MARISSA BOSTICK | INTERIM OPINIONS ED.

From costly procedures to the next fad diet women everywhere think they need to alter themselves to get ahead in life.

Is it survival of the fittest in some acute sense that pushes women to change themselves?

In their minds, is it their personal truth that only the beautiful prevail?

When did long straight flowing locks become the only acceptable form of beauty?

In Hollywood and many parts of America many other women of color are expected to share this quality.

Perhaps modeling agencies and their plethora of exotic beauties that strut down catwalks had some influence on the standard of beauty.

While some women are satisfied with a simple auburn to blond dye job, others go under the knife to get a perfectly cinched waist.

On one hand, you cannot really blame women in the entertainment business for making sure everything on them is perfect.

In Hollywood, a young stick figure blond is more likely to further her career and get roles than a curvy middle-age woman for the same role even without it being about ethnicity.

Robust women in Hollywood are usually not in serious roles and are even more rarely leading actresses. They tend to play the funny or quirky fat sidekick that overcomes all odds as part of a sideplot.

Eventually Hollywood forces her onto to use some highly sought after trainer and diet just so she’ll be taken seriously.

Just like Hollywood women, young girls model themselves after what has become the standard of beauty instead of learning to love what they already have.

Young girls with a decent amount of meat on their bones starve themselves just to see a gap between their thighs that isn’t a natural muscle formation.

What happened since the 1970s that told women they could not be free to express themselves in its purest form?

African-American men and women alike used to proudly wear magnificent Afros. Now the Afro is labeled unkempt or exotic depending on the venue.

“Natural” to Black women can mean doing their hair without much alteration, especially chemical: braids, pressing or anything considered protective.

Black women practically kill themselves to have perfect hair. Some do it just to fit in with their lighter skinned counterparts. Others do it because natural until recently, has been widely frowned upon.

Black women you are automatically expected to have a weave in your hair and Ebonics flowing from your lips.

Where did the natural woman go, is she afraid to be herself due to ridicule and ignorance?

For the sake of young women everywhere I pray she comes back soon.