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. Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws. In addition to planting false hopes in the minds of easily persuaded young girls, this appalling view of “beauty” now booming in western cultures is shockingly leading to high rates of low self-esteem and eating disorders. In a National Report on the State of Self-Esteem issued by the Dove Self-Esteem Fund (June 2008), it was reported that a self-esteem crisis is prevalent in the Uni... ... middle of paper ... ...ibillion dollar industry of beauty. She argues that “Scientific studies have proven that human beings are hard-wired to respond more positively to beautiful people”. She also cites a recent report published by the University of Bristol which states Neanderthals wore “makeup” as long as 50,000 years ago, all in hopes of attracting a mate with the chance for successful breeding (Zilhao 2009). Nevertheless, while we as humans might be somewhat prone to look for beauty in our surroundings, the modern standards have become out of hand and are completely unacceptable. As Confucius said, “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”. True beauty is not what is on the outside, but what is on the inside. America’s youth needs to learn to differentiate between the two, and they will never learn how until something is changed in the daily messages thrown out at them.
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
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...
From the moment we wake up in the morning media is at our finger tips. As our day goes on we cannot escape all the visual media. One image after another a person’s self-confidence is either boosted or destroyed. Through the use of Photoshop a picture can be altered to get the perfect figure, skin, and hair, but when is the line drawn, when has it gone too far. Hailey Magee takes a stand when it comes to the ethics behind Photoshop in the world of beauty, “In this “Ethical Inquiry” we explore the ethics of digitally altering photos of individuals so as to make the subjects appear “more beautiful” in alignment with cultural standards of beauty”. Shiela Reaves, Jacqueline Bush Hitchon, Sung–Yeon parks, and Gi Woong Yun agree with Hailey Magee in the discussion of photo manipulation in beauty and fashion. “This study is concerned with the moral dilemma that stems from the digital manipulation of magazine ads to render models thinner. Exposure to the “thin ideal” has been linked to such damaging psychological responses as body dissatisfaction, loss of self-esteem, and to eating disorders”. Women and men are constantly affected by exposure to models that achieve the unrealistic beauty outcome of the media. Using the theories of social comparison and cultivation/ media literacy we are able to explain why photo manipulation makes women take on the thin-ideal. In the media driven world photo manipulation has become an accepted practice since it increases sales and fulfils the “thin ideal”, but the emotional and physical damage it has on women is catastrophic.
Girls are now led to believe they are not as good as what the “ideal” women based on looks. Even though, “on average the model weighs 23% less of what the average women living in the United States really weighs” (.) Young women are striving for an outcome that can be unobtainable based on body structure, and are left insecure when their goal is not reached. Eating disorders such as, “anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating are the result and the top three eating disorders among the teen community today” (.) The idea of perfectionism takes over their mind to knit pick themselves until girls, unfortunately, fall for things like anxiety disorders, depression, and turn to substances that hurt the body, not help it. In a People Magazine survey, it showed that “80% of female respondents feel that women in movies and television programs made them feel insecure about their bodies” (.) The “look” they are creating is not only unhealthy, but it is spreading an unhealthy image to girls just maturing and is damaging their ego in the developing years of t...
All throughout history, beauty has been perceived and practiced in various ways. The 1920’s as well as the 21st century are both extremely different time periods, yet in multiple ways, are surprisingly similar with their standard of beauty. Overall, these two eras are the most considerable because of their individual innovations in technology, the progression of their societies and economies, as well as the major events taking place concurrently. These influences surrounding the specific time periods have significant impacts on trends, and the ideal concept of beauty in that era.
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
What remains similar between the bodies flaunted across the media, is that they all possess popular standards of some kind of objective beauty. Women have an aptness to fall prey to advertisers and somehow unknowingly accept the creation of such standards for a woman’s body that is unrealistic for the majority of society. Slender, good-looking models are so prominent in today’s culture that chronic exposure to them reinforces a discrepancy for women between their actual body and the ideal body. Media fuels this unrealistic image and convinces women that in order to be accepted and considered beautiful, you better be fat-less, have silky hair and a flawless complexion. Unrealistic media images of women are so prevalent that it seems that females who fulfill such a standard are more the norm than the exception. The Cultivation theory argues that images that portray women who match the sociocultural ideal of beauty are extremely prevalent in pop...
While the vast majority of images of females are being digitally enhanced, so is our appreciation for normal, healthy, beautiful, and attainable. Photoshop has gone over the top with how they make pictures look, so much that it’s negatively affecting vulnerable children, and teens with low self-esteem issues. One important justification for why people go through serious issues with their bodies like self-esteem, and eating disorders is because of the media. The media plays a huge role in our everyday life, and when a person sees an image they are automatically influenced by what that image portrays.
Under society’s norms for decades, girls have been put under the pressure and expectation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Where do these unreachable standards come from? When a young girl hears the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life replica of the photoshop. These companies spit out magazine covers plastered with girls’ idols daily. As if maintaining the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of makeup, however, body image is a pressing issue for girls. Ads and posters of skinny female models are everywhere. Young girls not only could be better but need to be better and feel forced to have the perfect physique. Girls are
I have chosen to write about this subject because it is important to see how twisted the ideals have been over time. 1.2 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS The purpose of this paper is to get a better picture of how the beauty ideals actually has changed over time. I will focus over a longer time in America because back then this was not something that changed over a night. I have chosen to write about
Scholars claim that, “mass media can reflect basic beliefs, attitudes, and values toward female beauty and can even affect changes in cultures when others are exposed to images of ideal beauty and attractiveness” (Bissell & Chung, 2009). However, the beliefs and attitudes that have been adopted by the American culture are not creating a positive perception of true and healthy beauty, but rather a perception of shame and disappointment (Bissell & Rask, 2010; Bissell & Young, 2009). Both articles agree that constant exposure to these false perceptions of ideal beauty not only misguides young women into believing that this is in fact the cultural norm, but eventually leads them to accept that they must find a way to live up to these unrealistic standards, ultimately leaving them feeling inadequate and unacceptable (Bissell & Young, 2009; Bissell & Rask, 2010).
Beauty has affected our culture and the opinions of the people in it. However, we do not only rely on the media’s opinion of beauty. If we were to do so, we would focus on a beauty that is fleeting and superficial. We can see that beauty in human appearance is objective because of our uniqueness. There are variations on what is beautiful
Throughout history there have been many claims about what is beautiful and what is not on the face and body. America’s idea of beauty in the past changed many times from the fragileness of the Steel-engraving lady to the voluptuousness of the Greek slave. The ideal beauty in America is not so different from the ideal beauty of cultures around the world and follows many of the traditions practiced throughout history. The widespread of advertisement and technology is something that’s said to be the contributing problem to the ideal women phenomenon, but I believe history and trend plays the bigger role.
“The beauty myth tells a story: the quality called beauty objectively and universally exist. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it.” “The qualities that a given period calls beautiful in women are merely symbols of the female behaviour that that period considers desirable: The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behaviour and not appearance” – Naomi Wolf ‘ The Beauty Myth, 1991.