Robin Givhan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
and fashion critic for the Washington Post and
author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night
American Fashion Stumbled Into the Spotlight
and Made History. Hannah Reyes Morales is
a National Geographic explorer whose work
focuses on resilience and human connection.Slim thick may be just another body type over
which women obsess. But it also gives women
license to coin a term to describe their own body,
turn it into a hashtag, and start counting the
likes. Own who you are.
WHEN I LOOK at photographs of groups of
women on vacation, or a mother with her child,
I see friendship and loyalty, joy and love. I see
people who seem exuberant and confident.
Perhaps if I had the opportunity to speak with
them, I’d find them intelligent and witty or
incredibly charismatic. If I got to know them
and like them, I’m sure I’d also describe them
as beautiful.
If I were to look at a portrait of my mother, I
would see one of the most beautiful people in
the world—not because of her cheekbones or
her neat figure, but because I know her heart.
As a culture, we give lip service to the notion
that what matters is inner beauty when in fact
it’s the outer version that carries the real social
currency. The new outlook on beauty dares us
to declare someone we haven’t met beautiful. It
forces us to presume the best about people. It
asks us to connect with people in a way that is
almost childlike in its openness and ease.
Modern beauty doesn’t ask us to come to the
table without judgment. It simply asks us to
come presuming that everyone in attendance
has a right to be there. jREDEFINING BEAUTY 115