Category: Beauty

Read these words: “You are worthless and fat, you won’t make it unless you’re skinny”. I know it’s horrifying and cruel, but believe it or not, this is a sentence that is constantly heard around the world in the beauty/modeling industry. Every day people struggle with their body image because of what “society” wants them to look like. And what do beauty contests do? They not only objectify and degrade women but also want them to push their bodies beyond the breaking point. If you ask me, I think it’s pathetic. The body standards are past the realistic point of looking “effortlessly beautiful”. Women go through low self-esteem, insane workouts, and dieting plans, plastic surgery, and eating disorders. Beyoncé said it herself “Pretty hurts”.

Punishing your body just to have clear and radiant skin, to be slim, to have the “perfect” breast and figure size, and if you aren’t tall enough then don’t even try. If you felt a type of way reading the previous sentence, then that’s how most women feel inside and out. A team called Glamour did an experiment where they asked women of all different sizes if they had at least one “I hate my body” moment over one day. The results were shocking, 97% admitted to having one of those moments. Judging a beauty contest is purely based on looks appearance and expectations. Unrealistic. According to Runtastic the healthy amount of times you’re meant to work out is three to five times a week. On the other hand, models or people competing in beauty contests work more than two times a day which is completely corrupt. Women go through an extreme workout and diet plans that are considered unhealthy just to compete because the skinner you are the closer you are to winning.

Have you heard of Toddlers and Tiaras? If you haven’t then you are lucky. It’s a reality TV show where children are forced to compete against each other in hopes of getting prize money and a crown at the end. I know it sounds silly, but beauty contests have been happening since the 1850s, and the beauty standards since then are cruel. In addition to this, the free price of competing in a beauty contest is having low confidence and low self-esteem. According to the website Ultius, young girls who competed in a beauty contest have a 55% chance of experiencing low self-esteem and depression in the future. Young girls who even watch beauty contests online or in real life look up to these models and think “I want to look like that”. But it shouldn’t be that way, these young girls should already feel beautiful in their bodies and how they look. And society isn’t doing that job. In 2017 I competed against six other girls to win a crown, money, and the title of “Miss Laos”. Even though I won, it still wasn’t a great feeling. Girls learn beauty equals success, and when these girls are adults they have a chance of facing an eating disorder, body dissatisfaction, and depression.

Studies show that women who have participated in a beauty contest face a higher risk of developing an eating disorder. Having that feeling of waking up and wanting to change your body because of what the media portrays is gut-wrenching and I can’t imagine what women with eating disorders think when they wake up. Having unrealistic and unnatural body goals is never healthy. Consequently, it’s so easy for a young girl to do an excessive amount of damage to her body in hopes that one day she will potentially have a body like a model. In 2003 a survey was done asking women if they want to be thinner. Half of those women want to be thinner and 26% of them had or have an eating disorder. There is a difference between wanting to get healthy and wanting to get skinny.

Some so many people don’t believe that there is anything wrong with beauty pageants. Being on stage is a lot of pressure because these women want to have the “perfect body” that is seen in magazines, social media, and television, and everyone wants to win but only one person can win. Leaving everyone but one person feeling blue. Yet again when you’re over the age of 18 you make your own decisions to be in skimpy bathing suits and fake tans, but when a child is in a tiny bathing suit and fake tan it is seen as cute? But this child is going to grow up potentially facing an eating disorder or depression.

References

1. Debate.org. (2020). Do you believe beauty contests cause eating disorders? [online] Available at: https://www.debate.org/opinions/do-you-believe-beauty-contests-cause-eating-disorders [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
2. Dreisbach, S. (2020). Shocking Body-Image News: 97% of Women Will Be Cruel to Their Bodies Today. [online] Glamour. Available at: https://www.glamour.com/story/shocking-body-image-news-97-percent-of-women-will-be-cruel-to-their-bodies-today [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
3. K, T. (2020). Beauty is as beauty does: body image and self-esteem of pageant contestants. – PubMed – NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14649788 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
4. Taylor & Francis. (2020). Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10640260590932896?src=recsys&journalCode=uedi20 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
5. Urbo. (2020). Beauty Pageants And Body Image: Why A Pageant Winner Turned In Her Crown. [online] Available at: https://www.urbo.com/content/body-image-and-beauty-pageants-why-a-pageant-winner-turned-in-her-crown/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].

Rubens ‘Venus Before a Mirror’, is a piece that represents the Renaissance’s love for fuller-figured women. In this case, Ruben has shown a girl with love handles and rosy cheeks, using common symbolic imagery for the Renaissance period such as Cherubs and Mirrors. The mirror represents vanity and desire. The mirror and vanitas are written about by many feminist art theorists, including John Berger who wrote in Ways of Seeing, ‘You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting ‘Vanity,’ thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your pleasure.'(Berger, 2008) This John Berger quote is referring to Diego Velazquez’s infamous nude, The Toilet of Venus (Fig 4). Where we see a woman entranced with her reflection. Lynda Nead also discusses this vanity in The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity and Sexuality, ‘woman looks at herself in the mirror; her identity is framed by the abundance of images that define femininity. She is framed – experiences herself as the image of representation – by the edges of the mirror and then judges the boundaries of her form and carries out any necessary self-regulation.’ (Nead, 1992) The woman in the painting is engaging the audience in the spectacle of herself as an object of desire, making it acceptable for viewers to admire her, as she is already looking at herself.

Due to paintings like Fig 3, the word ‘Rubenesque’ has now come to be used to describe a woman of a certain size and softness. Rubens’s work has had incredible significance in the lives of many fat women, including Dawn French, who in an interview for The Sunday Times (2006), joked: ‘If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? She’d have been the paintbrush.'(BBC, 2015) In contrast to Rubens’s more muted colors, we look at Niki De Saint Phalle. Often being described as a renaissance woman, dabbling in activism, architecture, film, and acting, and what she was best known for, her sculptures. Her art is heavily inspired by her past trauma and mental health, as she writes in her memoirs, ‘My mental breakdown was good in the long run because I left the clinic a painter.'(New Yorker, 2016) De Saint Phalle’s most well-known works are her ‘Nana’ sculptures, translating to ‘Girl’ in French. These sculptures (fig 5) were voluptuous, intricately decorated psychedelic figures of the female form. These sculptures we created in the 1960s, at a time when body image issues were very prevalent in the media, with slim models like Twiggy, thin was very much in, as discussed in an article for Greatist about body ideals, ‘The swinging 60s brings the pendulum back in the other direction. Thin is in. And Jessica-Rabbit proportions are out. The look is now fresh-faced, girlish, and androgynously trim. Models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton (aka ‘The Shrimp’) represented a new ideal: doll-faced, super slender, and petite.’

Wilde’s exceptional example of gothic horror that led to its initial rejection from the ‘morally- rigid’ society that it was introduced to, carries many comparisons to the image-centered society we find ourselves in today. Dorian Gray becomes an embodiment of the consequence of vanity, which in a Christian society would be considered an example of one of the seven deadly sins: pride. The start of novel itself begins with a sensual description of the studio, a materialistic and externally focused view. It begins to show the shallowness of the obsession with appearances and the ‘burden of beauty that began with the ‘young man of extraordinary personal beauty. Lord Henry’s referral to Gray as ‘Narcissus’ can be seen to be a tool for foreshadowing the outcome of his obsession with his youth. The word narcissistic is used to describe the egotistical admiration of one’s idealized attributes and originates from the greek mythology of a hunter, who fell in love with himself and committed suicide, despite the fact it may be viewed as an insignificant tale told for mere entertainment purposes, it became the basis of the identification of pathological self-absorption, as a personality disorder. A pathing way for the interpretation that Dorian Gray may have fallen prey to this, as it is categorized by an arrogant, self-absorbed mindset that leads to the lack of empathy for others. Thus whilst at the start, it is evident he is unaware of his beauty that ‘is such that Art cannot express, Lord Henry’s influence elevates the importance of outward beauty in Dorian Gray’s life. This newfound unnaturally intense passion eventually led to his demise, destroying him physically and mentally, distorting his ability to feel empathy, the development of this obsession with youth also resulted in his role in the deaths of Sybil and James Vane and the murder of Basil Howards.

Throughout the novel, the theme of beauty plays an invaluable role in understanding its deceptive nature and the obsession that stems from it. James explores the incitement of beauty from a slightly varying perspective, in which the governess’s obsessive infatuation with the beauty of Miles and Flora, leads to her irrational judgment of their characters simply based upon their external appearances, even excusing otherwise unacceptable behavior based on the presumption that they are too beautiful to misbehave. Their physical beauty becomes a distraction for her, making the governess ‘restless’ literally averting her attention from sleeping to focusing on the ‘radiating image’ of Flora. The defending of their behavior relates to the psychological concept of the ‘halo effect’ which is our preconceived idea that physically attractive people are likely to have better personalities and traits, resulting in a disproportionate judgment on people. This is first evident in Mrs. Grose who ‘suddenly flamed up at the subject of miles being an ‘injury’ to others expressing a ‘flood of good faith in the ‘little gentleman. To Mrs. Grose, the accusations are ‘too dreadful’ and ‘cruel’ to say to a ‘scare ten-year-old, with children representing innocence and purity, readers in 1898, would have also held the view that they are incapable of doing wrong. James, on the other hand, seems to hint at the idea that children aren’t exempt from their actions or in a cable of wrong on the basis of them being children, the same view held by more modern readers, where the age of criminality (criminal responsibility) is ten years old, ironically the same age as Miles, alluding the idea that children are more than capable of committing offenses, be it minor or serious ones, and also taking responsibility for them. Mrs. Grose is the first to express an obsession with their appearances as she exclaims all she does is look at them which influences her faith in his innocence, telling the governess ‘see him, miss, first. THEN believe it, almost implying that their ‘angelic’ appearances directly correlate to their levels of morality. The obsessive pleasure they both gain from simply looking at them leads to them dismissing and disregarding their actions on the premise that they are far too beautiful, which would in turn have grave consequences as they are living on the surface, not acknowledging that there may be more to the situation than what is directly visible to them, including the possible corruption of the children.

To build on the concept of corruption, a theme explored by James on a number of levels, ranging from the corruption of the children and the adults in the novel to the corruption of the reader. The novel’s obsession with children instills a sense of fear within the readers, as the ambiguity of the governess’ belief of what Peter Quint and Miss Jessel did to the children forces the mind of the reader to wander to our darkest fears in regard to children being exposed to adults. Francis Gilbert believes children to be almost innocently corrupt, one’s childhood should be a sacrosanct place, a time for them to be youthful and loved, however, children tend to grow up too quickly, becoming entranced by the adult world, that profoundly misunderstands them and essentially leads them to corruption. This belief is evident in Miles and Flora who from their ways of communication and mannerisms portray them to appear far older than they are. Their surprising levels of maturity is that of which would not be typically associated with children, however, we develop a sense of sympathy towards them for being involuntarily made to grow up before their time, as a fruitful childhood is one everyone should have the privilege of experiencing, which due to the abandonment they faced from all parental figures it became a privilege they were stripped off. In addition to this, the belief that the children are victims of the adult world is intensified by the fact James anatomizes the thoughts and feelings of the governess, thus because it is written from her point of view, we become gripped by her ever-changing thoughts and feelings, therefore her ambiguous belief of what the roles of Quint and Miss Jessel were in the corrupting of the children, flood through us including the vagueness of what Miles did to be expelled from school. Despite the fact that what he actually did remains open to interpretation, there is a strong suspicion that he did something to ‘contaminate’ or ‘corrupt’ the other children, which hints at a possible sexual reference, possibly demonstrating something of which he himself had previously experienced, likely from the likes of Peter Quint. The term ‘corrupt’ being a euphemism provides leeway from the governess to remain unclear about what she actually means or in this instance fears. The corruption between adults is witnessed where the governess believes that Quint and Miss Jessel were sexually corrupt, accused of conducting an illicit affair but also wrenching the children into their sexual licentiousness.

The obsession with sexual intrigue in the novel was adapted by Benjamin Britten who wrote an opera scaffolded primarily by the theme of corruption, narrowing in on the sense of the possible sexual exploitation of Miles by Peter Quint ‘it was Quint’s own fancy. To play with him, I mean – to spoil him.’ ‘Quint was much too free, both which elucidate the impression that Quint ‘spoilt’ his innocence. The opera also highlights the governess’s unnatural obsession with the children, into which she also drew Mrs. Grose – corrupting her into providing information that she would manipulate and ‘use to prop up her own extreme notions’. Although it is reasonable to assume that she began her job with the honest intent of caring for and educating the children, the obsession with looking after them and keeping them safe from harm is what drove her to eventually kill Miles, the use of children being the centre, of what is essentially a horror story, is what makes the novel even more resonant for us, as the uncertainty behind what happened to the children and the sanity of the unreliable narrator instills out minds with the same paranoia as the governess. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey a novel also based of an obsessed heroine was written as a parody for The Turn of the Screw as it mocked the genre of gothic literature arguing it to be far too sensational, encouraging poisonous hysterical thoughts, fostering diseased minds by encouraging wilful and wild speculation induced paranoia and suspicion, which to some degree is a justified view as the ambiguity that is sewn throughout the novel leaves us profoundly disturbed and in contemplation of what the facts actually are. The obsession with children, be it with pure or impure intention, is what ultimately led to their corruption but for Miles, it contributed to the ending of his life.

Beauty is Beautiful You!

Beautiful, Beauty, lovely: Beauty is the meaning of happiness, strength, and self-confidence to recognize the actual beauty of success. It reflects a person’s true attractiveness. This is usually related to a person’s appearance and body.

Beauty defines as

Anything that makes us happy and captures our hearts is lovely. Beauty is a source of information in this world. A beautiful thing is a thing that, to some extent, has a lovely quality of beauty.

Beauty is a broad and complex topic that has been debated for centuries. It is difficult to define beauty in one sentence because it can be interpreted in many different ways. Beauty can be defined as the degree to which anything beautiful resembles an ideal or perfect form, or how wonderful it appears.

The name ‘beautiful’ has different meanings for different people. Beauty is a psychological as well as a social construct. Beauty is affected by a variety of factors and can be viewed from many angles. We can also look at the golden ratio, which can be found in many beautiful things such as paintings, architecture, and even beautiful nature.

Certain items have a pleasing appearance. It’s lovely for you if it’s pleasing to look at, hear, feel, taste, smell, or think about. It is also a name for feelings that cannot be expressed in words. The term ‘beauty’ refers to a set of characteristics that appeal to the senses. For example, symmetry, harmony, and balance are considered beautiful features. It is an expression that conveys how a gorgeous object provides happiness and bliss to one’s heart.

Beauty is a term that can be defined in many ways. It is not just about being attractive or looking good and lovely, but also about feeling good. People with a strong sense of beauty are more self-assured and attractive, and this self-assurance leads to improved success in their occupations and relationships. Beauty is a subjective term, but it is mostly based on the standards of beauty.

‘My belief is that ‘everyone is lovely.’

Beauty is within the spectator’s coronary heart,’ declared the call.

We have been surrounded by things since we were born and have always been surrounded by beauty. For many people, beauty means a variety of lovely things. We all appreciate the beauty in our lives, whether it is in art, nature, people, or an object. It’s a stunning blend of qualities that delights the sense of beauty. A beautiful thing is often seen as being perfect in some way, while a lovely thing is seen as being pleasant or nice.

Beauty has a larger impact on us when it makes us feel attractive, joyous, or inspired. The beholder is the judge of beauty. According to beauty, all beautiful objects on this globe are a source of delight. Beauty should never be underestimated. It never devolves into nothingness. The definition of beauty is being your type of gorgeous. Beautiful You demonstrates how to live a happy life. It has a pleasing appearance. It can also refer to something considered to be of high quality or that meets a high standard.

The most beautiful caption is the ‘Real beauty is to be true to oneself’

A person’s attractiveness can be seen and felt in their thoughts and behaviors. People care less about what they see on the exterior than what they see on the inside. Inner beauty enchants, whereas exterior beauty entices. Beauty has less to do with appearances and more to do with self-assurance and justice. Beautiful has a pleasing appearance. Feelings, thoughts, and expressions possess an odd and pure beauty. It’s about the notion that we’re all lovely and can become even more so. It refers to something that satisfies the mind.

The word ‘beautiful’ has a variety of connotations. It isn’t used to describe someone’s physical appearance. It relates to how appealing one’s goals, opinions, and inner beauty are. True beauty is a part of life that may be found in every moment and aspect of it. The timeless and ageless beauty of our environment is the source of true happiness. Beauty recognizes their inner beauty and leads a happier, healthier life. Beautiful is a word that is used to describe something that has a natural or pleasing appearance.

The citation of beauty says, ‘Mother Nature has the nicest box of crayons.’

The excellence of nature draws in people from all strolls of life. Visuals are usually associated with a sense of beauty. A heightened emphasis on nature and its ethereal characteristics was also a feature of the Romantic era. Nature is a veritable storehouse of beauty. Beautiful nature is a lovely thing. It can take your breath away and make you want to take a moment to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you.

People from all walks of life are attracted to the beauty of nature. Beautiful natural rights are items that will provide you joy for the rest of your life. Being in touch with nature and admiring the beauty of the natural world can help us perceive the world more clearly. It can also be a safe refuge where you can unwind and meet new people. Nature is an important part of life for many people, but it is not always easy to find places with lovely scenery.

Beauty is defined as a difficult-to-contain soul that is engaging, lovable, graceful, divine, beautiful, lovely, and glamorous. It’s incredibly adaptable. The most important factor is external or superficial attractiveness as they are about lifestyle and personal growth too.

This is only a small sample of the many ways in which the concept of beauty can be applied. Despite the fact, that our surroundings are lush with beauty. The beholder decides what is beautiful. People should be more conscious of how lovely nature can be, and they should strive to live in peace with it, according to the conclusion. We should admire what nature provides us and be hopeful throughout our Lives. Life is valuable, and we must savor it.

The truth is beauty, and the truth is amazement.

Berger touches on the thought that beauty is with in the eye of the beholder, which really does make the attention the centre of the visible world. The invention of the camera has really changed the perception of the world, and has changed not only what we can see, but also how we see it. Berger also talks about how a lot of original paintings are recreated and distributed across the world. This really does mess with the value of a painting. Berger also does touch on the fact that the paintings can be quite easily manipulated, which is one of the main reasons why there is no unfolding of time in paintings, just the one frame. A painting’s interpretation is often changed if it is in the middle of music and rhythm, and therefore the meaning of a picture is often changed counting on what you view after it, or beside it.

Because of cameras, and the fact that any piece of work can now be photographed and copied, paintings have most definitely lost something. There is no longer that feeling of impressiveness because you know that it is not the only one of its kind. Of course, there is the original which still holds significant value, but since most valued paintings have either been copied or remade it really does lose some of its sense of worth. Berger goes onto talk about the fact that in original paintings, the loss of worth is frequently replaced by the market value for being an original painting has acquired a new kind of impressiveness. This is not because of what it shows, nor is it because of the meaning of its image, it is simply because of its market value. “The market price depends on the subject being genuine.’ This shows that while the invention of the camera and as a result the ability to repeat anything has taken its toll on the value of a painting, something, money, and market value of an original, has somewhat replaced this.

A very good example of a painting that the camera and the potential of recreating the image made very popular is Van Gogh’s “starry night”. It is one of the world’s most best-known paintings, even though only a select people would have been to the MOMA in New York to see the original. This painting has become so popular that people have even tried recreating it, and adding their own touches to it, by doing things like designing clothes with the painting on it.

The camera, and as a result the remediation of the painting, has made this painting incredibly popular, almost as much as the original. As a result, the first piece, loses quite a bit of that ‘mysteriousness’ that Berger was talking about. However, the market price of the painting, because it is very popular, is still incredibly high.

In part 2 of the series, John Berger discusses the concept of female nudity. He begins by making the distinction between the word’s “nudity” and “naked”. “Being naked is just being yourself but being nude in the artistic sense of the word is being without clothes for the purpose of being looked at”. This distinction is used to help create the argument that for a plain body to become a nude body, “It must be completely objectified and exist just for the sheer pleasure of the viewer”. This claim is supported by several examples of paintings, all of which do contain characteristics of an object which is intended just for the viewer. Some characteristics such as the shortage of hair, which does “remove an association with sexual pleasure on the woman’s part, the fact that the woman’s gaze is almost always directed outward at the viewer even when a male figure is present, and the fact that the women in these paintings are almost always laying down, languid as “They are there to feed an appetite, not have any of their own.” According to Berger.

John Berger talks about a contradiction in European paintings of female nudes between “the painter’s, owner’s, and viewer’s individualism and the object….the woman, which is treated as abstraction.” Berger strongly believes that these differences in the relationship between men and women does play a very deep role in our culture, and how women do see themselves. Berger opens and closes this episode with a discussion focused on how women do see themselves. One woman describes how “she doesn’t see herself as naked”, when she looks in the mirror, but how she “instead sees a nude”. What she means by this is that she is influenced by the world surrounding her. She does not see her true self, but she instead sees a picture of what she wants to be, or things that she should be. It is also mentioned that men do not have this same image of themselves. This really does enforce Berger’s belief that inequality between men and women is very much apparent.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Beauty is subjective, not objective; as everyone defines and sees beauty differently. Now, why does everyone presented in the media look similar? Why is there a beauty standard? How come everyone wants to look like the same few people? What is the rave about double eyelid surgery all about? We need to ask, where is this coming from? Whom are we all trying to look like? What does this beauty standard that everyone wants to conform to look like? Most importantly, how does everyone unanimously decide on this?

When we think of beauty, we often think of it as a personal taste, something organic and unique. However, beauty is a phenomenon that is much more constructed and formulated and something that is influenced by larger forces (Donella).

Beauty has always been defined by whiteness, and it has always been in the eye of the colonizer. Beauty (Eurocentric beauty standards) are rooted in racism, colorism, classism, sexism; and it reinforces gender norms. The beauty industry was founded on the binary and it upholds patriarchy and capitalism, which both ultimately affect everyone (DeFino).

Eurocentric beauty standards were mainly first introduced to societies all around the world in the 1800s, during the period of widespread colonialism. Colonialism brought a lasting, lingering effect that eroded away different cultures’ values of beauty.

Ohaguro or teeth blackening is a tradition in Japan that was practiced for hundreds and hundreds of years, and it can be traced back to the Heian period (Dhwty). At that time, in Japan, Ohaguro was a sign of utmost beauty and a symbol of luxury and eliteness. It was toward the end of the Edo period that this practice diffused from the aristocratic class, down to lower classes (Dhwty). However, this practice quickly came to a halt at the beginning of the 20th century, the same time the west became an economic and industrial superpower. To keep up and compete on the global stage, Japan completely banned the practice of teeth blackening. This marked the end of a culturally significant beauty practice that was quickly turned into something outdated and antiquated because the country was taking on a project of modernization (Donella).

In South Korea, for the longest time, any alterations to the body were considered taboo, as the body was considered a gift from ancestors. This social custom was so deeply rooted that women often never cut their hair. However, upon hearing this you may feel shocked. As, today, South Korea has the highest rates of plastic surgery per capita, with double eyelid surgery being the most popular procedure (Hess).

Double eyelid surgery was invented during the Korean War, which lasted from 1950-1953 (Chow). The surgery was developed by Ralph Millard, who was an American military plastic surgeon stationed in Korea. He was a part of an American public relations campaign that aimed to show “American’s benevolent face to the Koreans” (Chow). The first procedure ever performed was performed on Millard’s translator, who, according to Millard, was in need of an “alleviation of his suspicious-looking eyes” (qtd. in Donella). Similar wording can be found in Millard’s surgical notes, simultaneously expressing how the language of race pervaded Millard’s logic. Millard wrote in 1964 that the absence of eye fold produces “a passive expression that seems to epitomize the stoical and unemotional manner of the oriental” (qtd. in Donella). With this, Korean eyes without the crease were dubbed “slanted’ and became a sign of deviance (Chow). This brought a lasting impression in Korea. Korean ads today will suggest that undergoing the surgery brings “broadening of the mind, a brightening of the soul, and confidence in the spirit” (Chow). Furthermore, in Asia this look is coded as Korean, while in the United States, double eyelid surgery is seen as East Asians trying to look white (Donella). A this very example perfectly exemplifies how beauty has been affected by war, empire, and a colonizer-colonized relationship (Donella). Most importantly, we need to hold it close to the present, where the South Korean beauty and cosmetic industry is valued at over $9.1 billion (So).

There are specific explanations for the correlation between beauty and whiteness that is ingrained into everyone’s heads. In the United States, there were no Black Miss America contestants up until 1940 (Donella). This is no coincidence, as the rules stated that contestants had to be “of good health and of the white race”, this essentially prohibited any women of color from entering the pageant (Donella). While this may seem insignificant, this ultimately shapes white feminine beauty into becoming American ideal beauty, and this conditions the way people think. Additionally, this is yet another example of how colonizers determine the beauty standard, and how race is a huge factor in how beauty norms are created. The oppressed and colonized are quite literally pushed down, and in this case underrepresented.

Next, why do white people do a lot better on cross-cultural studies of attraction? Is the belief that beauty is a characteristic of the white race, shared by racial theorist Christoph Meiners, actually legitimate? Absolutely not. White people are not more attractive simply because it is a characteristic of their race, but rather because of lack of repeated exposure. This is also known as the mere-exposure effect or the familiarity principle; it is a psychological phenomenon when a preference is developed merely because it is familiar (‘Mere-Exposure Effect’). This explains why beauty standards are Eurocentric, and this is more commonly known as underrepresentation, which can be found throughout society and media.

Underrepresentation is prevalent in the media; at New York’s fashion week, one of the world’s biggest fashion events, 82.7 of the models were white, leaving 17.3% for racial minorities (Johnson). This number is insignificant when considering one-third of the US population consists of racial minorities. Additionally, the non-white people in media must have Eurocentric features. Maisha Johnson speaks on women of color in the media, explaining that “[they have] to be a white girl dipped in chocolate”. Female Black actors often appear in media with straight hair; and this is often achieved through wigs, chemical straightening, or flat ironing (Johnson). Likewise, many makeup ads demonstrate this exact ‘need’ for non-white models to look like white people, and oftentimes they look exactly like white models (Wade).

In conclusion, beauty has evolved from something that was once truly subjective, to something nearly completely objective and defined by set standards. This evolution has erased many different cultures’ beauty standards, as they have become Eurocentric. As of today, beauty is defined by whiteness, this is the case because of colonialism, and the media has only further perpetuated this dangerous notion.

Bibliography

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9. Johnson, Maisha. ‘10 Ways the Beauty Industry Tells You Being Beautiful Means Being White’. Gender Society, 19 Jan. 2016, http://gendersociety.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/10-ways-the-beauty-industry-tells-you-being-beautiful-means-being-white/.
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13. Wade, Lisa. ‘When Whiteness Is the Standard of Beauty’. 16 May 2014.

Introduction: The Controversial World of Beauty Contests

Beauty contests are the competitions that focus on the physical beauty of its contestants and are watched all over the world. It sets up the benchmark for beauty in the society. The most often watched contest is Miss World Competition. These contests have been accepted in most of the societies which lead to the emergence of many local, national and global contests. These contest do give self-belief to some and on the same time their self-esteem is being reduced by the stress to look and act perfect. In some views today, “Body image is the number 1 problem of young girls” (Overington).

The Societal Impact of Beauty Standards

Critics of beauty pageants argue that such contests reinforce the idea that girls and women need to be valued primarily for their physical appearance, and that this puts incredible stress on female to conform to conventional beauty standards by spending time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling, and even cosmetic surgery. They say that this pursuit of physical beauty even encourages some girls to go on a weight loss program to the point of harming themselves. The London Feminist Network argues that rather than being empowering, beauty pageants do exactly the contrary because they deny the full humanity of women by setting them as the subject of objectification they reinforce the concept that a woman’s only reason is to appear attractive.

The Positive Aspects: Exposure and Personal Development

On the other side some say that it offers increased exposure for private and professional endeavors, gain personal development skills through coaching and preparation, collect opportunities to communicate your vision and dreams effectively and concisely, and have the capability to inspire others to believe in themselves with your confidence and dedication to be successful. Pageantry also teaches you how to cope with stress by mastering to deal with pressure and disappointments. The confidence and outgoing personalities they get from pageants help them on stage and additionally in their everyday lives. One can genuinely turn out to be good at public speaking and performing in the front of others. With practice, you’ll be capable to keep your cool and express yourself freely.

Most beauty pageants offer scholarships as an award for doing well in the competition. Large pageants might also provide sponsorship opportunities, an annual salary, or extra career-building options that allow participants to carve out their own path in life. When growing up in an underprivileged socioeconomic household, academics or athletics are the two avenues where a child can “change their stars.” Beauty pageants provide a third opportunity to find success.

Previous research has found that beauty pageants are an unnecessary leisure of society because they set unrealistic beauty standards for a target audience of easily influenced young women, they inspire judging a person’s worth primarily based on appearance only, rather than on a person’s character, and they objectify young women. In the world of beauty pageants, there is solely one type of beauty. This one form of beauty is “Barbie”: tall, long-legged, tiny waist, straight white teeth, long thick hair. Beauty pageants promote the thought that looks are superior to a person’s abilities, emotions and heart. These younger women are judged only on the groundwork of physical appearance. Judging young women primarily on their appears takes important character developments out of focus because other qualities, such as intelligence, are not seen as section of ideal femininity and therefore no longer as things to which girls aspire.

The Psychological Toll: Eating Disorders and Mental Stress

An eating disorder is described as “a serious sickness that can be life-threatening, arising from a variety of biological, psychological and social factors” (NEDA Feeding Hope). There have been countless scenarios in which beauty pageants have both triggered and terminated contestant’s eating disorders. One critic, Martina Cartwright, a psychologist and registered dietician, believes that “Emphasis on physical beauty causes many child pageant participants to go through from the ‘Princess Syndrome’, an unhealthy force to achieve physical perfection that can lead to dissatisfaction with one’s physique and eating disorders later in life” (Wolfe, 2012). The ‘Princess Syndrome’ has proven authentic in many instances, as seen in a study carried out by Dr. Thompson S.H. Teo, an associate professor in the branch of decision sciences. In his experiment, self-esteem, dieting, and body image of one hundred thirty-one female beauty pageant contestants from forty-three states were examined by means of an anonymous survey. Most (89.6 %) reported being a competition finalist or winner and 55.2 % had competed at the national/ global level. Of those one hundred thirty-one females, “Over one fourth (26%) of the female had been told or perceived they had an eating disorder which reportedly started at 16.25 years. Almost half (48.5 %) reported wanting to be thinner and 57% have been trying to lose weight” (Thompson, 2008). Beauty festival contenders tend to be more inclined to self-shame upon their bodies due to the harsh judgment that they are confronted with in each competition.

A Global Perspective: Beauty Pageants in Different Cultures

In Nepal, a series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews had been performed exploring the beliefs of urban Nepali female about the introduction of beauty pageants to Nepal. This qualitative study examined how the competing pressures of modernization and traditionality impinge on Nepali girls who are trying to both withstand patriarchal restrictions and maintain long-established cultural values.

The massive majority of participants expressed ambivalence towards beauty contests in Nepal. They expressed the belief that beauty pageants can assist to empower Nepali women, facilitate progress in Nepal, and present Nepal positively on an international stage. Moreover, individuals called for the perceived benefits of competition participation to be extended to rural, impoverished, and lower caste Nepali women. At the same time, individuals expressed reservations about Nepali girls being objectified through their participation in these contests, deplored their commercial aspects, and felt that beauty pageants could contribute to the development of body image disturbance. Their ambivalence might also reflect their conflicting positioning as middle-class residents and as women in a developing consumer economy that retains strong patriarchal norms. Their complex and conflicting responses assist to elucidate the process of gendered social change in a growing country at some stage in a time of speedy societal transition. Despite all the disadvantages, there are also numerous reasons why women would like to take part in a beauty pageant. Of course, the prizes play an exceptional role. But there is additionally the fact that the pageants are widely publicized in mass media, they are considered very prestigious, offer a chance of making new friends and boosts confidence.

The records for this research topic has been gathered by means of One-on-One Interviews and the outcomes prove that the most important source to watch these beauty pageants is the internet. And these pageants do create mental stress on not just the contestants but also influences the viewers and the society in general. They even affect the self-esteem of an individual.

The interviews proved that these contests do create some mental stress and promote the concept that looks are superior to a person’s abilities, feelings and heart. Beauty pageants are misleading to younger women. Very few girls are born with a body that fits the current standard of beauty. A majority of young women don’t have a body which adheres to the current social standard of the time. Beauty pageants strongly promote the negative aspect that younger women are seen as objects of sexual interest. These contests fail to challenge harmful political attitudes to young women. By promoting looks as the most important female quality, they harm young women’s liberation in general. These competitions have a harmful toll on female worldwide. These pageants do extra harm than good. Beauty pageants cause woman to second guess their look and the type of individual that they aspire to be in the future. Beauty pageants have a hazardous impact on female and cause many to lead lives with depression, eating disorders, and or want for cosmetic surgery.

Conclusion: Rethinking Beauty Contests for a More Inclusive Approach

According to the researcher beauty pageants must be banned due to the fact they spread an incorrect message to the youth. Young human beings become extremely conscious about outer beauty, when in fact there have to be platforms that celebrate inner beauty. In today’s world, there is so much hype about outer beauty, whereas there are different contests like quiz competitions and intelligence shows that enable contestants to compete on skill and talent. But no media coverage or hype is created around them, which is a lot more necessary because such contests can help create a better world. According to the researcher being presentable is important but such pageants discourage humans who might be born with disabilities or might seem to be different. Even the definition of beauty appears to be very confined and you cannot decide beauty on such constrained factors. Instead, they must open the contest to women of all body types. As for whether or not such pageants encourage children’s beauty contests, Researcher feels that at that age, you embrace the whole lot in life; don’t focus on ‘beauty’ that much. You must let them embrace different parts of their personality, let them discover themselves as they are nevertheless figuring themselves out. The researcher also does not assume that such contests help create a focus on fitness. People who are considered plus-sized by the fashion industry are actually healthy. If that sort of a body image is promoted, human beings might have a better thinking of what is healthy. Because if you are really skinny you might not be unhealthy necessarily, however it cannot be considered healthy either. According to the researcher its negatives are much more than its positives. Firstly, because it stresses on the fact that the character who is distinguished and unique is the one who has desirable physical features. So, it distracts ladies from focusing on enhancing their education, culture, skills, career and competencies.

Secondly, beauty is very relative and personal. The researcher believes that each lady has her personal beauty and you can by no means compare the beauty of one female to the other. You also can’t set universal criteria for it — it differs from country to country, culture to culture, and region to region. So, the researcher believes that there should be contests where the best thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs are introduced together, so it is more comprehensive and where they not only focus on the differences but also embrace them. You can never be the best at everything and you have no hand in how stunning you are. You also can’t enhance your physical appearance, but you can improve your brain and skills. As for health and fitness — you can be curvy and nevertheless be healthy and you could be stick-thin but no longer healthy. If you have healthy habits, you stay healthy. There is no real connection between your look and your health, especially since hormones play such a huge role.

Soccer is the most popular team sport in the world. This sports practice arose in England in the nineteenth century. Today, major soccer competitions are organized every year around the world. Within this context, the book “Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World’s Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game,” published in May 2018, written by Grant Wahl, an American sports journalist, and writer, is a book especially for the soccer lovers. The storyline of the book stands out mainly for reporting players’ perspectives on how to play successful soccer, tracing the profile of plays with important roles on and off the field, facing the pressure that soccer imposes on those who make these professions. The writer approaches tactical ideals and strategies lightly, without throwing a lot of information that confuses the reader, making reading the book interesting and pleasurable to read. Also, Wahl focuses his work on the perspective of prominent names in soccer such as midfielders Christian Pulisic and Xabi Alonso, forward striker Javier ‘Chicharito’, defender Vincent Kompany and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer about the efforts made to reach the top and become successful players.

Through reading this book it was possible to understand and learn a little about the relationship between effort and passion of athletes for the sport, and the importance of the process of evolution that has occurred since the soccer came into existence, for example. Soccer evolved from something grotesque for a game of modern soccer where, it is not enough just to have talent if there is no physical preparation, the athlete needs to match or be better than his opponent. In this regard, Physical Education played a very important role in soccer, it is clear if it is comparing a player of the ‘70s with a player today. Also, modern soccer requires frequent specialization and dedication from players from different positions on the field, requiring a larger skill set than in the past. Nowadays it is not enough for a goalkeeper to know how to play with the ball at his feet, or to cover the back of his defense, these are the only requirements among many others, the role that a goalkeeper must play on the field. Another important point in the book stands out when the writer focuses on the interview Christian Pulisic, where the player tells about his childhood, it is clear that the preparation of a player does not start overnight. A high-level athlete goes through an arduous path of preparation to reach the level of success. When we see some news that highlights players’ salaries, we wonder why that value for someone who just runs after a ball. However, we do not reflect on the effort that the athlete made to be there and the things he gave up and the pressure he suffered from all sides to reach that level.

As an amateur soccer player and a student of Physical Education, I understand that some of my perceptions about soccer are consistent with what the writer reports in the book about the interviews. Fitness, obedience, and dedication are the main points for any athlete in any sport. A physical educator does not become a physical educator overnight, the same applies to an athlete, there is a process to achieve the desired result. There is a whole theoretical part of learning until you get to the practical part, where physical education shows its importance to athletes. Without good fitness, it is difficult for an athlete to succeed in competitions and to perform in an injury-free season as a match lasts at least ninety minutes and fitness is the basis for athlete performance. Therefore, it is necessary to involve everyone, both athletes and the coaching staff and even managers. Today the basis of success in competitions is well physical preparation.

In his book, ‘Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World’s Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game,’ Wahl took an approach that really enhanced my understanding of the game, or at least how the world’s top players think about the game, allowing me able to make a comparison with the game of feminine soccer. However, as a physical education teacher, I realize that this book contributes to improving the perception of the importance of the role of physical education within soccer. It helped to understand that a well-prepared player will become a better player and that this preparation begins even as children, with a preparation appropriate for the age at which the student is. Also, through the interviews presented in this book it was possible to learn and understand that above all safety and fun must always be present in the activities, whether within schools or in the preparation of athletes.

In conclusion, I recommend reading this book mainly for those who like football, but also for those who are starting with this sport. This book will help those who understand football improve their technical, tactical, dedication and effort understanding, and for those new to football, will describe the little things that make the difference between a good player and an excellent player through accounts from the perspective of experiences lived by people who understand the subject, the players. Also, for future physical education professionals, this is a great book that shows that the evolution of physical education played a very important role in the transition from the ’70s to the modern style of play. Also, the book will help to understand how to deal with athletes, as the writer gives us a perspective of players seeking to achieve their best physical performance, which makes a total difference in the lives of athletes in any sport seeking to reach the top.

Beauty has always been the talk of the town since the dawn of time and it involves both men and women. However, as years passed, women are being put as the main highlight when we are talking about beauty. Men, on the other hand, will be deemed as feminine if they show interest in beauty. Cambridge English Dictionary defines beauty as the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives great pleasure, especially when you look at it. Studies suggest that attractive people make more money, get better opportunities in the social status hierarchy, earn lighter court sentences and are considered friendlier. This scenario leads to why today’s society focuses on beauty so much that you can see beauty ads everywhere and brands competing to release their products. Everyone wants to look pretty and presentable. For better or worse, beauty matters. How much it matters can test our values. We have been fed with this stigma of ‘if you are beautiful, people will love you more’ forever that we do not realize there are more ugly truth about the beauty industry compared to nice ones. This essay will discuss the ugly truth about the beauty industry from three perspectives namely the effects of beauty propaganda on female consumers, the role of media in recognizing the values of beauty, and the influence on one’s body image. All three points will be supported with evidence to strengthen the claim.

The first point is beauty industry promotes unrealistic ideals. In this cosmopolitan era, we have easy access to beauty ads because the amount of beauty advertisements is overwhelming and we can see it every day and everywhere. Little did we know, that we were being brainwashed by the images that were shown on these advertisements. Spare a moment to think, if the main goal of the beauty industry is to make women feel confident about their appearances, then why do beauty ads normalize being skinny as more beautiful compared to when you gain weight? A study done by Marika Tiggeman and Belinda McGill for the School of Psychology at Flinders University of South Australia concluded that “controlled exposure to a thin ideal image elicits appearance concerns and evokes comparison processing in vulnerable women” (Tiggeman and McGill, 2004, p. 26). This line indicates that women always compare their images with the ones in the media, which indirectly leaves them with low self-esteem. The current beauty standards are illogical and ridiculous. Women are seen as beauty objects instead of as human beings that should be loved for who they are. This situation somehow has created prejudice against those who do not meet the standard. Worst case scenario, it could lead to depression, extreme dieting, and eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa.

In contrast to the above point, if we look from the brighter side, the beauty industry does not encourage nonsensical beauty standards but they are promoting healthy well-being and sustainable growth in one self. According to GlobalData (2020), a market research firm, the health and beauty sector is the fastest-growing sector and is forecast to grow by 8.8 percent by 2024 (UK: Health & Beauty 2019-2024. This proves that consumers are starting to pay attention to their body image. The idea of looking beautiful and presentable does not imply to women only, but men too.

Moving on to the second point, media influences the industry on how they view and portray women. Traditional media such as magazines and journals are believed to influence views of appearance and women’s looks. The media plays a significant role in the picture of people through the knowledge and interpretation of what people consider as attractive or appealing. Our society has been fed with a belief that says if you are obese, you need to lose weight until you are skinny and if you are ugly, you should fix your look and be stunning. This sounds so wrong and sickening. To lose weight until you become skinny is unhealthy and you will put your health at risk. Next, no one is born ugly. We are beautiful in our way and we should not let the media determine the definition of beauty. In the past two decades, empirical research has been abundant concerning the impact of exposure to idealized bodies in the media on how people perceive and evaluate their bodies. Most of this research has been on women, among whom the idea that ‘thin is beautiful’ is prevalent (Mills et al., 2017). This research infers that women experience in negative shift in body image after being exposed to these slim beauty depictions by the media.

On the other side of the coin, this point encourages women to be more attentive to themselves by loving their features and not using mass media’s unreasonable beauty standards to measure their beauty. We cannot blame the media fully for this image presentation. Society and culture should be counted too because the ridiculous beauty standards have existed since years ago. Why did they allow this to continue up until today? Why did they portray such unattainable ideals which caused people to have high perceptions of beauty? Everyone contributes to the making of today’s ideal image so this is the aftermath that will probably take a decade or more to be changed and accepted (again) by our society.

The last point is beauty industry capitalizes on fake reviews. There are beauty brands out there, who use this medium for them to gain profit by making fake reviews. The beauty industry has been powered by ambassadors namely celebrities or anyone influential with more than a certain number of followers on their social media, or called influencers. Many beauty brands would hire these well-known people to endorse their products. It has turned into a war of customer reviews. It is told that celebrities or influencers will be given the product beforehand and they would try it on their own to test the effectiveness. That is how reviews are made. Studies show that nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase (Spiegel Research, 2017) and 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review (G2 and Heinz Marketing, 2017). How far is the truth in all of these reviews? A few major online shopping sites have been exposed for review fraud. Edie Maede, the writer for Crossing a minefield of fake beauty product reviews mentioned that in October 2019, the Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation of Sephora’s corporate interference of the cosmetics company Sunday Riley Skincare. The FTC complaint outlined Sunday Riley’s direct involvement by the company’s CEO according to the New York Times. Riley had directed staff, with different emails and names, to establish three Sephora customer accounts each. They will love corporate goods and hate any adverse reactions to the serums and oils of Sunday in Riley. Beauty brands may introduce any type of product and make claims about it but at the end of the day, the customer will be the guinea pig in proving whether their claims are true or false.

On the contrary, it is undeniably true that the beauty industry relies on customers reviews the most compared to another sector. As a consumer, we should be more aware in trusting the reviews that we read online. Many free online tools can let you know the level of trustworthiness of a particular review. To name a few, Fakespot and Influenster. Another way to get rid of your worry on a brand is by consulting with experts in-store. You do know how well-known brands have their beauty consultant who knows everything about the brand. You have questions? Ask them away! Choosing rights is in our hands so choose wisely.

In conclusion, the beauty industry does have more ugly truths than joy. It is a part of their plan to hide these facts from the consumers as a way to maintain their loyalty and make sure the profit will continue until God knows when. However, it is important to learn how to love ourselves too. Each one of us was created differently and we will shine brightly in our way. Appreciate our features and treasure them as you would not get any replacement if they are damaged because our body and our face are precious. Even plastic surgery would not do justice to its initial beauty. Bear in mind, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and will always be.

References

1. How online reviews influence sales. (n.d.). IMC Spiegel Research Center – The Medill IMC Spiegel Research Center. https://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/online-reviews/
2. McCabe, K. (2018, June 7). Consumer reviews – 2018 B2B sales & marketing report. Learning Hub | G2. https://learn.g2.com/consumer-reviews
3. Meade, E. (2020, January 15). Crossing a minefield of fake beauty product reviews. Medium. https://medium.com/swlh/crossing-a-minefield-of-fake-beauty-product-reviews-34af00399668
4. Tiggemann, M., & McGill, B. (2004). The role of social comparison in the effect of magazine advertisements on women’s mood and body dissatisfaction. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.1.23.26991
5. UK: Health & beauty 2019-2024. (2020). GlobalData Report Store. https://store.globaldata.com/report/vr0210sr–uk-health-beauty-2019-2024/

86% of women in a given study reported that being in shape and dressing in trendy fashions contribute to their overall confidence (‘Sources of Standards of Beauty’). All around the world, the idea of beauty is supported on the concept that attractiveness is the most important advantage that people, the majority being women, should aspire to have. Beauty standards have become more and more unattainable moving throughout history and as people’s mindsets change. At a time where any given person is watching some kind of screen for 4-6 hours per day, unrealistic body and beauty standards are surrounding today’s youth and adults. Beauty standards harm body image due to the constant comparison of others to an individual, the ever-changing body ideals over time, and the idea that men are usually held to a higher standard of beauty than women are.

The looks of both people in someone’s life and famous people popping up in magazines, commercials, and social media feeds can affect one single individual’s body image and body confidence. The article, ‘Culture of Beauty’, states that “Critics frequently emphasize the link between prevailing beauty standards to fashion and cosmetics industries, which stand to profit from a large consumer base composed of all genders aspiring to an impossible-to-reach beauty ideal” (‘Culture of Beauty’). The models used to advertise and sell both beauty and fashion products tend to use techniques that make consumers want to fit in. A way to do that is to appeal to the side of consumer that is a little insecure or not as confident. By using beautiful models, ignoring whether or not photoshop is used, consumers tend to believe if the product or the type of fashion is bought, the buyer will fit in more, be more elevated in looks and be overall, more ‘beautiful’. The media’s representation of ideal looks excludes most men and women. Studies show that “76% of women wish they see ads that have a more realistic image of women” (‘Views Among US Women Regarding the Media’s Portrayal of Beauty’). In addition to that statistic, “61% of women feel like they are not represented by the imagery of women in the media” (‘Views Among US Women Regarding the Media’s Portrayal of Beauty’). Of the women surveyed a vast majority feel like they do not see themselves reflected in the media or ads being circulated the in world. By making a simple change, making people of all shapes, sizes, races, sexuality, and ages seen, both men and women might feel better about themselves. If companies used real people instead of skinny, clear-skinned, photoshopped models, there could be an immense change in society’s idea of what beauty is.

Today in 2019, where the idea of beauty is shaped by views of the media, older standards of beauty are rarely thought of. Author Viren Swami writes in an article that, “Venus, the goddess of beauty was typically portrayed with a round face and a pear-shaped body” (Swami). If at one point, an actual goddess was painted, drawn, and sculpted with a fuller body type, why did beauty ideals change from that? A pear-shaped body today would be seen as too full or maybe even in some cases too heavy. The overwhelming fact that body types are becoming less and less attainable is becoming clear as adults and even children aiming for a tiny waist and completely flat stomachs to ‘fit in’. Swami continues this idea by explaining that, “during the 1940s, researchers…began to document the first instances of negative body image, with women desiring smaller body sizes and larger breasts” (Swami). This came as a surprise, as names like Marilyn Monroe, who was somewhat known for her fuller body type, were popular at the time. The issue of body image is brought up again and again and the constant changing is one of the biggest factors. The inconsistency of beauty ideals crushes people’s positive body images if they have any to start with.

In addition to the changing body standards over time, women are usually held to a higher standard of appearance than men. This is shown by the “status of women…frequently limited by the assumption that they would be judged…on how they measure up to the values not of their work, but their…appearance” (Walter). Considering that men statistically higher paid and get higher positions at jobs, women are often at a disadvantage. People, not just women, need to be judged on their value of work not only on how they look. If a woman isn’t looking ‘the best’, they are more likely to be judged and not listened to. On the flip side, however, men are also affected by body image issues. According to one article, some men “have problematic relationships with food and are turning to protein shakes and even steroids in a desperate attempt to meet pressures” (Jankowski). Society is not just pushing these beauty standards on women, but on men as well. Social standards push men to have picture-perfect bodies like women are. Both minorities and men who are ‘picture perfect’ like men who are balding, bigger, or too short to be represented by the media and ads, are being pushed into the ideas that they have to be perfect, pressuring them to better themselves, often in unhealthy ways.

Beauty standards harm body image due to the constant comparison of others to an individual, the ever-changing body ideals over time, and the idea that men are usually held to a higher standard of beauty than women are. Famous people and picture-perfect women and men should not be the only models represented in ads and be recognized as beautiful. The changing ideal of beauty in America and even around the world is unfair to everyone because it does not include everyone. Even men are being targeted by leaving out minorities and not the traditional good-looking man, despite more leeway they get on their appearance. With all things considered, the world needs a beauty standard that includes everyone, not just people who look flawless in ads and on social media. Society as a whole can change by slightly shifting their mindset to include all types of people in what they consider beautiful.