The Hunger For Beauty : The Beauty Of The Beauty Industry

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.

As I was reading The Beauty Bias, by Deborah L. Rhodes, I came across a statistic that perplexed me, saying the total “annual global investment in grooming” comes to $115 billion (Rhodes, pg. 32). This shocking fact provokes a worrisome question: Why do we, humans, spend so much time, money, and thought on our appearance? As a complex question, there are several equally complex answers. However, the simple answer is that everyone else invests their time and thought into your outer shell, eliciting effort from you to improve what they study - your external image. The concern placed on one’s fashion choice or natural features by society takes away from larger, more pressing issues such as the declining economy, or feeding third-world countries.

After taking a glimpse of what “Finding My Eye-Dentity”, More and More Young Women Choose Surgical ‘Perfection’”, and “Before Spring Break the Anorexic Challenge” were about, you can see that we are slowly wiping out our naturally beautiful females and males. Parents, girls/boys, lovers, and friends are very influential in our lives. However, how much can we let someone else control the way we look? Beautiful is different and comes in different shape, color, and size. If we continue to place models and actresses/actors on a pedestal, then nothing will change. Women and men will continue to ‘perfect’ their body. Beautiful. Everyone wants to look beautiful,

The development has created much controversy because how it decides to present its perception. Humanity is at fault for how the beauty industry decides how to advertise the perfect image. Yet, in the twenty-first century, there has been a turn of events. Those have educated imaginations are realizing how one standard of beauty is not enough for the millions of versions of beauty there are. Despite, wanting to have no standards of beauty, the educated know that this is no physically possible. Frye perfectly summarizes, “ The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in. Obviously, that can’t be a separated society, so we have to understand how to relate the two.” (86) The educated imagination interprets how they want their society without losing the connection to what we live in. The beauty industry represents the society we live in: superficial, materialistic, and self-indulgent. The educated imagination represents the ideal society: accepting of all and self-confidence. Although it cannot be the ideal society, there are still possibilities of a society where beauty is not a forced by people sitting at a board table. The mixture of these two societies can develop into a society where beauty is not only external but internal. Having the educated teach the weak imaginations how to comprehend the repercussions of the beauty industry, but still, understand it is difficult to change a hundred-year-old tradition. Standards of beauty will always be part of society, it is just how will society determine what is an illusion and

Throughout the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” Dave Barry tries to explain how cosmetics are not important to the average male, but is an important topic for women. Men usually do not place as much importance in one’s appearance as women do. As Barry points out, if a group of men were instructed by Brad Pitt to apply cosmetics, they would quickly realize that the task was pointless, even demeaning to an extent. Most women on the other hand, place higher importance on their looks, even to the point of setting unobtainable goals of beauty. An example that Barry makes, is that women become obsessed with these looks because men want women to look that way, even though majority of men don’t care about cosmetics for the most part. These different

Aussie’s hair products is plastered on a two page spread that suggests that women can improve their beauty, specifically their hair, by using Aussie brand products. Women today are held to high standards of beauty. Needing to look as skinny as the supermodel on page six, flawless makeup and skin that is shown on the face of a well known actress, and glossy soft hair that appears on the Aussie advertisement. In the world we live in there is no such thing as perfect; however that doesn’t stop the media, people, and advertising for implanting the idea into our conscience that by using these products we can take a step closer to society’s definition of beauty. Unfortunately, everyone is uncomfortable

In her article “The Body Beautiful”, Rosalind Coward (1998) argues that society creates a negative obsessions of the “perfect” female body and it affects women negatively in their daily lives. She explains that women have to think of their bodies in separate parts and believe that each part has a different life of their own. Coward goes on to explain the way society expects women to be seen as by providing readers with example advertisements and how it pushes women toward having the body that is viewed acceptable. She concludes by stating that although society creates a negative obsession of the “perfect” body, it helps women from falling into despair because they keep a vague relation to the ideal image. By analyzing an advertisement for Elizabeth Arden’s anti aging serum, we see Rosalind Coward argues that advertisements for facial product often expect women to be flawless and perfect in their body figures.

Women of all ages, especially numerous college-age women embrace unlikely ideals of what their body size and shape essentially should be. These ideas can be in cooperation physically and emotionally corrupt; without them even apprehending the damage they causes themselves. Most women typically want to look their finest try to excel in their goals, jobs, and more just by being beautiful. There are billions of products and even procedures, such as plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, and surgeries to place on permanent makeup, which is available and advertised in the daily media. And all of these advertisements claim that they can help women accomplish these goals of their desired “ideal of beauty”. This is a problem that we can bluntly see within today’s culture. What our society reflects as their view of beauty, has the tendency to change, erratically. And this means that our pursuit of beauty tends to be lifelong and we will be subjected to the fancies of trendsetters, media, and fashion industries on a daily

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.

For centuries mankind has unsuccessfully attempted to define beauty. Greek philosophers, including Plato, tried to define beauty as if it were as simple as any other law in nature. However this cannot be so because the idea of what is beautiful has varied throughout cultures and the ages. In the 1800s women who were pale and rather plump were considered objects of desire; but in today’s society, desirable women are slender and tan, among other things. The fact is that today, beauty is as unobtainable as it is indefinable. All of today’s supermodels, as seen in millions of advertisements, have been modified, airbrushed, and photoshopped. Women desiring this beauty have turned to various

Much like in Huxley’s, Brave New World, the American beauty culture’s emphasis on physical appearance has led to a stereotypical perception of true beauty. Those who favor a societal standard of beauty suggest that the expansion of the cosmetic industry is economically beneficial. However, the truth of the matter is that due to low self esteem individuals seek cosmetic surgeries with adverse effects are committed to and develop eating disorders in order to be considered beautiful.

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.

The cosmetics business is a billion dollar industry. Every year, women are responsible for consuming millions of cosmetic products. The cosmetics industry is so large because of several factors. The media is a huge contributor to the intense pressure to look a certain way. The idea that "sex sells" is evident in gossip magazines, movies, advertisements, music, and more subtly- in the business world. People first notice what race someone is, how beautiful or ugly they are and what clothes they are wearing. Beauty is skin deep; however, first impressions are usually what others use to base their

Everyone loves to feel beautiful, but what is the price? Everyday there is a woman painting painting her nails, a man running gel through his hair, and a mother rubbing lotion on her childs skin. These are looked over like normal activities but they contain a dark secret. This secret can lead to death, pain, and injuries. In fact, it has been in the dark so long, that many people choose to ignore it. What is this secret? Well, the beauty industry hides an ugly truth: It has flaws in the system that lead to mislabeling of products, unregulated chemicals in formulas, and dangerous diseases in cosmetologists.

Often times, women are pressured by the mainstream media to upkeep a stellar appearance. They are expected to measure up to high standards without question. Even before most girls reach puberty, commercials are bombarding them with small Barbie esque makeup kits filled with lip glosses and chalky eyeshadows. The impact it has on impressionable children, both girls and boys is something that will likely last a lifetime if unlearned. Cosmetic companies who are marketing to young ladies say they can simply improve their looks to gain acceptance from their peers if they use the products they are selling. The makeup industry is a multi million enterprise that makes a profit from women’s insecurities and amplified pressures from society as a common tactic many cosmetic campaigns use is to push women to embrace the ‘natural look’ by providing products that will make it appear as if the individual is not even wearing makeup. Companies will spout out that with these products, the end result will be ‘you, but better.’ It is somewhat of an underlying and slightly manipulating slogan, as if to say how a woman appears could be improved because it is lacking in the moment. This distorts how we all believe how a woman is suppose to look.