Beauty Oppression

Self esteem is the opinion of ones self. The Oxford Study Dictionary has define self esteem as “one’s good opinion of oneself.” Such concepts as self-esteem and self-image have gone under a considerable amount of research and have been regarded by some social psychologists as an integral part of the healthy growth of a child. It is very difficult to find, however, an exact definition because volumes have been written about self esteem.

So, after cutting through all the scientific words, the question of self-esteem really centers down to something quite simple. How does a person feel about him or herself? If persons feel good about themselves, they have a high self-esteem. If they feel bad about themselves, they have a low self esteem. Having a low self-esteem can be detrimental to the way one spends one’s life. It often interferes with everyday situations, creating not only confusion but also a discouraging sense of hopelessness.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Rev. Dr. Martin Lu...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

African human skin mask front

Robert Brooks, a professor of history stated that “[p]eople with low self-esteems often try to appear confident and careless. However, they frequently do things or say things that make them feel stupid, and somehow, not good enough to fit in with the rest of society” (http://www.greatschools.net).

Women suffer from the sickness of low self esteem. Its symptoms are that it eats away at their self-worth and replaces positive thoughts about them selves with horrible images. Very common cases of low self esteem live in the lives of women, from disliking their own skin color, the texture of their hair, their breast size and even their weight.

Firstly, skin color, awareness of one’s racial identity, and a strong self esteem play an important role in developing a healthy self-consciousness. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, once said, “[t]hat all people should be judged by the content of...