The Beauty Ideal in Society Today

Gender Studies

Engraving Gender on the Body

“Women today are constantly being reminded of what is considered beautiful. There are

thousands of advertisements that promote this elusive beautiful image to women of all ages,

shapes, and sizes,” (Britton, 2012, p.6). These powerful words from Ann Marie Britton’s The Beauty Industry’s Influence on Women in Society demonstrated a clear representation of who beauty ideals are presented to and the expectation that follows. The media has this bizarre belief that no matter what shape or race you are, there is one definition of beauty; making sure that your skin tone is not too light nor too dark, also that you do not have too much fat on your body, but be careful because you cannot be too skinny.

The media drills these ideas into younger and older women’s minds of all races and sizes, this influence has damaged the innocence of women and stripped the true meaning of beauty, which is self-love.

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Backlashes of the beauty industry include deteriorating women and their bodies as well as psychologically scarring them (Wolf, The Beauty Myth, p.494). The most major effects that follow this brainwashing are eating disorders and the constant thrive to change the natural body through the myths and ideals of modern beauty.

The visual standards of women and what they are expected to look like have driven young girls and women to a dark path. Something that they see as a solution to the problem beauty industries have handed to them, the idea that they are not good enough, that everyone is designed to look a certain way.

It has gotten to the point that these women turn to self-starvation, diagnosed as anorexia nervosa, also the act of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting, diagnosed as bulimia nervosa. Another commonly diagnosed eating disorder is compulsive eating, which is the act on uncontrolled eating, also known as binge eating. Other unhealthy characteristics included fasting, compulsive dieting and overexercising. All of these behaviors are things that women of all sizes share because they have something important in common, the media has stripped away their self-love and replaced it with a desire to be something the are not (Lee, Shaw, 2012, p.229).

Growing up surrounded by beautiful magazines and T.V. shows filled with stunning celebrities often lead to the idea of “other girls”, the creation of self-blame and shame, resulting from the idea that other girl do not look like me, and with this, there must be something wrong with me. Marni Grossman’s Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism speaks of how these emotional and mental effects on young women were holding them back in more ways than one. Obsessed with how people viewed them and the constant reminder that they were different, because what the media did not tell them, was that everyone is different. Hiding their intelligence, girls instead were filling their brains with the idea of a diary solely purposed for tracking your eating. If it wasn’t that, they were purging in the bathroom following lunch. Originating all of this is the belief that thinness is in relation with godliness, believed because that is what is told, so it must be true (Lee, Shaw, 2012, p.241).

A combination of feminists writers, named as Lisa R. Rubin, Mako L. Fitts, and Anne E. Becker use their views as women to birth Body Ethics and Aesthetics Among African American and Latina Women. Within the expert along the topic of body appreciation in states that, “Women are especially vulnerable to the illusion that the body not only is malleable, but that it should be cultivated to achieve a particular body size and shape,” (Lee, Shaw, 2012, p.246). This lays out the idea that almost all women who do not fit the criteria of the “perfect” body, suffer from the contemplation of why they are not good enough. Women who see themselves as obese or overweight are diagnosed with disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, as mentioned before. Those who are defined as “too skinny” result in compulsive eating, in hopes to gain weight. All women are affected by this idea of the beauty, and the media, and with time and wisdom, they will learn.

Beauty ideals often create an uprise of questions floating around in a woman's head. How can I be like her? What’s wrong with me? Questions that challenge a women’s beauty. Through the media women are objectified, and a level of competition is born. The influence of the media has inscribed into these young women’s brains that they features made the ugly. Their nose was too long and had too much body hair, as if that is anything that anyone can mindlessly control. What is effect most are features that are romanticised by the media through music, television, and print ads. Before you know it every women is dreaming of perky boobs, and plump butt, and pearly whites, maybe then they will be attractive and succeed in life (Jones, 2006, p.5).

This long for a plastic lifestyle has created a number of solutions to what the world seems to think is a problem. Jonathan Watt’s expert on China’s Cosmetic Surgery Craze mentions that there has been a reported 25% increase in women seeking nips and tucks. Following the same trend, information was released that surgeons were willing to perform leg lengthening procedures for individuals to gain an extra 10 cm. The extreme extents show exactly how far the media is willing to take viewers, to the point that they would spend thousands of dollars to transform their bodies.

The media has a purpose. That purpose is to inspire and create, to advance and advocate for change. What the media is not and should not be is a form of subjectification of women and the outline of beauty standards. It should not be the genesis of depression and anxiety because of the limits women are pushed to by the media’s publications. Most of all, the media should not push anyone in a direction in which they hurt themselves, example being eating disorders, or create an idea that the must change because they are not perfect. It is time for the media to step down from the beauty ideas and let women be women, creating beauty through love and nature.