Powerful 'Line Series' Photography Project Show How Ridiculous Female Beauty Standards Can Be

Photo Series Shows How Ridiculous Our Beauty Standards Are
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As women, we're constantly over-evaluating our bodies and berating ourselves for being anything less than 'perfect'.

Standing in front of the mirror, we wish we could nip and tuck, uplift and firm. In short, we've become brainwashed by media and society as to what the ideal woman should look like.

But one 24-year-old is hoping to change that.

Last year, Sarah Coffman teamed up with three friends and photographer Terrance Smalls to create 'Line Series', a photography project that challenges our rigid notions of female beauty.

The series, which has gone viral, shows three models sat in a beauty parlour in their underwear. But instead of perfect poses and pouts, the women have dotted lines and arrows all over their bodies - in a similar fashion to the markings plastic surgeons marking pre-surgery.

"We live in a society where women are constantly being stripped down and evaluated, without physically being stripped down," explained Smalls on his website.

"Well, what does it look like when we actually strip women down and evaluate their physical 'shortcomings'? How insane does it look? How uncomfortable does it make us feel? The purpose of this series was to find out."

Speaking to Buzzfeed, Coffman said that becoming the 'perfect woman' was a difficult balance: "As women we try to fit inside of 'young enough', 'thin enough', 'pretty enough', ‘nice enough’, 'tough enough', 'able enough', without ever becoming 'too much'."

"If you want to be socially acceptable, you need to keep yourself inside the lines," she added.

The message? Whatever your body hang-up - a wish for a flatter tummy, perkier breasts, firmer thighs - life's too short.

Models: Sarah Coffman (@nerdygypsy), Rose Duquette (@fractured_euphoria), Tiffany Stevens (@t.steezie), and Ashley Arce.

Hair: Connie Novello (@connienovello)

Makeup: Tiana Smalls (@tsmallsmakeup/@tsmallsphoto)

Photography by Terrance Smalls