Look How You Like

    You often hear people (girls in particular) who look "different" decrying appearance based bullying and asserting their right to feel beautiful and comfortable in their skin. They have nothing but positivity in supporting other girls who love themselves and their bodies and who want to look different than is what is promoted in mass media. They love their bodies in their natural state, or at least are trying to. And that's great. 
    But it's unfortunate that in my experience I have found that many (though not all) of those same, "I'm beautiful the way I am"/"altgirl" promoters are some of the first ones to respond negatively to girls who do  prescribe to the thin, tan, straight haired beauty standard. GOD FORBID someone decides to get plastic surgery to enhance or change anything or else deal with the distasteful cries of "plastic!" and "fake!"
    What these particular people don't seem to understand is that it's this behavior that is JUST as harmful as calling someone names because their thighs touch and their hair is blue. Moreover, it is extremely counterproductive to the very "accept all types of beauty" ideology they toute so persistently.
    Everyone deserves to look the way that they want to look without being persecuted for it, and it really is no one's place to set one standard of beauty or appearance as better, worse, or more legitimate than any other. As for plastic surgery? One wouldn't lambast someone for deciding to lose weight or for dying their hair. Plastic surgery does not give anyone a free pass to ridicule the person who got it. Just as no one has the authority to tell you to change how you look, no one has the authority to give you flack because you did decide to make the personal decision to change the way you look. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but that doesn't mean that the beholder has any authority to make someone else feel inferior.
    I feel that especially in a world where both trans and ciswomen deal with ridicule and degradation based on our appearance  and approved stereotypes, so much of our approval is based on the say that others have on our looks, we need to show one another as much love as possible. Bullies come in many forms, and there is no reason to make someone feel horrible about how they look.