Unrealistic Beauty Standards

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

Women who are celebrities feel that if society is against them if they are overweight, allowing them not to be able to stand in front of the spotlight. Home states, “Celebrities face a great percent of pressure to amount to unrealistic beauty standards” (Home). There are many people who feel that it is okay to make celebrities feel as if they should take no place in being overweight, and be as skinny as the unrealistic beauty standards that are broadcasted over the world. Deaton states in an article, “Did she eat all her backing singers” (Denton). In a post, Kelly Clarkson received a statement that someone made about her, calling her overweight. Society believes that all celebrities should be as skinny as possible due to always being in the

What does being beautiful really mean? It is the possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, or think about. It goes way beyond the looks but what is within. The media seems to have a different view on beauty. The concept to tell someone what they are or what they should be, is what the media exhibits to society with ideal females known as “models.” In Curtis Sittenfeld, “Your Life as a Girl,” she describes the life as a female and the way they are being viewed. Although all females are beautiful, they feel like they need to appear a certain way to be categorized as such. Living in a world where others opinions are more powerful than one’s own, makes it harder for women to actually consider themselves as being beautiful.

Since the early twentieth century, Americans have adopted an obsession with the “thin ideal” - the concept of the ideally slim female body. As displayed throughout advertisements, magazines, television, and social media we are constantly bombarded with images of the ideal “skinny woman”. This, however, is not an accurate representation of the average woman’s body and can have an

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.

Every country has their own definition of what beauty is, but they all share the same unrealistic expectations that women and more recently men, in every society fight to obtain. Beauty is cultural, it is learned, and in modern day it is over glorified and dangerous. Being beautiful has become an epidemic in western cultures, causing low self-esteem, low self worth, and high eating disorder rates. Although this is a pressing topic it is nowhere near a new topic, society defines a person by their gender from the moment they are born and idealistic body types have been around since the 19th century, paving the way for new, extreme, and unrealistic expectations every decade. Focusing mainly on the 21st century and how third wave feminism has made

Requirements of beauty are presented in almost all figures of trending media, which bombard women with images that illustrate what is scrutinized to be recognized as the perfect body. With fashion magazines, advertisements, movies, and television shows displaying young and attractive women whose body density is extremely below that of the ordinary everyday woman in reality, women begin to get self conscious and try to change themselves. When women begin to obsess over having the body of a model, dieting and exercise are not good or fast enough for the results they want. Because of their genetic body types, several of the standards for this body image are nearly impossible for most women to attain without plastic surgery of some kind. The flawless image of a female’s body that the media portrays does not actually exist; however, women starve themselves or pay for plastic surgery,

On social media today, they constantly throw around the idea of “beauty” as something we should aspire to be. They claim that we should look a certain way to be considered beautiful. You need to be “thick,” be ”white or light skin”, have“long hair” to be considered beautiful. But what really is the definition of beautiful? Who is able to say what and who is beautiful or not? According to heart of leadership website, “More than 90 percent of girls -15 to 17- want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance, with body weight ranking the highest.” Hearing that statistic is very heartbreaking and not only that, it shouldn’t even be a statistic.

What is beauty? According to society, to be beautiful you must have long legs, big boobs, and curves in all the right places. For years, the world of media has brainwashed young women into believing that to be beautiful you must have smooth skin, long lashes, and cake on makeup. Commercials, magazines, and other forms of social media have fabricated this image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. However, the harsh reality is that most of us don’t, I know I certainly don’t. Yet countless girls like myself still try to fit into this mould of perfection. Countless girls like myself go to great lengths just to come out short of perfection. And all too often, these great lengths come at a cost.

Society’s cultural values have changed body image drastically through recent decades. In the 1950’s women were exaggeratedly feminine, with soft curvy bodies such as that of Marilyn Monroe. Whereas in the 60’s women were boyish and skinny like the popular model, Twiggy. There was yet another culture shift in the 1970’s and 80’s, where women

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.

With the media being a very popular way of communication and self expression in today’s culture, it influences the way of younger generations to be more involved in today’s technology, and to allow them to influence the world by the press of a button. But one of the topics that is very controversial is that in today’s society is the high expectations of what they think a girl has to look like, from girls not having stretch marks or scars, to magazines and photographers using photoshop to convince readers that the model looks like that. With all of these being factors that there is pressure is high for many girls around the world, this has to resolved.

Who decides what is beautiful and what is ugly? America the beautiful gets its name as America is home to an exuberance of beautiful people. Beauty is not an unfamiliar concept in the United States. Anyone who has walked the streets of Hollywood, or watched one of the many awards shows on television, such as the Oscars, the Grammy’s, or even the VMA’s, knows that the United States is filled with beautiful people. Scarlett Johansson, Zendaya, Beyonce, and, of course, the Kardashian sisters, are all beautiful, well-known, celebrities who were born in the land of the free. One of the most popular television events to view is the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Millions of Americans take seat in the comfort of their homes to watch dozens of tall, slim, and beautiful Victoria’s Secret models take the stage in merely a bikini top and bottoms. These models, along with all the beautiful celebrities American’s see in movies and on television, are representative of “American beauty.” This country’s beauty, however, does not come without a price. America displays extremely unrealistic beauty standards that any normal person would not be able to obtain. A tiny waist accompanied by a large bust and butt, long beautiful locks, clear skin, flat stomachs, and the perfect clothing are all essential to being beautiful according to America’s standards. Whether or not citizens realize it, they are being exposed to America’s unrealistic beauty standards in everyday

American culture has become troubled in deciding what characteristics make a person beautiful and how that correlates to how people treat them. Is it the external features, such as a person’s hair, eyes, complexion, or how someone dresses? Is it about internal qualities, such as intelligence, loyalty, or patience. Is it about more personal aspects such as person’s race, gender, abilities or sexual orientation? Is it a mixture of all these things or none at all? It also comes into consideration about what qualities weigh more heavily than others. Is there some type of grading system that society uses today that decides who is better than someone based on these qualities or has society become nonjudgmental to these things?

More distressing perhaps than the sources for our cultures misguided idea of beauty is the way we incessantly decide to treat those we view as beautiful according to our shallow standards. What Makes us Attractive was written by Dan Eden, a popular ViewZone staff writer, and shows that the perception of attractive people is different from the average among the populist. Mr. Eden supports this idea with a list of facts including data where, " Beautiful people get special attention from teachers, the legal system, and employers" as well as detailing what attracts us. The authors purpose was to show how unfair and unrealistic our perception, as a society, of beautiful people