Beauty Between Beauty And Beauty

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius. Beauty has had a specific image or ideal for the past 100 years from the help of pop culture and advertisements that women are constantly viewing daily. We can go through the different ideas of beauty through idolized women in the past who were often considered to be the ideal beautiful. With the help of makeup and the aid of different styled clothing, women were able to fit in to form into the ideal beauty.

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

“You will never look like the girl in the magazine. The girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like the girl in the magazine” Jessimae Peluso. Throughout American history, women have continued to strive for an ideal of beauty. Although the definition of beauty has varied between generations, the pressure and desire to fit the mold of what society deems “beautiful” remains consistent among women from all eras. Unfortunately, this abnormal example seen in magazines, on runways, and in social media platforms is impossible for the majority of the female population to physically reach. Women are always pursuing the perfect look, turning to plastic surgeries transform them into celebrity ideals. People who desire perfect appearance ignore the nature of beauty itself, naturality is a kind of beauty. In recent years, women in America turned to look at models to find the ideal beauty standard and if they don’t meet them they turn to face lifts and plastic surgery to perfect their appearance.

Society and the media have an enormous influence on an individual’s concept of beauty and bodily perfection. Even the “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” many people allow the media’s influence into their lives, which is a dangerous thing to allow (Vogel, 2015). According to David Newman, author of Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, society is defined as the “population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members fall under the same political authority” (Newman, 2010, 18). The people within a society constantly create and add to the pressure already placed on individuals which can severely alter and harm one’s self-esteem. Self-esteem is

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

Everyday people stare at billboards, magazine covers, movies, television, or pictures on the Internet of someone or something that they classify as beautiful. Some things people glance over and other things fascinate them. For example, when Farrah Fawcett’s famous picture of her in her red bathing suit came out; many teenage boys hung that picture in their bedrooms. Their idea of Farrah’s beauty was based strictly her outward appearance.

The argument of The Beauty Myth is that as women have received more eminence, the standard of their personal appearance has also grown. Wolf’s position on the issue is that this type of social control is potentially just as restrictive as the traditional roles of women. The Beauty Myth discusses how society’s viewpoint of beauty is detrimental to women because it causes many emotional and psychological problems to women who strive to become “perfect”. This book is important due to the fact it raises awareness to the issues that many young women are currently facing.

Beauty is seen as one of the most important aspects of an individual as it the first characteristic someone notices about a person. Some are treated differently due to his or her aesthetically pleasing or displeasing face and is most evident in the book Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis that takes place approximately in the time period 700 to 450 B.C. In the novel Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis the three central female characters, Orual, Psyche, and Redival, are all regarded to differently based on their physical appearances and this attitude is prevalent in modern society.

It’s difficult to envision a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our present circumstance is a relatively new occurrence. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were restricted to our own communities. Until the introduction of photography in 1839, people were not exposed to real-life images of faces and bodies. Most people did not even own mirrors. Today, however, we are more obsessed with our appearance than ever before. But the concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable given society’s standards. According to Jane Kilborne, “Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the

According to Shaw and Lee (2015), in our culture, the manufacturing and consuming of products and the fashion industries create the beauty standards (pg. 191). Commercials, billboards, magazines, and other advertisements enforce these definitions. Therefore, beauty ideals reflect what the white, abled, and middle-class feel is beautiful. Even news journalists such as the women who report the newscasts are still “beautiful” women who fit the dominant ideology’s definition of beautiful.

The saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” was first heard in the third century by the Greeks. Meaning that the view on one’s perception of beauty could be another one’s ugly, the standards of what is beautiful and what is not could differ from person to person. The media, which consists of highly edited images of men and women, sets unnatural standards for what is considered beautiful and what is ugly. Often illustrating standards impossible to reach, magazines teach boys and girls that if you are not a certain size in clothes, a certain height, or a certain weight, you are ugly. In the media, they never report the beauty of someone based off of their personality; however, there are always stories about models losing weight, or how great a celebrity looks after plastic surgery. Ultimately, the perception on what is ugly and what is beautiful is highly influenced by the

The concept of beauty is one of the more intriguing and important concepts in the study of gender and sexuality. Beauty has held a prominent role in shaping people’s personal lives and by extension, the lives of society and humanity at large in both positive and negative fashions. Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Sigmund Freud’s Three Contributions

Beauty sets standards for society through appearance, especially in younger generations due to use of social media and picture editing. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” is a saying that has been around for ages (Plato, n.p.). It is an accurate phrase because of contrasting views within particular individuals. Beauty is present in the good deeds of community members as well as the unity exhibited through dreadful events. It is a flower bud breaking through the dirt into the fresh, spring air. To clarify how beauty is viewed, it is often times the exposure of evil accounting for the new appreciation of something beautiful. After recognizing the privileges we acquire, the existence of beauty is revealed and expressed more easily. In current society, appreciating beauty is substantial to

Society follows a norm that requires a general agreement between groups in order to function as a whole. Human beings are social “group animals” (Lessing 1) and need each other to survive with the intention to get along or fit in. These desires to conform “influence our idea about ourselves” (Lessing 1) and people lose a sense of their inner self based on these insecurities. The false concept of ideal beauty of body image is displayed in the media and it pressures young women and men to accept this particular notion of beauty. The role of the media comes into play because it pressures individuals to give in, since they appeal to our need, which is to be accepted. Although, people oppose to media pressuring individuals to conform, it is clear

Everyday, people are constantly being exposed to ads, commercials, and photographs that portray the modern standard of beauty for both men and women. For men, this image is generally characterized as being over six feet tall, extremely muscular, having abs that appear to be chiseled into a six pack, and sparkly blue eyes. The image of beauty for women is depicted as tall, having long, thick, blonde hair, a tall nose, and being thin yet incredibly curvy. These are the types of figures that are currently dominating the media. Because of the unrealistic beauty standards portrayed in popular culture, people feel obligated to look a certain way at the expense of their physical, mental, and financial well being.