Globalization in the Beauty Industry: The Western Influence on the Perception of Beauty

1863 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Introduction about beauty standards

My mother didn’t let me wear makeup. No matter how many times I wrote “blue eye shadow” on my Christmas wish list, no matter how many “pretty pleases” I could say before I needed to take a gasp of air, no matter how much I begged and pleaded, she just wouldn’t budge on the issue. Granted I was eight at the time and I probably would have used that eye shadow once and then immediately forgot about it, but it still hurt knowing I wouldn’t be able to look like the beautiful models in my Mother’s latest issue of InStyle.
What my innocent little heart didn’t know though, is that not even makeup can make a person look like those women. Those women don’t even look like those women. This fantasy that I had built up in my eight-year-old head about magically turning into a perfect, airbrushed version of myself was not a realistic one. As it turns out, the figures in those magazines are not beautiful people; they are normal, ordinary human beings that were morphed into Western culture’s idea of beauty through the able abilities of Photoshop and makeup. How Westerners generally visualize beauty is simple to describe: narrow waist, large breasts, tanned skin free of blemishes, defined cheekbones, and an overall hourglass figure. Now that I am older and have experience with using beauty products, I know that this perception of beauty is still lusted after by almost all women.
Is that true, though? Do all women, regardless of where they are in the world, really idolize the same physical ideals? The answer is no. Beauty is a concept as diverse as you can get, and all cultures around the world have a unique definition of the word. Cross-cultural research done on the topic revealed that there are “no universal standards for beauty other than clea...

... middle of paper ...

...Women From Different Ethnic
Groups. International Journal of Cosmetic Science. 28(6): 427-437.
Frazier, Christopher
2006 Dynamic Beauty: Cultural Influences and Changing Perceptions-Becoming
Prettier or Erasing One’s Own Culture? Hohonu: A Journal of Academic
Writing. 4(1):5-7.
Hamed, Saja H, Reema Tayyem, Nisreen Niber, and Hatima S. AlKhatib.
2010. Skin-lightening Practice Among Women Living in Jordan: Prevalence,
Determinants, and User’s Awareness. International Journal of
Dermatology. 49(4): 414-420.
Jones, Geoffrey
2008 Blonde and blue-eyed globalizing beauty, c.1945- c.1980.
Economic History Review 61(1):125-154.
Jones, Geoffrey
2010 Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Laura
2006 Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics.
Berkeley: University of California Press.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Because You Re A Girl

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unfortunately, a lot of females fall into those traps and do not consider themselves beautiful unless they’re a certain weight or have their skin a certain way. Nobody embraces their bodies and their looks besides those that society gives you a perception of something that doesn’t exist to be “perfection”. And in the Dove commercial which I used in my presentation to state the image society has given women shows the wonder of photoshop. It showed how an average woman was changed into someone with a skinnier neck, perfect hair, and flawless skin all with the magic of technology. And by using real life human models it given women the perception that if they look like that then I can

    Read More

  • Beauty: The Media Profits by Making Girls Hate Themselves

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.

    Read More

  • White Washed World

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.

    Read More

  • Campaigning for Real Beauty: Dove® and Changing Stereotypical Body Images as Seen in the Media

    3016 Words  | 7 Pages

    Today society has never been more aware of the impact the media has on what is considered to be an attractive person. Those who are most vulnerable by what they observe as the American standard of attractiveness and beauty are young females. Their quest to imitate such artificial images of beauty has challenged their health and their lives and has become the concern of many. As a result, advertisements used in the media are featuring more realistic looking people.

    Read More

  • Ethics Of Photoshop

    1958 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the ways photo manipulation in the media is ruining lives is by destroying the image of female beauty. Through all forms of popular media women are being bombarded with image...

    Read More

  • The Media's Effect on Women

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ideal image that the media has created is to be exceptionally thin and tall. This is what the media considers to be beautiful. This ideal image can be seen on a daily basis just about everywhere on advertisements, which promote this unattainable image constantly. Research has proven that women tend to feel more insecure about themselves when they look at a magazine or television, which makes them feel self conscious(Mackler 25). The irony in this is that not even the women in the advertisements are as flawless as they appear to be. In order for a woman to appear in the mass media her image must be enhanced in several ways. A women is often airbrushed to conceal their actual skin but it does not end there. Through various computerized programs a woman's actual features are distorted until a false unrealistic image is reached.

    Read More

  • Media And Eating Disorders

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    The media shows women that represent beauty, even if these women are not real. This means the women in magazines that teenagers wish to look like is not authentic. Many teenagers don’t understand the difference of what is real and fake. So, they believe that the ave...

    Read More

  • Because The Media Told Us: The Negative Effects Of Media On Women

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Leah Hardy (2010) argues that models in today’s magazines are no more than works of the digital retouching. Digital retouching is the use of computer program to remove unwanted impurities of the body, making a person look ideal. Digital retouching is sending a negative message to women because it sets up a false sense of what beauty is. It is impossible for women to look like a digital retouch models, because they are not real. In the film, Killing Us Softly 4 Jean Kilbourne argues that advertisement sends out the same type of message to women (Kilbourne, 2010). Kilbourne states “Advertisement tells women that what’s most important is how they look, an advertisement surround us with the image of ideal beauty. However, this flawlessness cannot be achieved. It’s a look that’s been created through airbrushing, cosmetics, and computer retouching ” (Kilbourne, 2010). Women are being told that in order to fit in society, they have to look a certain way, yet it is nearly impossible because the standard is too high.

    Read More

  • What is Beauty?

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Dove Campaign, beauty, Media portrays beauty as an unattainable wish, Women in Media (2008) describes how all models in media are enhanced physically with make-up and technologically with computers. Dove asks many women what they think beauty is to depict images of what children think real beauty is. The purpose was to verify to mothers, aunts, and sisters that in the eyes of siblings and children they are beautiful. The intended audience are women that think they need fake beauty to achieve impeccable beauty. Real beauty can mean only one thing, that is, that the person is not using anything to enhance their beauty in any way. Most women when they get older they ten...

    Read More

  • Reasons Why Women Develop a Negative Body Image

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.

    Read More

  • Body Image Standards

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep” (Godfrey, 2013). We hear these sayings all the time, yet we live in a society that seems to constantly contradict this idea (Godfrey, 2013). If looks don’t matter, why is every woman in magazines photoshopped? If looks don’t matter, why are women constantly harming their bodies because they are unhappy with how they look and just want to fit in (Godfrey, 2013)? The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible (Godfrey, 2013). Sociocultural standard of feminine beauty is presented in almost all forms of popular media, forcing women with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal body (Serdar). A majority of the models

    Read More

  • L’Oreal And The Globalization Of American Beauty

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    L’Oreal was started in 1907 by French chemist, Eugene Schueller, who developed the world’s first synthetic hair-color product, L’Aureole. By 1912 his hair products were sold in France, Netherlands, Austria and Italy. In the mid-1930s, Schueller moved into the hygiene and toiletry sectors of the cosmetic market with great success. L’Oreal soon earned the reputation as the leader in European hair coloring and skin care products.

    Read More

  • What Is Beauty?

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.

    Read More

  • An Ethnic Perspective on Beauty: School Essay

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” a phrase that everyone has heard of at one point in his or her life. Walk by a cashier aisle in a supermarket and a there will be magazines shouting “How to lose 30 pounds in one month!” “Buff up with this weird new workout routine!”. “Fashion that’ll slim you down!” and the like. Is the concept of beauty and ugly really homogeneous, or does it vary? Is it just weight that’s considered? Exploring different ethnic groups prove that what one person thinks is beautiful may or may not be the same as the next person. (The article will mainly be focused on the women though, since their “worth” is judged more on their appearances than men. It will also be rather general on each ethnicity.)

    Read More

  • The Importance of Image in the Modern World

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    Image is everything in today’s society as women are increasingly putting more emphasis on their appearance. Women today are growing more conscious of how others perceive their outward appearance. Even in a relatively Oriental society like Singapore, it does not come as a surprise to see women going to Botox clinics during lunchtime hours to receive their dosage of Botox, a chemical used to paralyse certain muscles to prevent wrinkles. Furthermore, beauty advertisements nowadays feature women models that are barely out of their teens. Even with older models, they are usually models featuring in slimming centres or skin improvement advertisements.

    Read More

More about Globalization in the Beauty Industry: The Western Influence on the Perception of Beauty

Open Document