The Definition of Beauty

On the covers of many of the best-selling magazines, there are gorgeous models or beautiful actresses promoting the next weight loss secret, the newest fashion trend or a new bronzer to give your face a glowing, airbrushed look. However, these covers can often cause controversy. In 2011, Hunger Games star, Jennifer Lawrence, was featured in the magazine, Flare. The only word to describe Lawrence was beautiful. Her hair, skin and body looked like perfection but the public found out it was all a lie. Jennifer Lawrence had been airbrushed. The magazine company had dyed her hair, given her plastic surgery, and helped her drop ten pounds all with the click of a button. In an interview about the cover, Lawrence went on to say, “That doesn't look like me at all. People don't look like that." Jennifer Lawrence has a point. The definition of beauty has changed from finding a partner to survive with to going through body altering pain to get close to the media’s standards of perfection.
Throughout the beginning of time, beauty and looks were based on health and survival but, by the Middle Ages women were pressured into changing to be beautiful. In the time of ancient civilizations, beauty was simple. People wanted to survive and reproduce. Therefore, a man would look for a wife who would be able to successfully bear children while a woman looked for a husband who could provide for the family. This concept continued to reign true through the Middle Ages but women were now seen as “predators” on the prowl to hook a man with their temptress ways. The times had changed, and women were required to change their physical appearance to be seen as beautiful or they would be shunned. During this time period, blonde hair was frowned...

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...rom her father. He's a plastic surgeon."
The definition of beauty has significantly changed through the ages. Women went from wanting to be seen as a survival partner to perfect sexual symbols. To succeed, they would experience insane health risks and body altering pain. Though many women have fallen to the pressures of media, not everyone has given into today’s obscene standards. There are still women that know beauty does not come only from the outside. This truth shines through the wise words of Amanda Peet: “Beauty is only skin deep. If you go after someone just because she's beautiful but don't have anything to talk about, it's going to get boring fast.” External beauty will vanish and no amount of surgery, chemicals, or exercise can change the toll of old age. If a woman is beautiful on the inside, however, her beauty will remain even when she is gone.