Beauty Is A Beauty And Beautiful Thing

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.

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

“Beauty is subjective yet American society creates an objective facade of what beauty is and how it looks and that is one does not fit in to it than they are not “attractive,” superficially over substance, Americans simply are uncomfortable being themselves” (Williams). The beauty standards for women are shaped by society’s ideas of beauty. When women try to fit these beauty standards to be accepted into society, men think they have the right to objectify women and their bodies. Of course, it’s never the man’s fault when he gets caught doing just that. Beauty standards for women are getting to a point where they are almost unrealistic, and often leads to someone objectifying a women’s body, which of course, society says it’s not the man’s fault.

“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.

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:

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. At least, that’s what is taught to believe at an early age. Elline Lipkin, however, holds fast to the understanding that as true as that saying may be, there are outside forces that are intent on readjusting our vision to “true beauty”: the kind that can be bought off the shelves. In her article, “Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves: Body Image, Identity, and Sexuality”, Lipkin employs several different external resources to help demonstrate her belief that young girls’ (“Before they even abandon their teddy bears…“ (Para 2)) definition of their own appearance is polluted and distorted by the vastly massive world that is the American media. Besides pulling from other articles and fact sheets, she also effectively utilizes a clearly logical train of thought, an operative tone, and countless examples of emotional appeal.

After taking a glimpse of what “Finding My Eye-Dentity”, More and More Young Women Choose Surgical ‘Perfection’”, and “Before Spring Break the Anorexic Challenge” were about, you can see that we are slowly wiping out our naturally beautiful females and males. Parents, girls/boys, lovers, and friends are very influential in our lives. However, how much can we let someone else control the way we look? Beautiful is different and comes in different shape, color, and size. If we continue to place models and actresses/actors on a pedestal, then nothing will change. Women and men will continue to ‘perfect’ their body. Beautiful. Everyone wants to look beautiful,

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

The image of a woman’s body has always been the center of attention to society all over the world. Globally, anyone who thinks of a woman’s ideal body, immediately thinks of a thin body with no cellulite and no imperfections, a small waist and soft skin, between other descriptions that are considered “hot” and “good looking”. Females often feel pressured to attain society’s highest expectations because it is easier to fail them, rather than meet them. The music and other industries, like advertisements constantly portrays an ideal and beautiful body for women, in most cases thin. When women see these images and then look at their own bodies, which are most of the time different from what is portrayed as ideal in society’s eyes, they begin

“Beauty is subjective, yet American society creates an objective facade of what beauty is and how it looks and that is one does not fit into it than they are not “attractive,” superficially over substance, Americans simply are uncomfortable being themselves” (Williams). The beauty standards for women are shaped by society’s ideas of beauty. When women try to fit these beauty standards to be accepted, society thinks they have the right to objectify women and their bodies. The pressure can lead to eating disorders or even depression. Beauty standards for women are getting to a point where they are almost unrealistic, and often leads to someone objectifying a women’s body, these habits lead to things most people don't think about it.

Notions of beauty changed many times in the history. In blessed times of the Renaissance, an ideal of beauty was considered women in the body. Artists with pleasure immortalize those amusing paunchy women to the envy of starving representatives of the beautiful sex of our days. Today, women look at these paintings and jealously sigh, "What kind of wonderful times were." The standard of beauty and femininity 90-60-90 proportion transforms women's life into a hell. By itself, the struggle for the perfect body as a whole is good, but some girls and women start to go to extremes and bring themselves to dangerous conditions.

Every country has their own definition of what beauty is, but they all share the same unrealistic expectations that women and more recently men, in every society fight to obtain. Beauty is cultural, it is learned, and in modern day it is over glorified and dangerous. Being beautiful has become an epidemic in western cultures, causing low self-esteem, low self worth, and high eating disorder rates. Although this is a pressing topic it is nowhere near a new topic, society defines a person by their gender from the moment they are born and idealistic body types have been around since the 19th century, paving the way for new, extreme, and unrealistic expectations every decade. Focusing mainly on the 21st century and how third wave feminism has made

As of recent decades, feminists have begun to tackle the subject of beauty in American society. Hair, comestics, cosmetic surgery, all that which constitutes beauty practices and beauty culture are ubiquitous in contemporary American culture. Attending the subject of and issues related to beauty, feminists largely disagree. Their widespread disagreement has revealed a wealth of social and philosophical issues surrounding the subject. The variety of approaches to the pressing questions of beauty in our society has precluded a much sought-after single feminist position. It is clear that feminist authors disagree on a number of levels; from the nature of power to that of culture to that of human agency, feminists have differing and diverse understandings

We are constantly surrounded by images of the “perfect” woman. She is tall, thin and beautiful. She rarely looks older than 25, has a flawless body, and her hair and clothes are always perfect. She is not human. She is often shown in pieces – a stomach, a pair of legs, a beautifully made up eye or mouth. Our culture judges women, and women judge themselves, against this standard. It is forgotten that “beauty pornography”, as Wolf says, focuses on underweight models that are usually 15 to 20 years old. Flaws, wrinkles and other problems are airbrushed out of the picture.

Body image and Society have always been interrelated throughout time especially in maintaining gender roles and imposing the perfect image of the female. It is society that have dictated how a woman should look and act and both positive and negative body image is a direct correlation with a woman 's social worth. This essay will discuss how the relationship between body image and society is presented in a multitude of texts and how these views are differentiated depending on the decade they are published or created in. The topics being discussed will be the two poems “self in 1958” and “honor and obey”’ written by Anne Sexton, two episodes from the Television Show “Buffy the Vampire slayer” and finally Naomi Wolf’s texts The Beauty Myth.