For the sake of "beauty"

Hahahahaha! I finally extracted and converted my files, thanks to Alvin (seriously, he was a great help). Here's one of them:

Has it always been like this? Was there a time when “beautiful” meant something else other than skinny, fair skinned, and soft facial features?If one would leaf through magazines or watch TV, one can not help but notice that posters, advertisements, TV shows, movies, and even the news show that women should all be skinny, fair-skinned, with long straight hair, and have Caucasian features or at least a “half-breed” or mestiza appearance. If you’re fat, take Cenical so your husband wont drool every time a young sexy chick passes by. If you were born with the natural brown skin that pure Filipinos are supposed to have, Pond’s, Biolink, Silka, or Olay can help you out, so that your boyfriend can find you “perfect” enough to meet his mom. And you can choose from Rejoice, Pantene, Sunsilk, and Palmolive (with matching celebrity model with impossibly straight and shiny long hair) to give straighter and softer hair. In fact, there is an endless array of products if you want to be “beautiful”. Why do we have to listen to all these ads telling us how or what to do to look beautiful? Cant we just be contented with what we have and live life without feeling guilty about eating an extra serving of dessert or staying out under the sun for too long, or having thick curly hair? I get dizzy just thinking about all those hundreds of commercials screaming at me and rubbing it to my face that I’m not beautiful because I’m fat, I have dark skin, and short imperfect hair. Did it ever occur to you that once upon a time, a very long time ago (ages ago, I guess) maybe “beautiful” looked way different from how it “should be” now? I watched this feature presentation on the National Geographic Channel which tried to trace back humanity’s ancestors in an attempt to find out who the real Adam and Eve were, where they lived, and what they looked like. The feature (I forgot the title, sorry, but it sounded like The Search For the Genetic Adam) wasa branch of the Human Genome Project but was more focused on finding out our roots. They explained that drawing humanity’s family tree would only be possible if we trace back on the “Y” chromosome that only the males can pass down to their male children virtually unchanged (very patriarchal and quite a lengthy discussion, but I have a point, I promise). The genetic experts travelled around the world collecting DNA samples from volunteers and researching DNA facts about famous men and leaders around the world. Their results were astonishing. All of Europe’s ancestor was Napoleon Bonaparte, Asia’s ancestor was Genghis Khan, and the Americans had ancestors that came from Africa. Armed with the knowledge that in ancient times, men can have as many wives and children if they were powerful and from royalty, they went further with their investigation in a place somewhere in Ethiopia. People from this area believed that they were direct descendants of one king Solomon (you know him if you’ve ever touched a bible, the guy known to have thousands of wives and children, that’s the one, genius). So, collecting DNA samples from the locals and analyzing and testing them, it was proven that they all share a common ancestor. This then lead the genetic experts deep into the heart of Ethiopia (I forgot exactly where the place was, but you can check out the website for more details), where they found a tribe who claimed to have lived there all through time. Again, DNA samples were collected and tested, and at last the researchers reached the end of their journey. Research and DNA samples have finally brought them face-to-face with the genetic Adam. And guess what? Adam was not the tall, handsome man with the well-sculpted body and a Brad Pitt look-alike tat was always depicted in movies and paintings. The genetic Adam had an average height, a smallish built body, very curly hair, and very dark skin. So if that was Adam, I would assume that Eve wasn’t a Scarlett Johanssen look-alike either. So if that was how our ancestors looked like, then what corrupted society to change Eve’s appearance completely? Never once were Adam and Eve described as Asian, Caucasian, or African (not even in the Bible), then why do we readily assume them to be blonde, fair-skinned, and thin? Something corrupted our society into putting up with such standards for beauty. In the course of humanity’s history, something happened to make us think this way.