
We’re chasing the mess and the spark.
We’re chasing our truth. We are MULTIDIMENSIONAL humans.
Standing against a singular definition of beauty. A singular definition of self. Never “SIMPLE.” Always redefining. Reinventing. REGENERATING.
