Three ways how our beauty ideals are unrealistic Today our ideals are different than they were in the past. We value a tall, skinny, toned body shape, small waist, tanned skin, small nose, almond shaped blue eyes, long eyelashes, perfect eye brows, full lips, flawless skin. But is it possible for everyone to possess all these traits? Is everyone naturally perfect? The answer is obviously no. Some are further from these beauty standards and some closer. However, there is always a way to achieve these ideals with help. Make-up shops, plastic surgeries, fitness centers, solariums, and cosmetic interventions are becoming more and more popular. People spend a vast amount of money monthly just to approach to these ideals. Very few people achieve them naturally and, therefore, they must be unrealistic. …show more content…
Magazines, TV programs, and movies showcase people with a perfect bikini body, makeup applied a few seconds before the shot, and hair that took hours to style. Why do they show us these perfect but unrealistic illusions? Being surrounded by these “perfect people” from every side makes some people less confident, depressed, and frustrated. They may think that they are not pretty or good enough. However, it is clear that no one is ugly because beauty is subjective. Even though I am aware of this, it makes even me feel not good enough sometimes. When I see a magazine with a cover of a girl with a perfect toned body, flawless makeup, and stylish clothes; it makes me feel not pretty enough since I am a full-time high school student. During my usual day I have the minimum amount of makeup on, hair done in one minute and dressed in a school uniform. That's definitely not the time when one would feel pretty. I am a confident person and it still matters to me. So imagine what it has to do to people who are not confident at
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.
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
One thing that plays a big role in the image of perfection is the media...
In today’s beauty-obsessed society, an unhealthy body image in teens is on the rise. Media of all sorts plays a large part in labeling exactly what it means to be beautiful. This brainwashing of unrealistic expectations of what beauty is starts at a young age with fairy-tale movies like Disney. “The Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest media corporations in the world. It has been dominating the world of children movies for decades” (Lamb & Brown 2007). Disney films have been infamously overloaded with gender stereotypes. These films are the very basis of what young children aspire to be. Little girls all around the world emulate the princesses Disney has created over the decades. But you see little girls are not the only ones emulating these fictional characters, but little boys are forced fed lies about what it is to be a hero. However, the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast seems to stray from this trajectory by depicting an intelligent female protagonist, a handsome “bad guy”, and a brute as “Prince Charming.”
In today’s media there has been an upheaval of ridiculous beauty standards put on for women. With platforms like Facebook and Instagram the ideal body is exposed to young girls which can lead them self conscious. While many beauty standards emphasize natural beauty, many top beauty companies are able to shove what they procive has the “beautiful women”. These unrealistic beauty standards need to be put to an end because their ideal women can cause women health problems from the media outlets that push these standards out.
No matter our age, gender or ethnicity we can all admit one thing, we want to impress others. Appearance does matter. We have to be satisfied with our appearance and not compare ourselves to fake photo-shopped pictures in magazines. Our view of perfection is affected by who we are and where we live, and our own self-esteem. While finishing this project, I have concluded that many people are often unable to see their own beauty, because they are too busy worshipping models and actresses that have spent millions of dollars on their looks, or listening to bad advice from others telling them they need to change. Appearance is important because it is often the first impression we make on others. But in order to be satisfied with our outside appearance, we have to be satisfied with ourselves on the inside first.
First, one must ponder a couple of questions: who defines beauty in today’s culture and society? Does the mass media industry define beauty? Everywhere one turns in advertisements, commercials, TV shows, movies, magazines, etc. someone is telling us what “beauty” is. The allure of celebrities and the beauty they exude, definitely influences the beauty those in the Western culture strive to be and are attracted too. Television, movies, magazines, advertisements that come from the Western culture have influenced cultures around the world. Due to the high i...
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.
As we will see, women's beauty is more than skin deep and is not what you see in the media or popular trends, but it’s a measure of emotion. Women’s beauty is portrayed as only being cosmetic, but there is no cosmetic for beauty
First, women spend huge amounts of money to improve their looks. So here we are unable to escape the reality that we can never be flawless or blemish free; moreover, as long as women have the belief that all greatness de...
Beauty. The word has many definitions to all of us. One of the hottest topics in America has been beauty standards set in magazines and advertisements of women, and the use of photoshop on women that create unrealistic beauty standards. Women then feel pressured to look like those of the magazines. More beauty standards are set than just those for women.
Are you confident enough to share the “real” you online? A survey conducted with 1710 participants, has revealed that 50% of the participants confessed to using a face enhancing application, before posting the picture on social media ("Afraid To Be Your Selfie? Survey Reveals Most People Photoshop”, 2014). Statistics revealed that men edit their pictures as frequently as women, this could be fixing blemishes or completely transforming the picture ("PicMonkey Survey Reveals Photo Editing Habits of Men and Women", 2014). Standards of beauty are greatly influenced by social media with the rise of feature enhancing applications, enforcement of unrealistic standards, and through the increase of societal conformity.
Beauty myths, as well as social and cultural trends about the perfect features that a perfect woman should possess, are all partially to blame for today’s scandalous beauty standards (EssayShark). The topic of beauty has been a controversial issue in society for more than ten decades. Today's society has created a description of beauty that interferes with every woman's self-consciousness (Sassoon). Despite the fact of the proverb that beauty is what is found within, many people use facial along with body features to define a person's true beauty (Talamas). In the academic journal “When Beauty Matters Too Much: Understanding and Treating Women Obsessed With Their Physical Appearance”, Jessica Sassoon thoroughly creates a balance in the way
The unrealistic bodies, faces, and visual appearances of "beautiful" women are what drive society's definition of beauty. Being beautiful is about your self-love and inner happiness. Today's media sensationalizes the unrealistic meaning of beauty. Its places extremely thin, golden tanned, and toned legged 5'10 models that have layers of makeup at
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 ...