Beauty and the Beast

For many women there exists in their life an overwhelming standard toward excellence portrayed by the media, style and their own self-worth.  Reaching these higher echelons of perfection can often be problematic especially in relation to those same and often self-imposed standards.  The psychology of beauty and the pursuit of splendor have and will most likely continue to be a strong motivation toward monetary endeavors and the time spent in front of any given mirror.

170 billion dollars worldwide are spent on cosmetic products.  That is approximately equivalent to a stack of one dollar bills reaching a height of more than 10,000 miles (not placed end to end but on top of each other), that’s a lot of money.  

The following graphic can be used in a multitude of discussions, its always important to have a clear perspective:

  

The height of a stack of 100 one dollar bills measures .43 inches. (Crisp new bills, not the ragged old one’s I have in my wallet)

1,000=4.3 inches.

1,000,000 4,300 inches or 358 feet – about the height of a 30 to 35 story building.

100,000,000 (one hundred million) 35,851 feet or 6.79 miles= to where commercial jetliners fly.

1,000,000,000 (one billion) 358,510 feet or 67.9 miles= to the lower portion of the troposphere – one of the major outer layers of earth’s atmosphere.

100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) =6,786.6 miles. 

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) = 67,866 miles. This would reach more than one fourth the way to the moon.

The height of a stack of 100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion) one dollar bills measures 6,786,616 miles. This would reach from the earth to the moon and back 14 times.

 http://www.usdebtclock.org  This is an amazing site to behold...Not really related to this topic but will it ever go backwards?

Now that we have a perspective of how much money we spend we can see that 170 Billion is a lot of money to be spending it on what many women call a necessary evil.  The question has to be asked, how many women really like putting on makeup? Is it a question of degrees, meaning the more you need it the more you wear, I don’t think so, if that were the case I think those sales numbers would be into the trillions.  (my perspective only and not to be taken as a gauge of beauty throughout the world or lack of …)

I don’t know the answer to these questions but I do know that women like to look good and I’m thankful for that cents (yes I know it’s the wrong sense ..) of vanity,  but I also think that the amount paid and the time spent are a bit excessive, even in this world of extreme.  I’ll be the first to admit that my opinion on this matter will not matter one thin dime and this issue is one that falls directly into the laps of women. 

From my perspective, again not too many women will really care what I think, but from my vantage point, looking at my wife I don’t see the point; she is beautiful, el natural.  I do like to see her all “made up” but would I love her any less without eyeliner, lipstick, eye shadow, I could go on and on but I think that’s all she uses, no.  

Wouldn’t men get used to women without makeup if they all stopped using it?  Look I also understand that women have used some sort of facial accoutrement since Eve ate the apple and had to compete for his affections after the Garden but 170 billion dollars? That’s about $100 per women who are within the makeup using age.  These estimates do not distinguish between industrialized countries and the poorer nations of the world, nor does it consider the needs of some women to wear copious amounts in their pursuit of beauty, it only averages out the total dollars spent with the number of available women using (almost sounds like an addiction).  

Even my wife, who does not need makeup spends more than a $100 per year I can only imagine what’s spent by women who think they need it.  The point I’m trying to make, albeit from a very masculine perspective (I don’t even like lotion) is that if all women stopped using makeup would they be able to see themselves as beautiful and would men be able to see that same inner beauty and outward wonder without the dramatic eye shadow or lip gloss?

I’m not suggesting that women stop all attempts toward competing with each other over who knows what, I surely don’t understand the game but I am suggesting that perhaps one week out of the year be reserved as a Natural Day of Beauty, deodorant exempted of course.  A week is needed in order for both men and women to get used to the preliminary naked look and get used to seeing the faces of our fair sex in all its natural wonder.

The advantage may be all mine in this regard, my wife is beautiful but that old saying I think is true “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”  all we have to do is readjust our sights and our perception to include the beauty of those God given faces.  By the way guys, have you looked in the mirror lately, maybe a little rouge or foundation would do you some good, but not during the National Natural Day of Beauty.