Media's Depiction Of Female Beauty

Fair skin, long hair, light colored eyes, and thin bodies, all categories under the European ideal of beauty. While women who have these features are, of course, beautiful, the media and modeling industry have molded these ideals into the ultimate standard to compare the beauty of millions of women across the world. Whether consumers are flipping through channels on TV or pages of a magazine, European beauty standards are emulated in the actors and models the media cast, and with the rise of social media, these ideals have only become more prevalent. The use of these standards may seem harmless; however, Eurocentric beauty ideals have had devastating effects on both the women who do and do not fit within Eurocentric beauty standards.

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

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.

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

Writing for the Huffington Post, Temimah Zucker presents her opinion on society’s expectation for women in America through different forms of communication and advertisement. Zucker’s article is based off of what you as a woman, think of yourself, versus what society thinks of you. Zucker believes that society’s opinions and beliefs will constantly change through the generations, but your thoughts about your own beauty will not become gray to you; “Beauty is molded by society -- by the advertising, fashion, and cosmetic industries. We live in a society of billboards and ads, Photoshop, and Botox. We are trained to believe that size two is perfect, while most healthy women in America fit into a size 12.” (1)

Not only my primary sources, also in all my secondary sources indicated how the media play a deviant role in women’s physically and mentally health. In the report by Bloom, Gitter, Kogel , and Zaphiropoulos in 1999 not only proved that women are influenced by the media false image, they starve to death, wear excessive makeup and follow the media ideal and standards beauty. Women never can be satisfied with their appearance and their looks since the media definition of beauty changes during the time.

For many years, woman have been shown in the media as over sexualized and unrealistically beautiful.With barely any diversity and extremely thin models on most media outlets these characteristics have become the beauty standard many people are trying to achieve. This has been so much of a problem that Margaret Lazarus has dedicated a 4 volume presentation on the portrayal of woman and the unrealistic beauty images in media as compared to men. Lazarus titles it , Killing Me Softly, and in this presentation she also examines all the things that we may not have noticed in

In addition to the unbelievably high beauty standards women are expected to achieve as a result of the media’s portrayal of women, they are also expected to create and maintain a perfect household. Interior design is often perceived by contemporary society as a feminine interest. As a result, a majority of publications dedicated to home decoration are targeted towards women. Whether or not it is directly stated, a magazine’s attempt to target a particular sex can be identified through both the subject matter and visual content. Livingetc magazine is one of six home and style magazines produced by the British company House to Home. Livingetc is described on its website as “the homes magazine for modern living,” “perfect for design conscious homeowners with inspiring ideas.” Although the magazine does not claim to be gendered, its appearance and contents, which not only discuss interior design, but also include segments on women’s fashion, cooking and travelling, are undeniably geared towards female readers.

Recently, model, singer, and actress Zendaya did a photo shoot and upon the pictures being released she made an Instagram post revealing how the photo was retouched with lighting and camera filters to manipulate the image. She made a statement stating, “These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love.” With that, Zendaya took it upon herself to release the real picture. In response, the magazine took a swift step to pull the magazine and have the images restored to their original, natural state. If models and celebrities are not really as thin and flawless as the images we see of them, how can anyone possibly fulfill the beauty ideal that they represent? In her book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf criticizes the media for the flawless and unrealistic illusions created by makeup artists and photographers, arguing that such unobtainable perfection invites young women to compare their unimproved reality to physical ideals that do not really exist (CITATION). According to one study, 69% of girls claimed that magazine models influence their concept of the perfect body shape (CITATION 3). The pervasive acceptance of this unrealistic body type creates an impractical standard that is damaging to the body images of

Each presentation will relate to each other by symbolism of a mirror and our definition of reflection and perspective and by tying parallels from snow white into their work. Individual presentations include defining beauty standards, the impact on women’s body image and self-image, women’s beauty standards in the media, and evaluating how women go about trying to meet these standards.

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.

When I watched Slim Hopes I was quickly reminded of the impact media has on the definition of beauty for women. The introduction of the video caught my attention and set the tone for the rest of the video. The introduction was versatile in its showcase of the medias impact on ones perspective. Jean Kilbourne is knowledgeable about the media’s perception of beautiful women, and how through history they have carried out that agenda. The main point of this video Slim Hopes is to educate viewers on the impact media has on the societal image of a beautiful woman and her value.

The media plays a vast role in what is considered to be the ideal beauty. Amongst the movies, television shows, magazines and advertisements women have a lot to live up too. The media surrounds the public with “images of beautiful, thin (although fit, sculpted and large breasted) young, abled, smiling women” (188 Women’s Voices). The media in the U.S. society is making it particularly challenging for a women to accept the way she actually looks. These images of gorgeous women set standards of beauty to the other women that are then internalized. Companies that provide ways to modify the body, whether it is something as little as make up to something as large as reconstructive surgery, are becoming multimillion dollar industries. These industries are making all their money off of women who are trying to match an image that has already been modified itself. Women will pay to be able to achieve that standard of beauty. They are doing it to get the

Under society’s customs 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 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 surging subject for young women. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Girls are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns and advertisements add to a strain of excellence.

Everyday, people are constantly being exposed to ads, commercials, and photographs that portray the modern standard of beauty for both men and women. For men, this image is generally characterized as being over six feet tall, extremely muscular, having abs that appear to be chiseled into a six pack, and sparkly blue eyes. The image of beauty for women is depicted as tall, having long, thick, blonde hair, a tall nose, and being thin yet incredibly curvy. These are the types of figures that are currently dominating the media. Because of the unrealistic beauty standards portrayed in popular culture, people feel obligated to look a certain way at the expense of their physical, mental, and financial well being.