Beauty is something which pleases us much. It is by nature that we go after something beautiful or of great aesthetic value. Conceivably, many people try hard to improve their looks through ways like makeup or cosmetic surgeries in order to leave others positive impressions. However, this situation seemed to have worsened and distorted in recent years. People, regardless of their gender, have had a blind pursuit towards outer beauty of humans that they attempt to reform and alter their appearance without noticing the dangers and side effects of doing so. This phenomenon might be attributed to several reasons, but the promotion of distorted beauty values by the media should probably take a share of blame.
To start with, the media
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Since most contents of the media promote certain body shapes and appearances, people may try to do minor adjustments on their looks in order to look good under societal norms, so as to please their people around them, gain acceptance and secure a status in social groups. In some extreme cases, people alter their faces and bodies at all costs but this in fact can backfire on both physical and mental health of them. Physically, as a thin body is considered the best shape of females these days, girls may go on a diet or undergo surgeries to get rid of body fat and lose weight. Yet, among women who tried to get slimmer, 60% were of normal weight and 10% were actually underweight (Davis, 2017). Blindly losing weight by refusing to eat or over-exercising may lead to insufficient energy and nutrition intake. Mentally, some people may find a gap between their actual appearance and the portrayed "ideal" ones shown by the media, and they may suffer from decreased self-esteem since they do not have the perfect looks that are generally acknowledged by the majority (Santarossa & Woodruff, 2017). At the same time, social media provides platforms for users to compare their body shapes and appearances with their peers or even strangers on the net. If they find they are not attractive as the others, they may lose self-confidence and feel depressed about their own figures (Fardouly & Vartanian). All these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. It is alarming that blind pursuit of "beauty shaped by the media could lead to many other potential threats and dangers which threaten one's health and even relationships with
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
Beautiful people with stellar personalities are often found within the media, whether it be in a television show, a movie, or a magazine. These so-called celebrities set the standards extremely high for appearance, making those who do not meet those standards come across as unappealing or unattractive. The media creates a negative stigma that unpleasant looking people are inferior to the good-looking, ergo, many people strive to become more attractive looking and are willing to do ludicrous things to themselves, such as plastic surgery, in order to obtain this fabricated sense of beauty. According to media standards, Pal...
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley defines the people in their society by how they look, whether they are attractive or unattractive. Even in our society today, we see a lot of people being discriminated on their beauty, which makes a lot of men and women feel as if they are not good enough. In The Culture of Beauty, Gerdes states how there was an international study done by the Dove Campaign that “...thirty-two hundred women worldwide found that only 2% of women from ten countries considered themselves “beautiful.” Indeed the study found that 60% of these women agreed that “society expects women to enhance their appearance” (Gerdes, The Culture of Beauty). Those who favor the ‘real beauty’ ideal that society and Brave New World portrays suggest
Some may say that the media does not have much of a substantial influence on young adults, but some at risk teens have cited that their reasoning behind their development of eating disorders are in response to the many adverts and images that are represented in social media culture. The media in today’s society continuously advocates images of falsely induced perfection women all around the world. The industry that controls what people see on television and in advertisements knows that only a small percentage of average individuals possess these attributes or fit their set high standard of beauty. The idea that one can never be “too rich”, or “too thin” is prevalent in the media as well as in most media oriented images. Social media’s use of unrealistic models send an implicit message, that in order for a woman to be considered up to an acceptable standard, they must be in some sense of the word unhealthy, most people who are being portrayed in advertisements are well below the range of being considered healthy. To understand the reasoning behind why women and even men take this idea of body image to extremes, the term body image needs to be examined. Body image is how an individual feels when they look in the mirror or when they picture themselves in their own mind. It encompasses it what some one believes about their own appearance (including memories, assumptions, and generalizations). Never showing goals or putting emphasize on education or academic achievements. Objectifying the body and making it seem as though appearance is the only achievement to be set in one’s life place little room is placed on young men and women to have more focus on more educational goals.
It also pressures women to constantly try and strive towards this ‘beauty myth’ the media have constructed and make men’s expectations of women’s beauty unattainable, however this is how the media has represented women as for years, Bodyshockers and 10 Years Younger, are just two examples of this. To this extent cosmetic surgery could be considered to be an obligation rather than a choice due to how the media has represented this now normalized technology of science.
Media has a negative impact on females’ body image by promoting artificial beauty. Women often become dissatisfied with their bodies, which cause them to develop eating disorders. Body image affects a woman’s perceptions and feelings about their physical appearance when looking in the mirror. The media portrays unrealistic beauty of women who are thin with perfect hair and make-up. Many women who expose themselves to the unrealistic standards of the media often idealize, covet, and become very insecure. The many women who do not expose themselves would influence others to perceive their physical appearances as beautiful. “Many popular magazines for females tell women to focus on their physical, outer attributes (i.e. body shape, muscle tone, bone structure, hair, makeup, clothing, etc.) and rarely mention the importance of being smart, sophisticated, funny and/or possessing many other positive attributes that have nothing to do with physical attributes” (Sparhawk 1). Obviously, the media’s representation of the thin ideal connects to the majority of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. In other words, the media’s use of unrealistic women sends a hidden message that in order for women to be beautiful they must be unhealthy. The importance of physical appearance is encouraged at an early development for most girls. For these reasons, the connection between media and body image is very important because low body image will lead to eating disorders and potentially death.
“Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep” (Godfrey, 2013). We hear these sayings all the time, yet we live in a society that seems to constantly contradict this idea (Godfrey, 2013). If looks don’t matter, why is every woman in magazines photoshopped? If looks don’t matter, why are women constantly harming their bodies because they are unhappy with how they look and just want to fit in (Godfrey, 2013)? The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible (Godfrey, 2013). Sociocultural standard of feminine beauty is presented in almost all forms of popular media, forcing women with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal body (Serdar). A majority of the models
Beauty has become a word with a degrading value. Women in America are used by the word to create a new world of consumption. The beauty industry has been contradicting itself for years, sending mixed messages to women across the country. Western cultures have placed high-risk standards on the ideal image of beauty, creating unrealistic and unnecessary desires among women. Advertising attractiveness has become an outrageous competition within oneself and has destroyed the God-given self-purity that sets individuals apart; therefore the industry needs to create true, a more diverse image of beauty and stop limiting human elements.
Purposely or not, the portrayal of female models and unrealistic weight expectations in the media are, in part, responsible for several health and psychological issues in today’s society. The media can be magazines, television, or the internet, and all are easily accessible in the United States. Magazines in particular boasts diet tips, exercise information, and unrealistic expectations of the ideal body size and shape. They send a message to the reader: that in order to be attractive, you must also be skinny. The portrayal of the perfect body image is inescapable in today’s society. As standards are becoming smaller and smaller, the effect it has on women show a similar trend.
People are more aware of how social media affects women on their physical features and how negative it can be. You will see on different advertisements, movies, and television shows of women being portrayed like a model, a beautiful, tan, toned, and tall girl with flawless skin complexion. This puts a lot of severe pressure on girls to become this image because most pre-teen and teenage girls do not meet these "expectations" since their body type may be from genetics or going through puberty, having baby fat, acne, or stretch marks, which is normal as it is natural for anyone. Girls compare themselves to these models and gain motivation to look exactly like the other girls that are being displayed. From this motivation the actions the girls will do can involve exercising, a healthy method to improve the body with muscle toning and having other health benefits, or eating healthy. But, a lot of girls choose to harm their bodies with three negative effects and put them under stress. These negative effects from girls trying to become skinnier include eating disorders, depression, and engaging in other negative activities, which was mentioned by the Do Something blog, (n.d.), and that 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported that the other listed negative activities were cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered
The concept of body image is one of the greatest underlying themes in personal satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Body image as described by Nio, is “a person’s unique perception of his/her body. It’s how we perceive ourselves, how we think, we appear to others, how we feel about our look from ‘our own internal view’” (3). Humans are constantly making themselves aware of the image their body portrays. The problem has become that instead of being comfortable with the body they are given, there seems to always be a yearning for what others have. A number of these problems can be attributed to the ever-growing media industry, and in this century, even more so focusing on social media that has a purpose of strengthening external validity. The United
72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful. 54% of women globally agree that they are their own worst beauty critic. Media has created beauty standards through the idea body for women all around the world, arising from many unnecessary predicaments. These standards created through media have turned into something even bigger. Not only are they a certain group of standards, but they are also unreasonable, unreachable, and unhealthy.
However, it is evident that the media usually presents and sexualizes women who are “young, fit and beautiful” hence probably creating self esteem issues more than confidence especially in younger women who are religious towards the media’s expectations. This stereotype of being a desired body shape only forces women to meet unattainable perfect physical standards (Gill 2015). The media bombards the youth with gender representations and the types of bodies that are deemed to be attractive. Many teenagers all around the world are desperate to lose weight to be “beautiful”.
Beauty is a huge thing in the world today. Looks are the first thing someone notices about you and it is what they judge you on. It is just how our society is today. Unfortunately, it is what the world has come to. The biggest extreme that someone can go to to enhance their natural beauty is to have plastic surgery. People are choosing to have plastic surgery due to the influence of celebrities, selfies, bullying, how important beauty is in society and the health benefits of it as well.
It’s natural we are attracted to them in order to give our offspring the best chances of living and continuing the species. However, the extremes to which we have taken the idea of beauty and the exclusivity of the features which we deem beautiful today are far a cry from traits which carry inherent evolutionary benefit. Conversely, they’re having a huge and harmful effect particularly on girls and women. For the past few decades, the evolution of beauty has brought a huge metamorphosis in people’s perspective about their appearance. People are more concern about their outer beauty than anything else.