Uncomfortable in our skin

"Nobody's perfect," sure. But these idioms exist as well: "Beauty is pain," and, "Beauty is hard work."

The women who are considered the most beautiful are also often the most fake. It is an unshifting paradigm. Many of this year's Miss Universe Canada contestants look to have had almost as much plastic surgery as the equally gorgeous transsexual participant Jenna Talackova.

Such pageants send the message that a beautiful woman is not born, but created. And this is true. Beauty standards are not natural and innate, but managed and communicated by the superstructures of society, and too often, they are harmful.

As cited in Wiseman's article, 90 per cent of British women feel body-image anxiety. I imagine it's much the same for Canadians. Until we start actually believing that it's okay to have flaws—that because we have the ability to "improve" doesn't necessarily mean that we should try—the number of women hating their bodies will only inflate.