Beauty Culture: An Examination the Effects Media Has on Society

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Society is obsessed with being beautiful. One just has to examine the amount differing beauty industries earn early for this fact to be evident. For example, the diet industry is a thirty-three billion dollar industry, with the cosmetic industry following close behind with twenty billion yearly (Wolf 16). However, this obsession with beauty is not without cause. As stated in Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, “In affluent Western societies, slenderness is generally associated with happiness, success, youthfulness, and social acceptability. Being overweight is linked to laziness, lack of willpower, and being out of control.”(Grogan 325) Despite common misconceptions, body image affects all groups of people. Consequently, the image people have of themselves and the way that they react to it differ greatly according to a variety of factors including sex, age, culture, and especially, the media they have been exposed to (Fox 2). The cultural standard of beauty, as displayed through the media, affects all groups of people to different extents. The spark that lights the flame of our cultures beauty obsession is the ideal image displayed by the media. Due to advertisement and media, the cultural standard of beauty is widely publicized and accepted (Wykes 146), meaning that “beautiful people” are constantly being seen a great deal more than they have been in the past (Fox 1). While mass media does have many positive benefits, it also has severe consequences (Phelps and Charles 1). Meaning, that mass media is having negative influences on the mindsets of the general populace with regards to self image and stereotypes. One message sent out by the media is that only those who are underweight are be... ... middle of paper ... ...he ReThink Beauty Campaign, n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. <"Impact on Youth." The ReThink Beauty Campaign. The ReThink Beauty Campaign, n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.> "A Guy's Guide to Body Image." KidsHealth. Ed. Arcy Lyness. The Nemours Foundation, 01 Jan. 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. Lerner, Brenda W., and K. L. Lerner. "Food and Body Image." Food: In Context 1 (2011): 303-05. Web. 3 Apr. 2014 Grogan, Sarah. Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children. London: Routledge, 2008. Kindle. Smolak, Linda, and J. K. Thompson. Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Obesity in Youth: Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2009. Kindle. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. London: Chatto & Windus, 1990. Kindle. Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Kindle.

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