Sleek Woman Analysis

We so often hear people talk about their high expectations for women, we usually don’t even give it a second thought anymore. Society expects women to be thin—but not too thin, be fit—but not too fit, be society’s definition of “beautiful”. Whatever that is. Women are judged no matter what they look like, how they dress, how they act. They are judged and it is fully accepted because it’s so

Today’s society is based off an image seen on a magazine cover, body building TV shows, and social media post. Men and women have this misconception on how we should look a certain way when really we should just try and impress ourselves. They say “practice makes perfect” which just shows it doesn’t come over night, so in order to be better we have to work at what we want.

It is no secret that women often change their bodies in order to meet the societal expectations that are portrayed in the media. The patriarchy and the male gaze dictate the ideal female which is depicted on television, in movies, and in magazines. Woman most often alter their weight in order to match the small slim physique of models. Weight is one of the main aspects of the female body that the patriarchy controls. Woman are taught by society that their natural body is not beautiful and that they must conform to the societal standard of a thin, size 0 woman in order to accommodate the male gaze. The patriarchy dictates this of a woman in order to maintain male dominance in society. However, these expectations have a negative effect on

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.

In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.

The article, “Looking at Women” by Scott Russell Sanders published in The Norton Reader, 13th edition, embarks on a journey to find out why men look at women. Sanders starts off with his personal encounter as adolescence were he was told not to look at women out of lustful desire, because women would not want to be stared at like that. He also wondered from his early college days, were his bunkmate had pictures of nude women and he and others would endlessly stir at these pictures. Sanders questions whether women enjoy being looked at by men and how should men look at women. He uses quotes from people and facts to find answers to these questions. He also analyses the problem from global perspective. He wonders why women try so hard to look good. He concludes with the fact that women like looking good, but they sometimes don't like it when men stare at them. Sanders opines in his thesis that " to be turned into an object – whether by the brush of a painter or the lens of a photographer or the eye of a voyeur, whether by hunger or poverty or enslavement, by mugging or rape, bullets or bombs, by hatred, racism, car crashes, fires, or falls – is for each of us the deepest dread; and to reduce another person to an object is the primal wrong” (188).

According to Laing, “The sexualization of female athletes reduces their self-esteem and identity by dehumanizing and pressuring them into an unhealthy obsession with body image” (page: 3). This leads to the media making women self-conscious about their bodies. Athletes often hear people say of other athletes, “She is too big, she’s not muscular enough or she is too skinny about female athletes.” Because of the way in which the media portrays a particular set of females, all females tend to strive for this “perfect physique”. This can lead to serve cases like dissatisfaction with their appearance and eating disorders. Some may argue that women like the sexualized manner in which they media portrays them because it increases their self-esteem

How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp

The ideas that society has put in our minds is that a woman has to be slim, look perfect and always be ready for a photoshoot. All of the women in this movie trailer have a very similar body type, these women are all slim, tall and beautiful which shows that the movie industry has narrow vision.” The beauty of the woman as objects and screen space coalesce; she is no longer the bearer of guilty but a perfect product, whose body, stylized and fragmented by close-ups, is the content of the film and the direct recipient of the spectator’s look,” (Mulvey, 2006, p. 349). The idea of a women being able to stay fit as well as being on top of all the modern fashion trends, and looking ‘perfect’ is very unrealistic. This is portrayed in the movie trailer when the one mother played by Mila Kunis is in a workout class or when her and her friends are having conversation in regards to her bra. When it comes to women’s careers they are expected to wear appropriate clothing that portrays them as professional, this allows them to be respected in the workplace. “The contemporary economy depends right now on the representation of women within the beauty myth,” (Wolf,1991, p. 18). Society continues to push the ideology that all women have to be the same size and dress certain ways in the workplace through different methods of media including movie

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.

A female should not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin, whether or not she weights 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”. According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of women. A woman being dissatisfied with their body is a everyday trend around the world where as

Wolf discusses the effect that these standards are having on women in the workplace. A woman’s beauty, or lack of it, can be used against her. In 1986, Mechelle Vinson lost a sexual harassment case. “Vinson was young and ‘beautiful’ and carefully dressed. The district court ruled that her appearance counted against her.” (Wolf 38) “In Hopkins v. Price-Waterhouse, Ms. Hopkins was denied a partnership because she needed to learn to ‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely,’ and ‘wear makeup’.” She brought in more business than any other employee. (Wolf 39)

In addition to this, the book ‘The Media and Body Image” written by Wykes and Gunter, it is stated that the blame of female insecurities about their body should not only be directed to the media but also how women today understand it. If females perceive a discrepancy between the accepted standard of female attractiveness and their own bodies, they may become concerned that their own weight is not satisfactory. Rosalin Coward author of the novel, “Female Desire: Women’s sexuality today” while agreeing with the above mentioned authors concluded that, “This ‘perfect’ female body would be between five foot eight, long-legged, tanned and vigorous looking, but above all, without a spare inch of flesh” (Coward, 1984, p.52)

Beauty standards have been a major issue for many years now and women have been willing to change their bodies over and over to please themselves and others. Beauty standards are often defined in terms of hairstyles, skin color, and body size. The measures involved in having to live up to these standards are often risky in nature. For decades, what is seen as beautiful is centered around a women’s weight and size. Today, that standard is often defined as being thin. Women often resort to drastic means to attain that ideal image. However, achieving these standards can be expensive, can lower self-esteem and can be a threat to a woman’s health and life.

Women have let the idea of looking beautiful take over their self-confidence and life. Healthy Place, an online magazine teaching women about living a healthy life, says that, “today's fashion models weigh twenty-three percent less than the average female, and a young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel.” So why do women push themselves to be excessively thin when these models are anomalies? They do it because the media tells them that this look is the only look that can attract men. Even if a woman is “beautiful” according to the media’s standards, she will always find something about her body that she hates, whether it is her hair or her belly button, no women is completely satisfied. Our society is very accepting of different religions and lifestyles, so why can we not accept different types of beauty as well?