A for Adrian

The Visible Beauty

I am very into movies. Recently I watched a few clips of the 81st Annual Academy Awards – Oscars 2009. The part which impressed me the most was Kate Winslet winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Reader after her five previous nominations ended in defeat. “I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before I was eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. And this would have been a shampoo bottle. Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now,” she said.

Sense and Sensibility saw Winslet showing a strong character. The box office hit Titanic made her an international actress. However, her body shape was always the talking point, and she faced repeated negative press about her weight gain. It is interesting that she doesn’t really care what the people say. For more than 10 years we have seen her presence in the challenging roles in Holy Smoke!, Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Little Children. In The Reader, she plays an ex-Nazi guard who has an affair with a young boy. She is among the youngest to have the greatest number of Oscar nominations. In addition to that of Titanic, she garnered two Oscar nominations for best actress and two for best actress in a supporting role. Her capability as an actress was fully recognized. Though she lost for five times, she always kept her beautiful and confident smile in front of the cameras.

In her Oscar acceptance speech, she said, “I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children who let me do what I love and who love me just the way that I am.” Her family loves her as she is and supports what she loves. Though she was looking older, when she won the prestigious award, people no longer put the focus on her figure. They were stunned by her inside beauty and confidence.

Some may believe that only stars, actors and stage performers have the kind of brilliant confidence. If you believe so, let me share with you a famous psychological test.

A psychologist conducted such a test: a man involved in a traffic accident sustained minor injury. The psychologist drew a big ugly scar on his face, and told him to look at the mirror himself. He said to him, “I am sorry that you have such a scar on your face now. “ Then, he took away the mirror from the man.

The man was utterly upset. The psychologist told him, “Let me apply some medicine on your scar.” In fact, the psychologist removed the fake scar on the man’s face which became completely fine. The psychologist informed him, “Someone is going to visit you soon.” After he had left, people came and visited to visit the man.

After the visits, the psychologist asked the man how he felt. He was totally defeated and annoyed, “They are not friendly and patient to me. They hate me. They hate my scar!”

In fact, the man’s scar had already disappeared, but the scar in his heart made him lose all his confidence.

Kate Winslet’s dazzling beauty in her winning night came from her confidence. For years she has just stayed natural and “just the way that I am” in facing negative remarks against her. In our little story, the man felt inferior so he believed he was ugly. He cared about how people thought about him, and wrongly believed that his scar had scared away the people.

“Just the way that I am.”

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, developed by American psychologist Morris Rosenberg, is a widely-used self-esteem measure. The scale consists of 10 questions, and measures feelings of self-worth.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/psychsci/media/rosenberg.htm