Unrealistic Standard Of Beauty Research Paper

However, that isn’t true, Barbie is playing a huge role in eating disorders in women. It’s estimated that 8 million people have eating disorders and that only 10 to 15% are men and the rest are women. Out of that percentage, 80% of the women are below twenty. Author of “The Barbie Effect” says, “Many admitting that they started worrying about their weight when they were between the age of four and six years old. That is around the age that a girl usually gets her first Barbie doll, and many of the girls who have or had an eating disorder admitted that Barbie played a huge role on their influences in behavior and looks.” (“The Barbie Effect”) Another example would be a victim of an eating disorder, Galia Slayen, and how she created a ‘Real Life’ Barbie doll to raise awareness. Slayen had created it out of chicken wire and some other things from the store to make her according to the statistics of what Barbie’s size would actually be like if she was real. Slayen was feeling pressured by her peers and with the obsession for perfection that she had had since a young age. After it all, Slayen said, “Despite her appearance, Barbie provides something that many advocacy efforts lack. She reminds of something we once loved, while showing us the absurdity of our obsession with perfection.”

everything from weight loss pills to bariatric surgery regardless of the risk. Even before we

American society has created the concept of obesity. They identified what the perfect human should look like, and has outcasted everyone who does no resemble that, most commonly obese people. The Barbie character that is a landmark fashion doll and cultural icon portrays this perfect human figure (Source E). This perception of the perfect human has a negative psychological

In our daily life we are constantly confronted with beauty and only to few other things we dedicate so much attention as to our appearance.

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.

It wasn’t until the late 1960’s that critics began “comparing Barbie to a Playboy Bunny and calling her a corrupter of youth” (”Bad Girl” 3). One woman commented, “She’s an absurd representation of what a woman should be” (“Bad Girl” 3)-–and that’s exactly what many others thought she was, too. With such impossible real-life measurements of 5’9” tall, 36”-18”-33” bust, waist, and hip (Benstock and Ferriss 35), it’s easy to see why mothers across the country banned the doll from their homes and refused to let their impressionable young daughters be influenced by a piece of painted plastic (Bestock and Ferriss 35). Since dolls have often been responsible for teaching children what society deems important or beautiful, many concerned parents wondered why Mattel did not design a doll that taught more valuable lessons than dressing pretty and being dangerously skinny (Edut 19)? Who said a runway model was best suited for teaching a child what is beautiful anyway? “According to a Mattel spokesperson, a Kate Moss figure is better suited for today’s fashions” (Edut 19), and that is one reason why Barbie must be so disproportional. Actually, another reason for Barbie’s anorexic figure can be traced back long before Kate Moss and the fashion runway. Barbie was

If so many people are claiming that looks do not matter and beauty only runs skin-deep, then why does the

We are constantly told that looks don't mater, but if they don't matter why does the media always use photo shop to portray an unrealistic body image. because our society contradicts the saying that personality should over rank beauty so many young people especially females are harming theirs selves just to met this standard of perfection which quite frankly isn't real. Why are we so unhappy with the way we look even though we know that all those models in the magazines aren't exactly real. The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday goals that is impossible to reach, and the effects are devastating. These impossible standards need to be stopped, and society instead needs to promote a healthy body image along with the idea that women of all shapes and sizes are beautifulPerfection is always one step ahead of us, we will never make ourselves clones of those beautiful models and even if we diet and try so hard to be like them, there will aways be something better there will always be something that could be better, We will never be flawless.

The main reason the word beauty has been used to describe external features rather than internal ones, so much more in the recent years, is the media. The media has evolved into something extremely influential, and the most clear message people recive from this, is what they are supposed to look like. For instance, magazines often create young girls who believe that thin as paper models seen in any magazine are what they are supposed to look like. Also, another component adding to the superficial terms people have are the celebrities that we idolize who are coached to not have even one single hair out of place; all those celebrity’s with perfect skin, hair, and body have been accomplices in the media’s outrageous spread shallow opinions. The outcome of the media’s bar being set so high is people all around doing whatever necessary to preserve their physical appearance regardless of the effect it has on their health or bank accounts.

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.

Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful.  Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.

Society values looks over health which is contributing to a rise in America’s obesity. Source "E" focal point was on the popularity of Barbie and how iconic she is. Society expects people to look like Barbie which could put people at a serious health risk. People alter their bodies so they can become the "ideal Barbie" when it isn't good for their health. Basically, if you don’t have a Barbie body the society views you as not pretty.

The unrealistic standards of beauty is hurting this generation of what the media and society thinks a girl has to look like, for many years the media has been trying to construct the ideal image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. They believe there only beautiful if they have long legs, great hair, and curves in the right places (HuffingtonPost2017). Which is not the influence that we want to carry down to future generations of girls who feel like they must live up to the expectations of girls who have the “perfect body”. With media apps being popular in the 21st century, there was a survey done on some of the top media apps, their study #statusofmind surveyed almost 1,500 young people aged 14 to 24 on how certain media apps impact health ( CableNewsNetwork 2017). Body images statistics say 80% of woman say images,

Media influences viewers of society by frequently portraying role models to express impossible body measures. It has people aiming for what is considered perfection however, is unattainable. A universal symbol representing the ideal body females strive for is Barbie. Barbie is seen in advertisements, movies, lyrics etc., which makes it evident that she is a key sculpt in media. Barbie represents an unrealistic and unattainable figure for women. Barbie is so remarkably slim that her weight and body size are not only impossible but, unhealthy. According to Golgowski's, if Barbie was a real woman “she’d be forced to walk on all fours and would be physically incapable of lifting her over-sized head…her

Together, we can lower the numbers of people dying from eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries by resisting the beauty ideal. We can choose “to not participate in the beauty rituals, to not support the industries that produce both images and products, and to create other definitions of beauty” (WVFV, pg. 232). The most crucial and easiest solution is to create other definitions of beauty. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide what is beautiful. What if someone decided that the only thing that could contribute to one’s beauty is who someone is on the inside? Wouldn’t our world be a completely different place? Instead of