Meg Harper: Warwick
Quakers

World’s Ugliest Woman’ the headline beckoned. I found myself reading about the remarkable Lizzie Velasquez, a young woman appallingly abused on-line because of her appearance. She suffers from Marfan and Lipodystrophy; she is unable to put on weight and has lost the sight in one eye. ‘Why would her parents keep her?’ ‘Kill it with fire!’ - just samples of the cruel words written about her.
By coincidence, I had also recently read an article about ‘Frozen 2’, surmounted by a radiant picture of Elsa. I darted back to that image - and then back to Lizzie Velasquez again. How bizarre! Elsa has abnormally large eyes in a tiny, elfin face - as does Lizzie. Elsa is painfully thin - so is Lizzie. Elsa has narrow lips which rarely crack a smile - whereas Lizzie has a wide grin, that radiates warmth. Elsa is a fictional heroine - Lizzie is running a real-life, anti-bullying campaign. Yet Elsa is touted as beautiful and Lizzie as extremely ugly!
Recent statistics suggest that those in receipt of the minimum wage are in the top eight per cent wealthiest people on the planet. I admit, I am shocked. But maybe this is the proof of our wealth - our values have become completely distorted. We see beauty in cartoon caricatures and ugliness in real humanity. We are so arrogant that cruelty is common place and violence, as in the dark past, has become a form of entertainment. Only this week thousands have petitioned in support of Jeremy Clarkson, ignorant of whether or not he assaulted his producer - as if it didn’t matter! The Bible gives us utterly different values. The Apostle Peter writes: ‘Stop being hateful!’ ‘Don’t be jealous or say cruel things about others.’ ‘Be beautiful in your heart.’ As Quakers we hold dear George Fox’s belief that ‘there is that of God in everyone.’ Would that we, myself included, behaved as if that were true - and weren’t even hooked by demeaning headlines!