Definition Essay: The Ugly Duckling

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

Some people occasionally feel that their own appearance is unacceptable to society because of what others are expecting based on published media. Those include, social media, published articles, and even movies and TV shows. The media’s portrayal of beauty has had a generational effect on american society with young people falling victim to unrealistic standards. Failing to participate in these ideals can lead to non acceptance, ostracization, and even bullying due to the unfounded judgements of those who do participate in the beauty standards perpetuated by the media. As a matter of fact, research on the impact of those ideals have been done. Many of the studies have been made based on the outlook of people

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.

Modern society is so based on image. Models today are airbrushed and Photoshop and that leads people, both male and female, to believe that they should look like something unnatural. Meaghan Ramsey tells the audience about her 1-year-old niece who looks at her self in the mirror and adores her reflection. However at some point people stop adoring them-selves because young minds become poisoned with a false image of what “beautiful” really is. The title of Meaghan’s Lecture is “Why thinking you’re ugly is bad for you.” She goes on to tell how teenagers and adults are finding themselves unattractive and how that is negatively affecting their lifestyles as well as the world. The sociological aspect of the epidemic is that from a young age, parents, media and religion, dictate to the youth what an acceptable appearance is. Low self-esteem is not natural but rather implemented on children by society. This affects people in a psychological way. Meaghan Ramsey goes on to say how many students, specifically young girls, are refraining from participating in class and even going to class, because they don’t want tot draw attention to their appearance. There is no biological aspect to this epidemic, because regardless of what these women look like, they still will

The modern beauty standard has become an increasingly important issue because people have the freedom to decide, but the media largely influenced these choices on about beauty standard. Our advance of technology helps communicate with each other, but people are not fully aware of the influence of media. That is a major problem. The media broadcast images of beauty to control people consciously. Technological advance helps people to reach the information quickly and cumulatively, but media not always making people feel good about themselves. Most of the people experience powerless when a society values youth and beauty because it is impossible to meet beauty standard. People bombarded by images of men and women who are thin, beautiful, and youthful. This norm is slowly taking away an individual’s freedom of self-expression and consequently lose sense of self-worth. Camille Paglia, an academic and social critic who earned her PhD at Yale University, uses her artistic sensibility to argue that the current trend of plastic surgery leads to ethical issues, such as narcissism, sexism, and racism in “The Pitfall of Plastic Surgery”. Meanwhile, Daniel Akst, New York born journalist, claims that the attitudes of the typical American’s carelessness about their outfit and physical beauty in “What Meets the Eye”. Both authors define the beauty standard that created by the media and claim the issue of how the media set up the wrong beauty standard for audience; it is unattainable for

Looks don’t matter, beauty is only skin-deep. We hear these every day, and yet we live in a society that seems to contradict this very idea. If looks don’t matter, why does the media use airbrushing to hide any flaws a person has? If looks don’t matter, why are so many young women harming themselves because they’re unhappy with the way they look? If looks don’t matter, why does every magazine have an extensive diet plan? It’s because our society promotes a certain body image as being beautiful, and it’s a far cry from the

What is beauty? Is it the people on the cover of magazines? Is it the faces you see on billboards in the city? In today's society we are bombarded with subliminal messages promoting certain body types as the 'right' way to look. Age, colour, height, weight and race. Beauty is molded by society and we are all victims and culprits. We are told constantly that looks don't matter yet we live in a world that contradicts this very idea. Through the changes of beauty standard throughout history, the media and body confidence, I will talk about beauty standard of today.

These images make little girls and women believe that if they don’t look a certain way they need to change everything about themselves until they look exactly like those models and celebrities. Society today refuses to accept people who accept their flaws instead of telling the population that flaws make a person essentially unique and different. The concept of beauty revolves around three main ideas: Physical appearance, aging, and losing control of themselves.

The Subjectivity of Women to Modern Mass Media’s Construed Views of Beauty and How Their Effects on Body Image

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

Our society is bombarded with false information and ideals that the media presents to us. Being considered “beautiful” in the public eye is something many women strive to become. There is a misleading image that success and happiness are associated with beauty. When one walks by a newsstand, it is no surprise that one will find various magazines depicting a blemish-free airbrushed face of a celebrity on its front covers. There is no escaping from the false images of beautiful people the media feeds us, especially in today’s society. Almost everywhere one looks, there are billboards, commercials, ads, magazines, and books that depict attractive people being happy and having a great time. As a

The majority of the people tend to define beauty as what on the outside. They believe that beauty has to do with physical appearance, how one looks, slim body, face full of makeup with no acne. Many want to have the perfect look and by having the perfect look they think they are beautiful. Honestly this definition of beauty began to be defined as beauty once social media started. Beauty doesn't last long, but people tend to believe that it's what matters the most. For example if a person does plastic surgery and put tons of makeup on that is considered beauty to a lot of people. “It's ‘much easier to judge someone based on their appearance because it’s become the norm of our society”. People tend to become more beautiful because of the norm of our society. Because of how society and other see beauty is that many want to make changes with their appearance. They just want to be able to to fit in on what is the category of beauty. Because of the way society has become and influenced us

Just like the stream eager to rush into the ocean, whatever the difficulties they may meet, we human beings always want to go up higher and everyone wants to find their own ocean even though they might have terrible conditions or in a horrible surrounding.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” What is beautiful to me may not be beautiful to you. An idiom that is known by almost every nation and culture. However, what happens when society on a collective whole, perceive a certain characteristic, or body type as beautiful and desirable. When you are told day by day what is considered appealing, or that a size zero is the ideal body size for a woman. When women are told you would be prettier if...What is left to be said and done when women don't meet the criteria of the Goddess-like perfection that society decided to shackle them with. It is a cancerous disease eating away at our sense of self-growth and actualization. It is a sickness that needs a cure, and we as a society must seek to eradicate it, so that we can grow as a people.

People often say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone has the same opinions about what is attractive, but society today continues to set standards on how a beautiful person should look like. These standards greatly vary from one culture to another and they continue to change through the course of time. We cannot deny the fact that physical attractiveness can give you an advantage in this world – be it in your work life or in your personal life. People tend to look at how symmetrical your body is or how proportionate your features are to one another, but we should not be forced to conform to these standards and they should also not dictate how successful we can be in life. For example, the United States of America is one country that has a culture evidently promoting beauty standards. To them, a beautiful woman has fair skin, a slim, sexy body, and soft features while an attractive man has a muscular physique and sharp features. These characteristics put pressure on people telling them how they should look because these are what different industries look for. It is no question that the first thing people would notice about you would be your looks – first impressions always count.