Society’s ideals of beauty differs throughout the world. The American and South Korean standards of beauty are vastly different which is interesting to compare. I was intrigued by this topic because of many Korean shows that I watch and I’ve realized a major difference in fashion and beauty between these two cultures. American and South Koreans follow different trends, and undergo plastic surgeries but they are often influenced by the same source which is the media. In America, it is considered beautiful to have a sun-kissed skin tone. People frequently get spray tans or apply bronzer because being tan is often associated with having fun at the beach or at vacation (Lin, 2017). In terms of makeup, Americans tend to create more dramatic looks by applying false lashes and doing heavy contouring and highlighting. In recent years, Americans developed an obsession over fuller lips and bigger breasts and butts due to the media. Plastic surgery is very prominent, however, it is mostly used for breast augmentation, buttock augmentation, liposuction which is a technique to remove excess fat under the skin and …show more content…
Young girls are constantly exposed to unattainable beauty standards which lowers their self-esteem and can cause eating disorders (Davis, n.d.). People form a preconceived notion of beauty simply by admiring their favourite celebrities on social media, magazines or in movies. The hidden truth is that not everything shown in the media is real. In the Korean entertainment industry, people strive to look more Western by having paler skin and bigger eyes because of the Western-dominated media. Korean artists are usually responsible for promoting the beauty trends and standards and the public tends to conform instantly (Park, 2017). In recent years, the media has improved greatly by showing more diversity in body image and ethnicity. This allows young girls to be more confident about their own
A group of young adult Vietnamese women are interviewed in the documentary, all of which relate to being pushed to perfection by their parents; perfect bodies, perfect education, perfect everything. The psychologists and plastic surgeons interviewed in this documentary even mention how it is common for Asian women to request surgical procedures in pursuit of what they think is beauty in American culture. Specifically, they most commonly request the procedures that give them larger, more expressive eyes. However, even beyond Asian-American culture, many people in modern society view themselves through a looking glass of societal standards and find something they want to change. Normally, it is rare that people are satisfied with their innate self-image when it comes to physical beauty— though, this notion is even more amplified among Asian-American culture.
Smith focuses on Koreans’ desire to achieve or acquire Caucasian like features. He examines South Korean history in order to uncover the reasons why plastic surgery became so important in South Korean culture. He also explains the benefits of having an attractive appearance not only for social purposes but also for work.
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
Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. 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 surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.
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.
The media have constructed attractiveness for a long time many sociocultural standards of beauty and. Especially women’s body images have been a primary concern because the value of women has been measured how they look like. How women have similar body traits with the modern female body images has been a significant and essential issue, historically. The sociocultural standards of beauty which have been created by the greed of the media have dire impacts on young females. The current beauty level of the female body image in the media is thinness. In fact, the preferred female body images have been changed through the media. Throughout history, sometimes skinny women’s body images were loved, and sometimes over weighted women’s body images were preferred. Whenever the media have dictated the ideal female
It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.
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%
Plastic Surgery has become a worldwide epidemic in today’s world. The number of plastic surgeries continues to increase since 2010. In today’s day and age, plastic surgery is one of the most popular and requested procedures. Females are opting to have plastic surgery because they dislike their body image. Society has impacted many people by brain washing them to believe that a person’s body has to be perfect. In order for one to be considered beautiful, television and media influence people’s perceptions of beauty.
The unrealistic standards of beauty is hurting this generation of what the media and society thinks a girl has to look like, for many years the media has been trying to construct the ideal image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. They believe there only beautiful if they have long legs, great hair, and curves in the right places (HuffingtonPost2017). Which is not the influence that we want to carry down to future generations of girls who feel like they must live up to the expectations of girls who have the “perfect body”. With media apps being popular in the 21st century, there was a survey done on some of the top media apps, their study #statusofmind surveyed almost 1,500 young people aged 14 to 24 on how certain media apps impact health ( CableNewsNetwork 2017). Body images statistics say 80% of woman say images,
"Does this make me look fat?” Everyone at one time or another has experienced this iconic question in some way. Your best friend may have asked it, as she was getting ready for a date or maybe you muttered these words to yourself as you stared disapprovingly into a mirror; either way, this six-word question alludes to a standard of beauty that everyone strives to meet. A standard of beauty that is almost impossible to meet. The definition of beauty has evolved greatly over the years and it differs from culture to culture. Today, western culture idolizes the woman who is “thin, large breasted, and white (tanned, but not too brown)” (WVFV, pg. 220). This woman is one that millions of women strive to look like in
Throughout time, people have sought out admiration and acceptance from their peers, especially based off of their physical appearance. For decades, they have spent millions of dollars on beauty products and surgical procedures to achieve what they perceive as beauty. The American Media has assured them that they will never be beautiful enough. Young girls have grown obsessed with their images and, as a result, have gone to extremes to achieve model-like appearances. Americans will always attempt to chase perfection- an impossible task.
Beauty standards in America are always changing and continuously on the rise due to society’s constant obsession with the perfect body image. This image is built upon the things we see in movies, television shows, and magazines, which causes girls to feel the need to look flawless and set far-fetched goals for their physical appearance. Today’s era marks tall, skinny and flawless faces as beautiful, and if girls don’t have any of these attributes, they truly believe that they aren’t as beautiful and will do whatever it takes in order to obtain that beauty. In today’s ever-so-demanding society, social media, flawless models, and pressure from not only peers but from family as well, have all implemented a negative impact
The 1999 Academy Award winning movie American Beauty has many major plots and shows the reality of American life. This movie uses symbolism to get ideas across in many different situations and it shows the actuality of life, it is not always what it looks like on the outside.
The people of South Korea have a strong connection to plastic surgery which is evident by its usage among both women and men. According to a statistics website called nationmaster.com about 20% of the Korean population have had some kind work done on them. It is estimated that women between the ages of 20 and 50 years old underwent the knife for some reason, be it eyelid surgery or a nose job. While the act of cosmetic surgery mainly occurs in women, it has estimated that about 44% of college men think about getting plastic surgery at some point in their lives (nationmaster.com). In 2010 the number of Korean men who had cosmetic surgery was around 15% based on the Korean Association for Plastic Surgeons estimations. Any attempts to explain the high popularity of cosmetic surgery in South Korea mostly frames it in two ways: 1) Koreans have the desire to look more like white people or 2) according to feminists it is the continued subjection of women to patriarchal ideas. (Kim 2009). However, this is a very limited way of explaining why plastic surgery is so important to in South Korea because the issue is more complex than that. The plastic surgery world of South Korea shows a struggle between what they believe is beautiful, what the world and social status believes is beautiful, and what their culture believes is beautiful.