My New Look: Society's Obsession with Appearances

Consumers of an advertised product have been subjected to years of ads that portray men as Gods, so naturally that is what they look for in the newest ads. For example advertisements for protein shakes use men that have exceptional muscle tone and muscle mass. All the advertisement shows is that person drinking the shake and not all the hours they put in at the gym, or years of working out they have gone through to get to that size and tone.

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.

Society’s deeply ingrained standards for women created by the media demonstrate the corruption of self image as seen through ads from the 1950s that feed off of insecurities. History demonstrates the obsession with perfection by showing how women were viewed before and after advertising influence, “Men wouldn 't look at me when I was skinny… Since I’ve gained 10 pounds, I have all the dates I want” (Lewis). Ads such as this swayed women from the 1950s to 1960s to physically appear in a

Americans have grown to try and look their best no matter what and this all stems from the way people view body image. Today someone could have anything they want done to change their appearance. “We are a culture of beauty junkies, addicts continually looking for our next fix to keep us looking young and pretty” (Masterson). Masterson believes that people are addicted to beauty and it is almost like a drug. This is not far from the truth. People go overboard to look as good as they possibly can with things like plastic surgery, botox, and even simple things like makeup. With the obsession with beauty as bad as it is today one seems to never be satisfied with how they look. “But that uplifting message--I'm OK the way I am--is overshadowed by the dark view readers are left with of a society obsessed with looks that isn't showing signs of stopping” (Masteron). The idea of someone being ok with their appearance gets quickly changed when they look around and see the world and the obsession it has. This is a huge reason body image is so bad in America now, because as soon as someone feels comfortable with their looks the standard changes. America’s obsession with looks is one of the biggest factors in the negative change towards body

When we look into the mirror we constantly pick at our insecurities; our stomach, thighs, face, and our body figure. Society has thought us that there is only one right way of looking despite the fact that we are all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Luckily we have corporations that shove detrimental products to fix our perfect imperfection. The easiest and most common thing to do is blame the advertising industries and corporations. It is not wrong to say that they are in part responsible but we can’t make this issue go away until we talk about patriarchy.

Beauty standards evolve as people do and are based on the need to procreate. Human beings have been adorning themselves with products to look for appealing for thousands of years. The serious problem we haven't addressed are the subversive messages our corporate owners inculcate us with through media. The hijacking of beauty standards is corporate means to an end. Putting a good looking plus sized woman on the cover of a popular magazine doesn't solve the relative that we are inculcated with falsity.We aren't tackling the root

Beauty has always been defined outer appearance. Men and women of all ages and races spend time, money, and energy to bring out their outer beauty in order to gain acceptance and impress others. It is evident that one must look good in order to be accepted by society. This can be shown through how much people value makeup, Snapchat filters, and fashion trends The next time you find yourself watching T.V., pay attention to the commercials and count the amount related to makeup, such as nails, eyebrows, and facial skin.

We as people have been paying more attention to our own physical appearance then we have ever in the past. We notice when we look into a mirror, we start to question ourselves about if our height, weight, body shape even the hair styles and if they will compare to recent beauty norms you might find in media such as magazines, TV commercials, Facebook.

Now a day appearances are everything. People are always striving to look good wherever they go. Many people take a look at them in the mirror and want to change the way they look. This is all caused by the judgement of our society today. This does not only occur in the 21st century it has been happening since the beginning of humankind. This affects men and women equally, because often time’s men judge women and women judge men, but people can get judged by their own gender as well. Every year millions of people do plastic surgery to make themselves more beautiful and appealing. This is done by men and

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

One will see a white female with pouting red lips and the very petite body that resembles a thirteen-year-old girl. The extremely artificial women and the heavily photo-shopped pictures in these ad’s create a norm and make those women who look differently, feel insecure of who they are and make them feel as if they are less of a woman, for example they tend to over represent the Caucasian, blonde with bright eyes, white complexion and a petite body. This is an unattainable beauty for most women, which has caused many to develop issues such as eating disorders, depression and the very much talked about these days, anorexia.

I found a TedTalk by Jean Kilbourne titled The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women. I thought this would be a perfect foundation towards answering my question. Although this is a popular source, Kilbourne discussed about women body image issues in the United States and how there is a psychological effect that impacts the way that women present themselves. This video helped me get an idea

As we all know there used to be a saying that quoted “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” That particular statement is true because even though one may feel as if they see nothing beautiful in them others might feel as if they are quite charming. Individuals feel as if outer beauty is the most important because the outer beauty is more egomaniacal and arrogant. Rather we like it or not the outer beauty is what defines people, and people may believe that one’s body figure, complexion, or sophistication is what makes them alluring. They use material things to help maintain these images; which is why we see so many beauty ads. Commercials can be prejudice towards other thing or products which makes most of these commercials/ads

Society has painted a picture that beautiful is the most important thing that a women can be. Smarts, a good personality, and other great traits do not matter if the women is not attractive looking. The media is most responsible for this stereotype. Women in commercials and television shows give girls a false expectation of what they are supposed to look like. The women on these programs have thousands of dollars of make up on and have done countless number of surgeries on themselves to make themselves look “attractive”. Not only does this effect the girl’s self-esteem, it also puts a false image into men’s heads about how women are supposed to look. This puts even more pressure on the women to try to achieve something that is unattainable. Not only are the women in these advertisements unrealistic looking, they are also over-sexualized. Over-sexualized means that these women are being shown as sex figures instead of being actual actors. One of the worst offenders in over-sexualizing women is music videos. Music videos almost always have scantily clad women dancing in a sexual way throughout the duration of song. This coupled with lyrics that are vulgarly demeaning towards women give ladies a false idea of what they have to be in order for a man to like them.

In terms of women and sex appeal, the world of advertising has changed a considerable amount. Many of the advertisements which are seen in newspapers, magazines, and television fail to portray women in a more positive light. The image of females in numerous advertisements are merely viewed as fascinating "objects" while they are also being displayed in a fashion that is supposed to appeal only to men, i.e. exploitation of the body. Though these types of advertisements are very effective at selling their products to consumers, it seems as if the minds ' of women, especially younger women/teenage girls are being corrupted as they are pressured to live up to the ideal image: sexy and thin with a little extra curves.