A Study By The National Association Of Social Workers

To be frank, I also once had a view that only people who are skinny can be considered as beautiful. However, there is one incidence that changes my perception on the idea of what is the meaning of beauty and ‘perfect’ body. When I was in high school, I had a best friend named Alice—she was chubby and curvy. She was so obsessed with the America’s next top model shows. One day she expressed her desire to lose weight to me and I supported her. She also said that her boyfriend asked her to lose some weight to be more beautiful. She said that she really wants to look like the models and also to fulfill her boyfriend’s wish. After three months, she was hospitalized and I was so shocked with that news. She was hospitalized because there was something wrong with her intestines caused by her unhealthy diet. When I went to visit her, she looked very different—she looked sunken and sick. Begin on that day; I realized that it is really impossible to be like the models that we see everyday in the media and I also afraid on how good media is in order to distort society’s idea of beauty.

know the feeling one can have when one hears a beautiful song that brings joy to ones heart, stand in a field of flowers that excites ones eyes, or admire a face that is visually pleasing. The controversial issue that surrounds beauty is that some believe that true beauty is defined by someone’s outer appearance, while others believe it is something that is experiences through a person’s character. Beauty is defined as the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the sense or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. The secret of beauty has been a quest of humans for centuries. It has been determined that women and some men spend up to one third of their income on products and procedures that enhance their looks. People spend way too much time looking in the mirror, scrutinizing, worrying, fretting, and wishing people could change something about themselves. People dream of looking like the girl at work because she has great hair, or the girl people meet at a party because she is skinny, with the perfect nose. This happens because people are constantly on social media. A pretty face is not a complete definition of beauty, nor is the quality of one being kind and compassionate. To contain beauty, someone or something does not have to be physically beautiful. Beauty is everywhere. Take a simple flower.

The National Association of Social Workers conducted two research trips to Cuba in 2011, the first team focused on health and child welfare system and the second team focused on social services for older adults. Both groups were introduced to Cuban society and their achievements and challenges as a country, and social work in Cuba. Cuba has many great achievements, for example it “devotes almost a quarter of its gross domestic product to education and health care – nearly twice as the percentage of the United States” (Herman, Zlotnik, & Collins, 2011). While this is amazing and much needed, Cuba also has its challenges as a country. The economy in Cuba continues to weaken, due to the trade embargo with the United States but also with the fall of it’s former ally the Soviet Union. Therefore there is a shortage in housing, food, medicine, medical supplies and equipment, and other basic supplies (Herman, Zlotnik, & Collins, 2011). This becomes an issue with social workers in Cuba because The Cuban Ministry of Public Health is the largest employer of social workers, training them in health care (Herman, Zlotnik, & Collins, 2011). If there is a shortage amongst the health care system with medicine and medical supplies, how are the social workers taking care of their people. Another challenge that faces social workers in Cuba, one of the first groups who migrated out of Cuba was those who worked agricultural sectors. Therefore food rationing has been

How do you know if you are really helping the client? Evaluation is an essential part of the social work profession offering monitoring and measuring interventions created for clients. Research has concluded evaluation is an integral part to social work practice approach to evidence-based methods. In recent years, training on evaluation has increased however it remain under-utilized by social workers in practice, (Hitchcock & Baker, 2010). The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics charges practitioners to ‘‘monitor and evaluate policies, the implementation of programs, and practice interventions’’ (NASW, 1999).

By age six, girls start to think about their weight and become self-conscious. Forty to sixty percent of girls, ages six to twelve, are concerned about being too fat. This idea, caused by society is carried throughout their life, causing self-esteem issues, which can lead to depression. Sixty nine percent of girls who read magazines said that the pictures influenced their idea of an “ideal body”. Forty seven percent said the pictures made them want to lose weight. This idea, that you have to be skinny to the point of starvation, in order to be beautiful, is affecting girls. In fact, only five percent of American women naturally have the body type that is portrayed on advertisements. The average American women according to the NEDA is five foot four weighing 165 pounds, whereas the average Miss America winner is five foot seven weighing 121

In our popular culture, the media worships the beautiful, perfectly made-up, perfectly-coiffed, perfectly-dressed, THIN woman! Our current standard of beauty is based on super models, actresses, musical artists, reality TV stars, all for the most part very thin women. With the overwhelming amount of these images bombarding us every day, the message seems clear: women who do not fit this standard of beauty are unattractive, unloveable, and unacceptable.

Social workers deal with a wide variety of people from all walks of life. There are challenges that people in the social work field deal with that most people do not take in to consideration. Whatever job position social workers are in; they connect with a lot of difficult experiences and deal with a little bit of everything.

Dangerous procedure,like putting utensils to their eyes and lightening their skin with harmful products, many woman go to great lengths just to be pretty to others. Feminist have for a long time proclaimed that every woman is beautiful in ways beyond her looks. But is this enough? It is hard for young girls to believe this when the media tells them something different. When they look at what's considered beautiful, they begin to compare themselves to those who better fit the standard of beauty. They soon begin feel

Unrealistic female body image is a widely discussed subject. Our culture portrays women as thin and beautiful. Having these qualities supposedly allows her to be wealthy, as well as successful. Thin, beautiful women are portrayed in movies, on television and in magazines. These expectations only lead to a woman having a poor body image. (Ettarh, R. 2009) Glamorized images of young women can attribute to low self-esteem in teenage girls. They are exposed to peer pressure every day. They are rated by their peers according to how they are dressed and if they are stylish, as well as thin. Models are tall and thin. The majority of teenage girls do not fit that description. Their bodies are still developing and changing. Older women also

Women of this generation look to female celebrities not just as someone well known, but these women are also idolized for how they look, how they think and how they act.

Celebrities have changed the way that people view each other and themselves because of their flawless appearances on all of social media.

The focus of the social worker is in 5 key areas that support your wellness and quality of life:

“Beauty” describes that unique moment in life when everything that surrounds you can create a smile, and your heart melts with happiness. It builds up good-natured memories and each time you recollect that particular moment you see at a beautiful moment due to the happiness that was prevalent. Those memories and the painted images that mark the memorable events in life is what is known as “beauty”. Everyone always admires a beautifully even scene and wishes everything to be beautiful. We can create happiness in real life, which may be beauty, but some negative aspects will always make it difficult. Beauty is, therefore, that wonderful feeling of admiration and pleasure that creates a memory in our lives.

The media has affected people for many years. It has been around since people have been printing newspapers and broadcasting on the radio. Particularly, the media has an effect on youth and there are many studies and articles that research how the media affects youth. One example is, in the article, “Social Media and Body Image Concerns: Further Considerations and Broader Perspectives” written by Robert J. Williams and Lina A. Ricciardelli:

Together, we can lower the numbers of people dying from eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries by resisting the beauty ideal. We can choose “to not participate in the beauty rituals, to not support the industries that produce both images and products, and to create other definitions of beauty” (WVFV, pg. 232). The most crucial and easiest solution is to create other definitions of beauty. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide what is beautiful. What if someone decided that the only thing that could contribute to one’s beauty is who someone is on the inside? Wouldn’t our world be a completely different place? Instead of