U-G-L-Y, you ain't need no alibi...

We live in a superficial society. From childhood we're indoctrinated with the idea that beauty equals good and ugly signifies evil. This is especially true for women. Since the evolution of civilization women have been objectified, turned into trophies for successful men. Through the waves of feminism great strides have been made against this mentality, and very few women today would willingly accept this treatment.
However, while eliminating the reason for our obsession with beauty we've maintained the addiction. Look at any women's magazine, even the most feminist, and inevitably you'll find articles on weight loss, personal care products (make-up, skin, hair), and fashion.
Women waste time, money and energy on trying to achieve an elusive standard of beauty. Blubber rolls are strapped down, faces are shellacked with tan-hued spackle, flesh is slashed and rearranged. Yet in spite of every effort, perfection is never attained, in fact it flees further off to the horizon.
Then women, feeling themselves unworthy failures, allow others to treat them badly. Women with low self-esteem become abuse victims, are cheated on, quit on life and never pursue their dreams.
This issue has hardly gone unnoticed, and many well-intentioned individuals have striven to rectify the problem. Take for instance the new Dove "Real Beauty" campaign. Dove has held empowerment workshops and put out advertisements with women of various body types and appearances. Taking it in good faith that Dove's attempts are sincerely meant and not just a marketing campaign, these efforts are still futile.
While I agree there is a problem, I think the analysis is off course. Let me take this back a few steps.
The problem: Women feel that they are ugly. Feeling ugly, these women therefore feel worthless. Feeling worthless, these women then allow themselves to be treated poorly/abused/etc.
All of that is true, but it is in the analysis it goes awry.
The conventional analysis and solution: In order to help women, we must convince them that they are beautiful so they will feel worthy and stand up for themselves.
Why that's wrong: These women aren't beautiful. Now, they may not be ugly, or they may in fact be extremely pug fugly, but in truth they're not beautiful. By definition they can't be. Beauty is rare. Like a diamond that is valuable because of its rarity, beauty is remarkable because of its low occurrence. How many women can look like Angelina Jolie (or insert your standard of beauty here)? Most women can never be a size 2, or have double D's, or flawless olive complexion, or so on and so forth. If we're generous, at most 10% of the population will truly be beautiful, 80% will be plain, and 10% will be 'Good God! What's that?' Ugli. It's basic statistics. There is a similar spread for intelligence. Therefore, no matter how many empowerment workshops or publicity campaigns one has, most women will never believe they are beautiful because they are not so stupid as to be deluded into believing a lie.
The truth is that many are ugly, or at least plain. That seems very harsh and mean of me to say, right? But why? It's because calling someone ugly is one of the worst things you can do. To be ugly is a cardinal sin, and therein lies the real problem.
Going back to our original problem breakdown, we see then that the solution is not to deceive ugly women into believing that they're somehow beautiful, but instead to make women realize that being ugly does not make them worthless.
Being ugly is okay. Being ugly is not a choice. You're born into your lump of clay, for better or worse. What we need to do, for all human beings, is realize that we should not judge each other by arbitrary standards that we have no control over and that are no indication of who we are as people. Rather than wasting my precious time, money and brain cells in trying to change something I had no control over, I should commit myself to improving those areas I do have control over, such as my personality, my empathy, my work ethic.
I have dedicated much of this blog to women and beauty because I feel men have a better understanding that they can still be great and successful even if they're ugly. There are numerous examples of successful men in Hollywood, business, and politics who are downright "I should be under a bridge demanding tolls from passing goats" Ugly. These men are successes. They have confidence. They pursue and achieve their goals.
The real empowerment of women will be in freeing ourselves from the shackles of the ridiculous pursuit of beauty. Our release from the degrading notion that our only value lies in being physically attractive. That being ugly is not a sin, and does not mean that we are unworthy of love, success, respect, and adventure.