Beauty In The Beauty Industry

Even though media vaunts an iridescent image of what every girl should look like, the simple fact is just, it is impossible. It is because the pictures in the media are not true—they all have gone through lots of Photoshop. Only 5 percent of women have the body type seen in almost all advertisements. Besides, most of fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women. However, women still continue to do whatever they can in order to fit into that idea of ‘perfection’. Eating disorders have harassed who want to feel like they are ‘beautiful’, for years. Women are willing to do anything even though it can cause harm to their own self due to low self-esteem. Do you want your sister, friends or girl friends always feel depressed and doing harm to themselves, as they feel dissatisfied about their

There are beauty standards all over the world, but America has one of the most highest and unreachable standard of the all. In the article “Whose Body is This,” the author Katherine Haines reflects the issue on how narrow-minded society, magazine and the rest of media is depicting the perfect body. The ideal body in America is established as skinny, tall, perfect skin, tight body are characteristics that destroyed majority of woman’s self esteem (172). As girls get older and into their teen years, they have been brainwashed to need to look like the unrealistic, and photoshopped models in magazines and advertisements. Girls don’t feel comfortable to be in their own skin, because they were not taught to love themselves for who they are right in the beginning.

Throughout their lives, women of all ages are constantly being bombarded with advertisements convincing them they must meet an ideal of the perfect body image. This is all thanks to companies that share a common goal to influence the mainstream population into believing they need to purchase certain products in order to compare to the impossible standards set by the beauty industry. In Dave Barry’s “Beauty and the Beast” he displays that it is planted in young girls minds that they need to look, dress, feel, and even act a certain way. However, men aren’t as affected by these capitalistic marketing schemes. In short, the media has affected the way women think of themselves.

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

"Only 5% of women in the United States naturally posses the body type portrayed in the media."( ) Everyday young women and teens are surrounded by media, whether it's magazines, television, radio, or newspapers. The media has a big impact on our every day lives and can take a negative toll. Teens and young women look up to the women that they see and hear about in media. They see different haircuts, outfits, and different body types that influence them, and the people in charge of media know this. The media portrays dangerous and unrealistic ideals of women's bodies that can be life threatening for them. This could ultimately lead to eating disorders, depression, and or unnecessary cosmetic surgery.

The body image movement aims to improve the relationship between women and their bodies in a more positive manner (Dove 2014). Currently, women are suffering from an increase in body self-consciousness as a result of medias role regarding beauty ideals. Researchers have found that women worldwide do not view themselves as beautiful and are consistently troubled about their appearance and concluded that six out of ten girls are concerned about their appearances (Dove 2014). As a result, anxiety and self-consciousness are all contributing factors producing significant health concerns among women (Aubrey 2007). Media has developed a reputation in society for women to be held to unachievable beauty standards as they promote a “thin culture” (Hesse-Biber et al. 2006). This promotion of beauty standards has inspired the body image movement to educate and encourage women to love their bodies in order to achieve more self-esteem and confidence (Dove 2014). As well as, corporations are beginning to

Thesis: The media puts pressure on women of all ages to conform to their standards of what looks best, and this pressure results in women having a negative body image.

The increasing and widespread use of media, as well as it tremendous ability to influence its audience, has raised various concerns over the effects the media has on its viewers. One of the fields of increasing concerns is the idea that the media portrays unrealistic body images and that these portrayals have negative consequences on their viewers, especially so for women. Women have always been associated with ideals of beauty and a particular body image. The question arises as to how far the media further perpetuate these models and body images, and what are the consequences of these effects? When the media works to perpetuate such ideals of beauty and body image, the majority of the female population, who do not conform to such ideals and body type, fall prey to psychological issues resulting from body dissatisfaction such as depression, self-hate, negative moods, and emotions, particularly for the younger women. Such negative emotions, when evoked, can lead to negative consequences and actions for the affected female population, which include drastic, harmful steps such as crash diets, self-harm, or cosmetic surgery.

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

Before they sell you their product, advertisers sell you the idea of how you should want to look and conversely, how looking otherwise is inherently a bad thing. No one wants to be the before picture, so we rush to purchase the product or book the procedure that can bring about the desired after. Women’s insecurity about their looks has made it easy to convince them that small breasts are a ‘disease’ that require surgical intervention. Fifty-three percent of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies" at age thirteen and this number increases to 78% at age seventeen. (Brumberg, 1997). It is easy to look at the people on TV and in magazines and find yourself lacking. (Hargreaves and Tiggeman 2002) found that teen girls who looked at ads using unrealistically models felt less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and

As you’re walking down a street you may notice a young group of girls or women walking and they see a huge billboard of a beautiful model. They might stop and stare at her and then discuss about her perfect her body is. Not knowing in the next five minutes they’ll be comparing their bodies to the model and feeling bad about themselves wishing that they had her body. Not to mention, that the photo may be photoshopped to make it seem as her body is perfect, or she had plastic surgery to fit the idea of having the perfect body. The fact that the media thinks they’re encouraging young girls and women to embrace their beauty, they’re influencing them that they have to have a perfect body in order to get attention. The media has put a lot of pressure on young girls and women to look perfect and second guess their bodies, when plastic surgery is never the answer to build their self-esteem up.

The advertising industry has always had an impact on the way females and even males see themselves, but in recent years the impact has taken a dangerous turn for the worst. More of the images shown are giving the idea that if people are not a certain size that it is unacceptable to this society. Girls are being taught to obsess over their appearance, their weight, and whether their bodies are “good enough.” Products are being advertised universally by women and men that are well above the average height and well below the typical weight. Although there are fashion models of every shape and size, the unrealistic body shown by most designers and publishers is bringing self confidence levels to an all-time low, in particular young people between

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

What’s unfortunate is that half of the refinements women determine to make, occasionally cannot be reversed (depending on the severity) and/or create complications for the rest of their lives. Innumerable hours on television are handed to advertisements striving to persuade their audience that purchasing their product will result in thinness, attractiveness, approval but essentially more recognition among the people that surround them. The predominant bias, I depicted from numerous sources is the idea of what Americans define is sexy and beautiful in this culture which majority would suggest it would be a blonde, busty, slender woman with curves in all the right places and to acquire this kind of beauty through dying their hair, going on ludicrous diets and plastic surgery. Today, eating disorders are seen more frequently than before, and their manifestation has become more widespread among today’s youth. Social media has created the facility to criticize and evaluate bodies in such a way that advocates an increase in body dissatisfaction, persistent body supervision, and vague feelings regarding self-worth – all of these factors can potentially lead to severe eating

The majority of women often have plastic surgery in order to acquire this desired look. According to “Nip. Tuck. Or Else.” from Time Magazine, woman in the United States have had 13.6 million total cosmetic procedures in 2014. The question is, why do women feel the need to change themselves in order to fit in. The reason for this is because media and entertainment have showed and promoted women who have a model like body on television, on the cover of magazines, and in the fashion industry. They show altered images also known as photoshopped images of celebrities, models and women who show what the perfect body should look like. Young women and girls view these images and feel disappointed when their body does not look like that way, they do everything they can to achieve that look, or end up envying people who look that way. According to “Pressure to Be Perfect” for this particular age group, aspiring to unrealistic standards can lead to self doubt, extreme dieting and in some cases eating disorders. The media and entertainment influence the thoughts of these girls making sure they believe that they should look this certain way, and that the only way to be accepted is to have the oh so desired perfect body. According to Wulff’s article, Jessica Simpson feels that there is too much pressure in today’s society to look like the girls on the magazine covers. It also gives these companies the opportunity to use the insecurity of these girls to sell their products that will help them achieve the “perfect” figure they wish to have. It seems like these companies are doing this to benefit themselves and not the young insecure