Their time has come. They march slowly down the spiral staircase without fear or suspicion, not knowing that they are leaving their souls behind. Each pliable young spirit will now be molded along with her peers, taught to conform. They do this willingly, sacrificing their own original brand of beauty for something unoriginal and common because it is what their society demands. An ideal has been created that no one can live up to unless they are willing to cast their own essence aside.
If they resist conformity, there is the fear that no man will deem them a suitable partner. If he did, there is the danger that he will forever point out her flaws and the physical attributes of those that chose to abandon themselves. It’s not the man’s fault, however. They too have been conditioned as to what they should accept as beautiful and enticing. It is a senseless cycle.
It is a great deal of effort for something so fleeting. In a few short years, they will be replaced by a new group of innocents who are eager to make their way downward in the sad, slow walk away from true beauty and originality only to become mass manufactured products instead of the women they were meant to be.
This post features The Golden Staircase, painted in 1880 by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones
