What is Beauty

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Recommended: Beauty standards and self - esteem

The ideal of what beauty really is changes in our society from time to time. Everyone has their own opinion of what is beautiful. However the opinion that people mostly tend and heed to is that of the prominent and influential characters in today’s society. Those who claim to know what true beauty is and impel humanity to do and be what they want, as if people were their puppets. Television, magazines, and advertisements play an immense role in this. Playing with emotions and ridiculing those ‘not beautiful’ by pointing out the ideal facial structures or body types that one must have in order to be beautiful. Features of which can only be obtained by expensive, dangerous, and addicting procedures in an outpatient facility. Then some of the features they portray are impossible to obtain even with surgery because those looks are created through a computer. The look they claim is fictitious. It is all propaganda and spurious statements of which are only negative influences and lower women’s self-esteem to a critical point. The Dove Self Esteem Fund conducted a survey which concluded that “a girls self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and body weight, than how much she actually weighs,” this being influenced by all the advertisements and beauty articles.

Alyssa Giacobbe, in her article on the Boston Globe, "Youth, Beauty, and an Obsession with Looks, (2010), claims that "Beauty is not a social construct but a built-in ideal." By this she is saying that beauty is defined by the actual similarity one has to someone that appears on magazines or television. The image established is that of luscious lips, large bosoms, and long slim legs. The author supports this thesis by saying that she believes that...

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..., from clearing up blemishes to completely revolutionizing the entire facial structures. Technology can alter one’s appearance to a look that is impossible to obtain even with surgery. Yet people believe they can achieve that look with a couple stitches, but when they see it wasn’t possible they continue having surgeries to get this illusive and imaginary look of beauty and perfection. Women are affected daily by the idea of what beauty is. The idea of being skinny, having large breasts, thick lips, and skinny legs is a negative influence that can lead women to having a low self-esteem.

Works Cited
Giacobbe, Alyssa. "Youth, Beauty, and an Obsession with Looks". Boston Globe 2010

Kearney-Cooke, Ann . "Real Girls, Real Pressure:Dove Self Esteem Report". Dove.
Odes, Rebecca, Esther Drill, and Heather McDonald. Own your Own Look. 2002.

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