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Influence of fashion
The influence of fashion
The influence of fashion
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From Inner to Outer Beauty
“Illness easily transforms our outward beauty into yellow pallors, hollow stares and wrinkles of deformity” (Schimmel 410). When people are sick, they look “ugly” or different from how they appear day to day, which includes what Schimmel, professor of Jewish education claimed. Beauty is no longer explained as “The prevailing fashion or standard of the beautiful” (“Beauty, Def. 3”). Inner qualities override fashion and how a person appears. However, having fashion does not define beauty either. Louise Gerdes, author of young adult books once said, “Fashion and style magazines further emphasize the importance of the body project, in both editorial content and advertising by setting the standards of beauty to which many girls aspire” (16). Gerdes states that magazines make girls feel certain ways on how they should look and the notion is not encouraging. To better understand the true meanings of the word beauty, one could look to etymology, nature and pop culture.
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As stated before,“Fashion and style magazines further emphasize the importance of the body project in both editorial content and advertising by setting the standards of beauty to which many girls aspire” (Gerdes 15-16). Gerdes explains how fashion and style magazines set the trends for girls by advertising certain clothing items or products. For example, when author Eric Charles designed feathered clothes and accessories for the fashion industry (1). The magazine Seventeen would be an example of a style magazine advertising beauty and setting certain standards. Now a day, beauty is not the same for everyone. “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the hearts affections and the truth of imagination-what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth-whether it existed before or not” (Knowles 4). In Knowles quote she expressed how beauty can be perceived differently for each
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
In the article, “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” by Hanna Berry, Berry discusses how for decades women have been told to use certain products and that if they used those products they would be beautiful. Women over the years have believed this idea and would purchase items that promised to make them prettier, thinner, smarter and even more loved. However, in reality it was never what they wore on their bodies that helped them be any of those things; but what it did help with was to empower women to become fearless and bold by what they chose to wear on their bodies as a form of expression.
Fashion is a constantly changing industry; what is trendy one day is outdated the next. The 21st century has been a catalyst for a large movement in fashion. Paris, New York, and London are some of the main contributors to the fashion industry (“Fashion Capitals”). Along with being the main influences in fashion, they have significantly connected the world on a global level. Even on a local level, students and young adults indulge in fashion as a way to express themselves. Some people may argue that fashion helps express one’s imagination; however, fashion has become one of the major influences that promotes an unrealistic image of women that is detrimental to their bodies. This unrealistic image can lead to health problems, a negative body image, and a society based on appearances which is disadvantageous to our culture as a whole.
Laeng, B. Vermeer, O., Sulutvedt U. “Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?” Plos One. (2013): 6-7 Ebscohost. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
The misconception of what is beautiful can be detrimental to young girls. In a television industry attempt to sell goods, they are depicted as sexy. Creating a need for parents to intervene and present a more realistic and normal view of physical beauty. Today, TV presents sexually based images crafted to appeal to young girls. Unfortunately, they are led to believe that their value is only skin deep, causing flawed expectations, illusions, and wrong information about the truth of the physical body in the real world. In an attempt to look the part some have fallen victim to eating disorders, while others have exchanged childhood innocence for an Adult view of what is sexy.
In her novel “Beauty Myth”, Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty and fashion industry are to blame for using false images to portray what beautiful woman is. She believes the magazines are to blame for women hating their bodies. Wolf states, “When they discuss [their bodies], women lean forward, their voices lower. They tell their terrible secret. It’s my breast, they say. My hips. It’s my thighs. I hate my stomach.” (Wolf, 451) She is focusing on how w...
The idea that women are subjected to an unfair amount of pressure as a result of the fashion world and other media outlets is hardly new, but Naomi Wolf takes this claim to a new and absurd level. Her essay is as unorganized as it is impractical. Her ideas are presented in a smorgasbord of flawed logic. Particularly disturbing is what she calls the “beauty myth.” What I disagree with is the word myth. According to Wolf, women in magazines and advertisements have approximately 20% less body mass than that of the average woman, creating an unattainable standard. This fact in no way supports her claim of a “beauty myth.” The existence of a myth suggests something to be untrue in nature. Magazine companies and advertisement agencies are not in the business of showing an average woman. They are in the business of selling a product. Of course they are going to use beautiful people. These companies completely regard the fact that most women do not in fact look like this, but they know that their product would be less appealing if they displayed average or unattractive women. Therefore, they do not deserve scrutiny over the fact that they do not present a typical woman. They in fact do the same for men. Wolf says, “The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power” (page 485, first new paragraph). How does one begin to say how warped this impression is?
Magazines such as Cosmopolitan have the power to control consumers and the beauty market. “Magazines are about what is new not what is ‘the best’”. This has changed the mindset of the consumer. Whenever the new model comes out they waste no time investing in it. This boosts their ego and makes them feel superior to others with the old model.
The idea of beauty has had many social impacts throughout various cultures and its importance in these various societies shows a general fascination with the idea. However, beauty often limits our understanding of the world if beauty is established as the ultimate goal for people through deliberate means. When beauty becomes an artificial social construct, problems in our perception and understanding can arise. In the essay What is Beauty and How do We Know It?, by Nancy Etcoff, the idea of beauty being a personal attraction is presented. Etcoff describes how when beauty trends are designed to be attractive for a general audience, they are “no more real than the canned laughter chortling from our television screens.”
As beauty is highly personal to perceive, everyone should ask her/him-self a question: ”what does beauty mean to me?”. It is crutial to have this question answered, as nothing can be fully admired when the process of admiration is in any way forced. That is why I try to see beatuy in nearly anything that surround me, but when it is had for me to do it, I do not put any pressure in this. In my opinion, these days we have even greater problem with distinguishing beauty from a feeble attempt. This problem is not that visible in natural beauty - we usually consider it from objective poit of view.
First of all, the idea of beauty is not only based on a physical appearance of a person or object; beauty comes from the inner self. Natural and real beauty creates from within the heart of individuals. When a real beauty develops, it is expressed as a charming, attractive, and glamorous soul that is hard for one to contain. If a lady is beautiful on the inside, she is also beautiful on the outside because her body is an expression of soul and mind. Inner beauty creates a positive attitude towards oneself, others, and the environment. One real life example about inner beauty is the story of Chantelle Winnie. Chantelle was born with a skin condition vitiligo, which makes her different from other people.
Shelia Gibbons, a Women’s News Commentator said that “Teen magazines are filled with ads and editorials--and the two are difficult to distinguish--urging girls to acquire the latest "hot haircut" (Seventeen) and "hot" looks (Elle Girl), reinforced by commands to "flirt your way to a date" (Teen).” Teen magazines know exactly what to say to sell a product and implant an idea of inferiority in a teenage girl’s mind. Once a girl feels inferior to models and celebrities, she will want to buy any product necessary to make herself look superior to others. This holiday season, girls’ Christmas lists will be filled with these items seen in magazines so they can look “hotter and sexier”. In our g...
The concept of “beauty” is something that everyone feels, thinks, or wants, in order to fit society’s standards. In today’s society, we are often faced with the unrealistic ideals of what beauty is. Due to society’s constant portraying of unrealistic beauty ideals, this reinforces a negative influence upon women’s idea of beauty, resulting in a negative impact in their confidence, and self-esteem, which leads to others, specifically women to be manipulated by society’s corrupted outlook of what beauty is. To add onto this issue, we are constantly surrounded by sources of this negative influence in our everyday lives, including magazines, television, advertisements, and so on. However, women specifically, are more prone to be victims of this negative effect, thus will have more pressure upon themselves to match society’s idea of “beauty,” which includes unrealistic and sometimes unattainable beauty standards. Women especially, can sometimes be so deeply manipulated by society’s unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful, such that it’s possible that they don’t even realize it Furthermore, in order to do so, women often will receive negative impacts rather than positive impacts, such as in their confidence and self-esteem. The negative effects of society’s beauty ideals also lead women to have an overall corrupted idea of what is “beautiful.” Society creates unrealistic ideals of beauty towards women through the media by creating an unrealistic image of what women should look like to be considered beautiful. Men negatively affect women’s idea of beauty by using the unrealistic beauty standards exposed by society which further pressures women to try to fit society’s idea of what is beautiful. Beauty pageants negatively affect women’s ov...
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
Frith, K., Shaw, P., Cheng, H. (2005). The Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising. The Journal of Communication, 55(1), 56-70. doi: 10.1111/j.14602466.2005.tb02658