Buzzfeed Controversy

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.

A socially stratified reality is constructed by the belief that inferiority or superiority is based on an individual’s class, race, and/or gender. In Tim Wise’s film White Like Me, he discusses the widely held preconception that most welfare recipients are undeserving black people. In actuality, most welfare recipients are white, but the media creates this unfair depiction. Far too many black faces are shown in news coverage of poverty that correspond to the actual proportion of poor blacks in the U.S. This kind of interaction and experience strengthen the belief system that black people are inferior to white people, justifying the negativity and prejudice welfare recipients and blacks receive.

It is no secret that today’s society defines beauty as thin, long-legged women with statuesque bodies. Examples are found everywhere just by glancing at the closest magazine ads or by scrolling down the latest fashion article online. Normal, everyday women are being forgotten and tossed aside to make room for the “Top-Model”-like women currently crowding up Hollywood. Media depicts women as an unattainable image. They pressure ladies to buy the products they’re advertising; luring them with false advertisements promising that with it, they too could be perfect. While the media portrays women in a certain way for advertising and marketing benefits, it has caused numerous negatives effects to women’s self-esteems nationwide, it contradicts

The Beauty Myth’s central argument is the growing standards of physical beauty of women as they grow stronger. This standard has affected women in many ways, such as in the workplace, culture, and religion. The standard has taken over the work of social harassment. The beauty myth expands the belief an unbiased measurement of beauty exists and that women want to express it and men would want that women. The author, Naomi Wolf, states that the beauty myth is not about women themselves, it is about the power of men and their society. The myth supplies power to multibillion dollar cosmetics industries and it keeps women from rising too high in the workplace. Within this book, Wolf shows how the beauty myth functions and affects women in the workplace, media, sex, religion, culture, violence against women by men, and by women themselves in the configuration of cosmetic surgery and eating disorders.

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.

There is a cliché quote that people say, “Beauty is in the eye of beholder.” But in the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty” (1998) Dave Barry argues about how women who spend countless hours on their so called “beauty” whereas men seem not to care. Barry uses juxtaposition and exaggeration to poke fun at men and women behavior and shed light on the harm that the beauty industry is doing. When Barry argues his point of his essay he addresses both genders, but more specifically teenage to middle age men and women, but he writes about it in a humorous and light-hearted manner.

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.

Beauty standards have been posed by society since the beginning of time, mandating how individuals do everything from get dressed to style their hair. In Malcolm X's "My First Conk" and Dana Stevens' "Your Flip Flops Are Grossing Me Out" the standards posed by society, and what role they should play in society overall, are discussed. These two essays are different because of their views on health problems, self-degradation, and society’s standards.

In the “land of opportunity,” most white Americans feel that they have been cheated out of any chance to get ahead; to live the American dream. Having little or no job security or health insurance; pensions being taken away after working hard their entire lives; companies moving overseas; “a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many” (Obama, 2008, para. 36), these are valid reasons as to why whites feel anger and resentment. Also, some whites resent the fact that people of color are taking all of the good jobs or being accepted to the best colleges because of the color of their skin, or whites are being called prejudiced because of their fears of crime in their neighborhoods. Unlike black Americans, though, the white’s feelings of anger and resentment are not counterproductive. They have legitimate concerns and reasons as to why they feel the way they do, and no matter how hard they try to fight the “big boys” (aka the Government and corporations), or their prejudices, it is a losing battle and widens the racial divide in America. Obama, in his speech, also spoke about America’s racial history and the complexities of

People have been fighting with themselves, and with popular culture at large, for years, regarding the idea of the “perfect body.” Though it could be argued that this battle is being waged mostly by women, there has been a shift in today’s society, where the quest for the perfect body includes both sexes. And as the 20th Century marched on and became the 21st, this idea of a beautiful body became thinner, waif-like, less and less substantial, and most definitely much less healthy. In addition, in her article “Never Just Pictures,” author Susan Bordo argues fashion photography, primarily, but definitely not independently, has been scaling down and thinning out the image of idealized beauty, making it harder and harder to achieve healthily or socially. Bordo explains images, of angular beautiful models has informed all of popular culture, growing beyond merely the realms of fashion. And this, Bordo tells us, contributes to a sense of societal longing and lack of

Vanity Fair is a magazine of popular culture, fashion, and politics. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, "Vanity

Is a news source as trustworthy as some people may claim it to be, or is it all based on political standings nowadays? In today’s world, news can be very shady, and most of the time makes an attempt to sway a person’s political standings. Although Buzzfeed can be a good source of news and entertainment simultaneously, it’s not always reliable, biased, and can provide faulty information based on hastiness to attract the younger audience.

“Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies... Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media” (Palmer). Major corporations and industries such as Disney, Mattel, and Victoria's Secret, consistently display and advocate women with the “ideal” body type, when in reality, this is only feasible for a small percentage of women. Therefore, women and girls are forced to assume that it is necessary for their physical features to be as flawless as those portrayed through large corporations and the media. These cultural icons of flawlessness and beauty lead women to have an unhealthy obsession with body image or a severe mental illness. Major corporations should be held responsible

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

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.