The Image Of Female Beauty

Throughout history, body image has been determined by various factors, one of them being the media. In the article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror,” written by Rachel Simmons, she shares the story of a woman who admits to being afraid of leaving her apartment without putting on makeup. “I don’t get to choose how I’m going to leave my apartment today,” one young woman told me, “If I could, my body would look different. But I cant choose which picture makes my arms look thinner” (Simmons). One word: Fear. The woman fears the opinion of others. She second guesses herself before she steps foot outside her apartment building. It displays the lack of confidence she has towards herself as an individual and the control the media has over her. The author goes on to discuss how teenagers look up to social media by obsessing over how many likes

Over the past 10 years, mass media and the access to social networks has evolved substantially causing the effects of negative self-image and what is considered beautiful. Body image expectations for both African-American male and female share the battles of society’s expectations, yet African American women body images come with a stricter and more unhealthy stigma; growth of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter brings these expectations of self-image into our homes and our children minds. “The Internet is easily the most pervasive form of mediated communication that we encounter in our lives. Even

Many people have a habit of asking others on the internet for opinions on what they look like. This creates body image anxieties. At the same time, women were being more objectified in media, with an extreme emphasis placed on their bodies (Klein). Some people believe that the answer to body anxiety is to give a bigger range of body examples in the media. Dr. Phillipa Diedrichs, University of West of England’s Centre for Appearance Research, said,“The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are self-objectify.” Media is everywhere, so telling them to ignore it is not going to work. Steps could be taken to help girls to not compare themselves to the unrealistic

This essay is for women who believe their thighs are too big, their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny, or their clothes are outdated. This month's column is for women who believe their life would improve if they could lose 15 pounds; if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite concoction; if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck, etc. This month's column is for women who feel shame or unhappiness when they ponder some part (or all) of their body. In other words, this month's column is for 99.9% of the women reading it!

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

The media is our source of constant information, and is presented in many forms such as, daily newscasts, social media like Facebook, and the magazines strategically placed in our doctor’s office. There is no surprise that it is also the dominant influence when it comes to society’s beauty standard either. Unfortunately media isn’t a positive influence all the time, and is the main force behind negative body image epidemic that plagues women, especially the 18-25 age group. In order to fully understand the severity of what some call a “Vanity” issue we must look into the facts of how exactly the media damages women’s perception of their own bodies, and then observe the extent of the damage done to the physical and mental states of these women

But on this canvas, people tend to paint beautiful lies about themselves, blotting over the imperfections. Now, this may not seem like such a bad thing. What’s wrong with people telling lies here and there if it boosts their self-confidence? But that’s where researchers are finding the problem. “”The onslaught of Photoshopped images gives us a false standard to aspire to," she says. “We know logically we'll never look like those women-but those images are powerful in shaping our expectations of ourselves.” …says relationship expert Natasha Burton, author of 101 Quizzes for Couples.” (Tomko) The phenomenon that people are finding to be true is that the constant bombardment of seemingly perfect people is making people wonder why they aren’t as perfect as the people they see in the pictures. And it’s not just social media. Society in general has this proclivity towards perfection. People that fall out of that sphere of perfection that the media projects begin to feel inadequate about themselves. “Girls already insecure about their weight can feel even worse when they compare themselves to ultrathin models” (Thin Fashion Models). This insecurity and self-loathing may even lead to eating disorders, like anorexia and bulimia. Media puts so much pressure on people, especially young girls, to strive to be something they’re not simply because they were taught that it was the only way they would be loved or cared about. “While

Hip-Hop today is genre of music that many, mostly a younger demographic are drawn to it. Hip-Hop culture is now commonly recognized by it’s fundamental elements; such as, rapping, dancing, lyrics, beat, urban and apparently relevance which are viewed as an art. Hip-hop is constantly evolving and incorporating different and new aspects to it and it’s just going to continue to grow within the next decades. Hip-hop focuses on urban youth therefore, many young people actually turn to hip-hop as an outlet to express themselves with various emotions and sentiments and sometimes devote themselves as aspirating hip-hop artists and pursue the hip-hop industry. Hip-Hop was was initially an underground urban movement and created in the 1970’s by an African man, Kool Herc influenced and introduced it which has now become universal in not only English, but in many languages. In the 1980s symbolized the diversification of hip hop as the genre eve loved into more complex styles. One of the positive aspects of the hip hop culture is that it encourages producers to recruit a diverse group of individuals. At first, Hip- Hop was predominantly performed by men and eventually evolved into being performed by both men and women. Some examples of successful women in the Hip-hop culture are Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliot, Salt-N- Pepa,Trina Beyonce, and ‘Lil Kim. Although hip-hop

When the word “beauty” comes to one’s mind, society immediately comes to mind also. Society plays a big role on what the definition of beauty really is. Society has it drilled into people’s minds that someone has to look a certain way to be beautiful. If a person doesn’t look like Kim Kardashian, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, or any other celebrity then they are deemed “not beautiful”. Society seemed to have forgotten that beautiful people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and looks ("How Media Affects the Way Beauty Is Perceived"). What society is doing to all different kinds of people is what leads to self-esteem problems, depression, anxiety, etc. Many teenage girls are targeted and attacked for not being pretty enough or small enough.

The female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Cliche but true. Beauty corporations, the media, and influential figures are the beholders. The beauty industry profits off the inadequacy of women and perpetuates unattainable beauty. In recent years, there has been a surge in plastic surgery, popularized by the Kardashian Decade (2007-2017) and other contributors. The perpetuation of these unrealistic ideals have serious implications on women of color, especially black women who deviate the most from European beauty standards. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, beauty is defined as “ such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight” (OED).

The general research topic I have in mind is researching the correlation of the media and unrealistic portrayals of beauty. I would like to delve into this topic to expand on how the beauty myth is pressuring women to meet unrealistic expectations. The first research question I have in mind is: What is the correlation between women’s negative body image and the expectations formed from the beauty myth? This research question would focus on how women are affected mentally and physically while trying to uphold standards of beauty that are promoted in the media. This would include self-esteem, eating disorders, and anxiety formed from the pressures to conform. My second possible research question is: How do advertisements’ portrayal of feminine

Mass media falsely claims to be an advocate for self-acceptance and the idea that every woman is naturally beautiful, while it simultaneously uses Photoshop to erase all trace of that natural beauty—imagine how much they would Photoshop women if they did not extol real, non-enhanced, beauty! The women in these digitally improved photos look, quite frankly, as real as Barbie and her friends, and few women actually believe that the women in the pictures look that flawless in person. However, these pictures have the power to make any woman, including those in the pictures, feel inadequate because she is not as “attractive” as a Photoshopped image, the power to make a woman detest herself

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.

Between movies, TV shows, magazines, and fashion everyday women are being bombarded with an ever-present ideal and standard of unobtainable beauty. In today’s society it is especially easy to stay connected to the media and the outside world through the internet and its various social networks. This kind of access provides a nonstop stream of women being exposed to perfect bodies, perfect people, and what seems to be perfect lives. With the constant exposure to all of this it can be hard for women to not compare themselves to the people they see online, which can leave to devastating effects on the woman’s self-esteem, self-worth, and overall wellbeing. Marika Tiggemann and Jessica Lynch conducted a study where they found that body dissatisfaction remains as a constant for women throughout their lifespan and can impact a woman at any age (2011). Body dissatisfaction is something the majority of women have to deal with at some point or another, it is important to identify factors that can trigger this insecurity such as the media, celebrities, and subliminal advertising in order to bring more awareness to the issue and make changes that can lead a woman to having a healthier outlook on her outward appearance and an overall higher satisfaction with her body.