The concept of beauty and racism in modern western society is held to the highest of standards for all of it’s members; including celebrities. The perfect woman is described by Odette (2013), as solely for men’s pleasure and domination. If we look on the cover of any popular magazine, the women are usually: light skinned, slender, and tall. Men on the other hand must be tall and powerfully built. Our culture is valued on the basis of how men and women are perceived by their image, making it impossible for the average man or women to achieve the high beauty standard expected in society. Celebrities play an influential role in the way people view themselves, making the need to look like our favourite celebrities all the more desired. A person's …show more content…
self-esteem is a very fragile thing, which can be bruised or broken easily. The way we see celebrities is the way we want to see ourselves. If our celebrity role-models are changing the way they appear to the public eye based on hateful comments, it may change the way they view themselves, and consequently influence how their fans view themselves. Having racial and beauty standards set on celebrities to look and be the way that western society wants them to creates a world in which the one’s who don’t fit that criteria feel isolated from the norm, and thus transfer that isolation to their fans. Advertising is a major contributing factor to the way celebrities are viewed publicly. The way advertising works is that it is meant to appeal to the eye of the viewer and attract them to the product. The goal is to trick the viewer into believing the false allure of advertising (Jhally, 2013). This occurs with people such as models or famous singers/movie stars. If you look at any magazine cover, everyone has been technologically altered. Jhally (2013) talks about the ensemble of satisfaction and dissatisfaction and how there is basically a line of which you cannot cross when it comes to satisfying viewers. Everyone, including celebrities need to look and act a certain way in the public realm to satisfy the judgmental minds of society. Female celebrities specifically are burdened with the weight of their public lives being broadcasted over the internet and television. These women are compelled to look well put together at every point of the day given any personal circumstance. Teenage girls aspire to be the same way; older, well made up, and never emotional publicly. This image is unrealistic and henceforth unachievable. If your average woman is not capable of achieving the high standard society is setting it could quite possibly give her no sense of self worth and dissatisfaction with herself. This dissatisfaction of self is where makeup companies and high-end clothing companies thrive from. Women are unsatisfied with themselves so they purchase beauty products to essentially change their physical appearance to the ideal beauty broadcasted around the world. Socialist feminism is a huge contributing factor in the historical developments of feminine and racial advancement in western society. Socialist feminism originated from Marxist theory and uses class and gender as categories for the explanation of women’s oppression. The main goal of socialist feminism is to liberate women from their economic and political dependence on men (Calixte, Johnson, 2009). Unlike men, women have throughout the years fought for their rights in the public realm; while men have always been superior. There are plenty of celebrity feminists who have been doing their absolute best to not be hidden in the shadows of men. There was one specific interview with Ariana Grande that caught my eye; her goal has been to have herself viewed as a very strong and independent woman who doesn’t need a man to help her maintain her social standing. She specifically said, ““Being ’empowered’…. is not the same as being a ‘bitch’…” “HAVING SOMETHING TO SAY…. is not the same as HAVING A BAD ATTITUDE. What I meant when I said what I said about not being Sean’s ex is that I am tired of living in a world where women are mostly referred to as a man’s past, present, or future PROPERTY/POSSESSION. I… do not. belong. to anyone. but myself. and neither do you.” This is incredibly empowering to read as a woman because we are not any one person’s possession, especially a man’s. Contemporary socialist feminists have developed aspects in which gender/race based oppression are becoming less common. Through socialist theory the world is beginning to accept people from different races and categories of sexuality instead of looking at everyone through a binary point of view. Women especially are achieving more of a public voice. Since celebrities like Ariana Grande are showing their viewers that it is okay to stand up for what you believe in, they quite possibly might follow suit. The concept of racism has come a long way as well, through this theory as women and men of different races are no longer experiencing as much hatred from the “more dominant” Caucasian species (Calixte, Johnson, 2009). Racism has been a major contributing factor of oppression in society; white males have always had the uppermost social status because they have always been the most advanced, meaning they have never been oppressed (CRIAW, 2013). Women as well have always been oppressed when it comes to the public realm, and even today we are finding it hard to be looked at as men’s equals. This concept could quite possibly lead to difficulty being a capable black woman, or even man in modern western society. This ties into the idea of intersectionality, connecting women’s oppression and racist based oppression. An example of this regarding celebrities is perhaps Rihanna or Beyonce; over the years they have developed lighter skin tones. The Caucasian race has always been more developed so these women are forced by modern society to change themselves to be accepted. This is certainly a form of oppression that will influence the way viewers see themselves; if their role-models are unable to maintain the characteristics that make them who they are then what is stopping their viewers from doing the same thing (CRIAW, 2013). This unrealistic beauty standard is challenging the self-worth of women around the globe. The media are leaving those of different races to believe that because they are not Caucasian they are outsiders. There is an impractical level of stress put on these celebrities to demonstrate to the public eye what it means to be strong, independent and beautiful, but because of the ideal beauty standard hardly any average woman can achieve this. As discussed previously, there is a huge beauty standard for women in the public realm which has been expanding since the beginning of time.
The way a woman was perceived as beautiful has changed so much even over the last 50 years as I have discussed previously. If we look at Marilyn Monroe and compare her to Tyra Banks, who has made it her passion in life to stretch the definition of beauty (Pozner, 2013) the difference is uncanny. Marilyn Monroe is the most acclaimed sex icon of the 1950’s and she was not astonishingly slender. Meanwhile Tyra banks up until a couple years ago had always been immeasurably skinny. Women nowadays are required to be excessively skinny, toned, tall, and have flawless skin if they want to fit into the “most beautiful” column. Although Tyra Banks presumably believes that she is an exceptional advocate for young girls in the media, she is also delivering a skewed image of self-love through her show, America’s Next Top Model (Pozner, 2013). Every woman on that show either fits the media’s standard of an ideal woman, or they are ridiculed/questioned. The media is making it impossible to achieve such high standards. Even for black women, there is the stereotype that they have to have huge behinds and appear to be super ghetto like Nicki Minaj; even she received cosmetic surgery to enhance her bust and rear, as well as slimming her waist. She did all these things to appease her viewers. It is impossible for women to achieve these different standards …show more content…
from no matter what race. The impossibly thin ideal-body image that the media portrays is the significant factor to developing eating disorders understandably (Hawkins, Richards, Granley & Stein 2004:35). The article argues that there is significant evidence that women portrayed in the media today have become increasingly thin over the last several years making it nearly impossible for the average women to attain the “perfect body” (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). The cause of these eating disorders is the fact that women see this stick thin models in the media and it makes them feel as if they are not beautiful. This thin image joined with an increased cultural focus on dieting has added to the current increase of eating disorders (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). The article supports the idea that repeated exposure to the media’s ideal of the perfect thin body is a constant reminder of women’s imperfections, which can evoke feelings with negative effects such as negative self-appraisals or low self-esteem, leading to depression, anxiety and insecurity (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). It also theorizes that many women who are exposed to media images that use the “thin-ideal” could lead to a specific eating pathology by generating an over-internalization of the “perfect body” stereotype (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). For the women who over-internalized the stereotype are convinced that the only way to be lovable, popular, happy and successful is to have the perfect thin body (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). These women tend to feel a heightened body dissatisfaction, set unrealistic body goals, and take part in negative behaviours used to achieve the perfect body, for example, vomiting, extreme dieting, excessive exercise and laxative abuse (Hawkins et al. 2004:36). Evidence within the article “has shown that endorsement of the thin-ideal correlates with both bulimic symptoms and subsequent diagnosis of bulimia” (Hawkins et al 2004:37). Since celebrities are always in the spotlight, viewers constantly see the struggle they go through to achieve the thin-ideal body image so it makes eating disorders look okay because it is what their role-models are doing. This article explains two different ways women can suffer negatively from the thin- ideal body image that the media portrays. There is significant evidence that shows that repeated exposure, and the internalization after the exposure, damages women’s self-esteem to the point that they take extreme measures to alter their body to fit the media’s idea of the accepted body type, often destroying themselves mentally and physically to achieve such impossible standard. While the internet and social media has been a great advancement in society, as I have shown there are still multiple downfalls to always being connected.
Women have always been oppressed and in a way, media is oppressing us even more. If women are only being viewed as sex-icons and property for domination we will never be able to achieve the greatness most women aspire to. If young women are being taught that we need to look a certain way and portray ourselves as objects of sex for men then we will never have the equality we deserve. Celebrities especially need to take into consideration the fact that they have millions of eyes observing them every day and replicating their actions. If these celebrities are changing themselves personally and are allowing themselves to be technologically altered to fit the social norm, it will cause young women to do the exact same thing. Assuming that celebrities have that great of an effect on their viewers, they must live and teach the concept of loving yourself for who you are and not conforming to society's ideal beauty
standard.
The plain truth, however, is that things have not always been this way. If you take a look to back in the 1950s, the iconic sex symbol Marilyn Monroe epitomized the typical standard of beauty as she flaunted a size 14. “She was every man’s dream girl and the envy of every other woman. She was beautiful, charming and exuded the aura of an angel—or so we hear”(Waters 2). We are constantly evolving our thoughts of what is ideal and because of this, there is ...
Our society is entirely based on looks and how “the perfect women should be”. To be pretty you are expected to have the perfect body with the perfect face and hair. You could never cut your hair short because you would be considered a dyke. If you’re makeup isn’t perfect you are considered ugly and if you don’t have the “hourglass figure” you are considered fat and overweight. “Despite higher global self-esteem, women do not feel good about their appearance. This disconnect can be attributed, at least in part, to concerns about body image.” (@PsychToday, paragraph 4) Our society and social media is so caught up on how every woman should look that our own judgment has been clouded and we always believe we need to look and act that way. “The truth is that women’s insecurity about their appearance is driven by competition with other women.”(@PsychToday, paragraph 16) All we do nowadays is compare ourselves to others and that’s not how it should be. You are considered to be a “whore” such as Eve if you sleep around, so women are afraid to do it. You are considered to be “weak” if you stay at home and can’t support yourself, such as Lori. Our world is so caught up in people thinking that they need to be a certain way in order to impress themselves and others. Why do women shave their legs? Why do woman dye their hair? Why do woman get spray tans? Everything we do has to do with our appearance in order to impress
Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
I was flipping through some channels on the television set one day and came across a woman's talk show, "The View." It caught my attention when one of the hostesses asked the audience of mostly women to raise their hand if they thought they were truly beautiful. Much to my surprise the audience did not respond with very many show of hands. The hostess then introduced a study done by Dove, the makers of the body soap. Dove polled over 6,000 women from all over the country and only two percent of the women polled said they feel beautiful. Women are surrounded by images screaming physical beauty is more important than their talents and accomplishments. Women are deriving their self worth from an ideal of how they think they should look and how they think everyone else wants them to look instead of focusing on their sense of who they are, what they know, and where they are going in life. In "Help or Hindrance?: Women's Magazines Offer Readers Little But Fear, Failure," Mary Kay Blakely states, "Instead of encouraging women to grow beyond childish myths and adapt to the changes of life, women's magazines have readers running in place, exhausted." She goes on to say, "This is a world we have 'made up' for women, and it is a perilous place to exist." One of the biggest culprits feeding women's insecurities are the popular women's magazine that line the book shelves of grocery stores, gas stations, and waiting rooms. They supply readers and the occasional innocent passerby with unrealistic images of what women should be instead of showing diverse age groups and women with natural beauty. Reading through a couple of magazines, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Shape, I found nothing but hidden agendas and...
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
Society, especially western, tends to conceptualize beauty through the use of publicity and cinema. We are under constant bombardment from consumer related magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and movies about what “beautiful” people look like and how we should imitate them. This standard is overwhelmingly portrayed as a white beauty standard. Starting from a very young age this standard of beauty is created in our minds. We want to look like these actors and models; we want to be thin, fit, youthful looking, a symmetrical face and even have a particular race. We accept this beauty standard; we notice our various faults among ourselves and self-critique. We try to emulate the models as best we can; we forget that these standards are not reality. Publicity models and the most popular actors do not represent the majority of us and it is a foolish and unattainable dream to attempt to change ourselves to their beauty. The pressure society puts on us can cause low self-esteem and diseases such as anorexia. But we must look at the antithesis of society’s conception of this white standard, our minorities. Portraying this beauty standard to the polar opposites is more than racist. It is destructive to the minority community in that it creates resentment, low self-esteem, and a perverse hierarchy where minorities judge themselves and others on their proximity to the white beauty standard. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison critiques the white beauty standard that causes the black minority to feel a destructive self-hatred towards themselves and their fellow blacks because their self-perception is an unrealistic and unattainable beauty seen in publicity and films. This research paper’s aim is to present the influence of ...
...es. Almost all forms of the media contain unrealistic images, and the negative effects of such idealistic portrayals (Thompson).” Almost all media outlets project a standard of beauty that is unobtainable to most women who are of average body mass. While the weight of Americans’ and people in general rises, the mass and slenderness of models and projections of what is considered acceptable is quickly making a decline not allowing any room in between for women who are of larger body mass or even average size to fit into the mold.
The models and celebrities in the media that set the standard for what women should look like are thinner than 90-95 percent of the American female population (Seid p.6). This is an unrealistic portrayal of what the human body should look like when compared to most women’s genetic makeup. Women’s self-image, their social and economic success, and even their survival can still be determined largely by their beauty (Seid p.5). Men on the other hand seem to have it a little easier when it comes to looks. Their self-image is largely determined by what they accomplish in life and not by whether or not they meet the social standard for looks. Modern clothing and fashion require women to show off their bodies more in tight clothes and by showing more skin than in the past. According to Roberta Seid ...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In our society today, people would rather see what celebrities are up to than what is going on with our health plan. Watching the news makes us aware of the latest trend, new gadget, who’s in rehab, or who has an eating disorder. In the eyes of society, women like Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, and Megan Fox are the epitome of perfection. What girl wouldn’t want to look like them? Unfortunately, this includes most of the girls in the US. Through TV shows, commercials, magazines or any form of advertising, the media enforces a certain body type which women emulate. The media has created a puissant social system where everyone must obtain a thin waist and large breasts. As a society, we are so image obsessed with the approval of being thin and disapproval of being overweight, that it is affecting the health of most women. Women much rather try to fit the social acceptance of being thin by focusing on unrealistic body images which causes them to have lower self esteem and are more likely to fall prey to eating disorders, The media has a dangerous influence on the women’s health in the United States.
Our definition of beauty changes over time for the good and the bad. Society and the media takes our average body shapes and makes us strive for higher expectations, but those expectations often affect our mental well-being. Facing these challenges that comes with body image often forms our perception of life and how we fit in. Beauty, regardless of gender, is forced upon us as our generation is susceptible to these manipulative expectations. Beauty standards have changed drastically in our generation due to many ongoing factors such as media, celebrities and peer pressure. The essay that I’m basing my personal response on is “Chicken Hips” by Catherine Pigott. Pigott wrote this essay to show her own experiences while teaching in Africa then
Throughout the years, the definition of beauty is constantly changing. In today’s society many children are told to be “true to themselves”, “unique”, “who they are”, etc. On the other hand social media, and the celebrities on there, are a constant reminder that there is a certain type of “beautiful.” The juxtaposition of being yourself and being what is “beautiful” has consistent grey areas and blurred lines making it almost impossible to keep up with is acceptable. The media, whether intentional or not, portrays a certain body image that you have to be to qualify as beautiful.
“Racialized Beauty: Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye” by Esti Sugiharti informs readers on how Morrison challenges the Western standards of beauty and reveals how this concept was constructed socially. Sugiharti mentions that Morrison’s points out that if white beauty standards are used in society, then the value of blackness would be diminished; however, the novel tends to override that tendency. The author tells readers how the ideal representation of beauty for women, specifically, is light skin and blue eyes, which for women of color is less possible to achieve than white woman (Sugaharti, 2002). This is clearly shown throughout the story with the characters of the book trying to conform to the Western standard of beauty. An example of this
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...