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Affect of Media on people's idea of beauty/body image
Affect of Media on people's idea of beauty/body image
Affect of Media on people's idea of beauty/body image
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An Ethnic Perspective on Beauty “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.) Caucasians Glowing caramel tan on flawless skin, voluptuous breasts and butt on a stick-thin model, long lashes, silky hair with volume, 5’7 or taller, white perfectly aligned teeth under big lips, a hairless body, and on top of all that the latest fashion produced by designer brands that leave little to the imagination. That’s the American beauty perception for women in a nutshell. Men? Biceps, broad shoulders, large chest, six-pack abs, whatever screams manly and won’t scare off the ladies. However there young girls who go crazy over pretty, metrosexual boys nowadays. At least these beauty standards are possible to belong to different races. As expected of the melting pot America is. The average man and woman aren’t as dolled up as Ken or Barbie, hence the word “average”. The obesity rate caused by easily accessible calories doesn’t help the pressure felt by Americans to be thin either, though is it actually thin that’s desired? The reason female models are so slender is becaus... ... middle of paper ... ...ne guy could prefer breasts on his woman while his best friend could like bums. Maybe neither at all and would rather hold a girl that would make him feel manly (without lecherous intent). Flawless skin does appear to be universally desirable, but because of almost impossibility, plenty of people wouldn’t mind settling for someone with a few scars. At the end of the day, these are all just statistics that only reach skin-deep, although there are always exceptions. Some people actually find comfort in changing their bodies as a form of art and expression. It makes them more confident and they are treated differently (Standen, Par 9). Humans have emotions, thoughts, talents, and flaws. There are billions of people on this planet with deep pasts, presents, and futures. This is only the surface, and evolution is inevitable. What is in now may not be fashionable later.
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
There is a famous saying that states, “ we should not judge a book by its cover”, but oftentimes the first thing noticed on a person is their looks. One’s “physical beauty” strongly influences people’s first impressions of them. As a whole, we tend to assume that pretty people are more likeable and better people than those who are unattractive. Around the world, we believe that what is beautiful is good. There is a general consensus within a culture about what is considered physically appealing and beautiful. “Physical beauty” is associated with being more sociable, intelligent, and even socially skilled. Society shares this common notion of who has and who does not have “physical beauty”. Thus, “physical beauty”, as seen
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
Being a natural haired African American woman means you will need the ability to withstand the ridicule that comes with loving yourself. Understanding and accepting your natural hair is the first step in having healthy hair. Accepting your hair in its natural state means that you are ready to learn more about your hair. Because everyone does not have the same hair type whether and a porosity level. Good hair is hair that is healthy and makes the owner happy. If hair is not what you base your worth on then you should be fine. To achieve that level of acceptance and understanding we must do our research. African American tend to change natural hair from its original state because it is to “nappy” or it is to “difficult to work with.” Writer's Shauntae
Many women believe that the models that they see on TV have typical bodies, when in fact "the ideal body type today is unattainable by most women, even if they starve themselves. Only the thinnest 5% of women in a normal weight distribution approximate this ideal, which thus excludes 95% of American women" (Fallon, Katzman, Wooley 396). And yet "more than half of the adult women in the United States are currently dieting, and over three-fourths of normal-weight American women think they are too fat'" (qtd. in Fallon, Katzman, Wooley 396).
What do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror? A seed sticking out from your teeth? Bed head from just waking up and sleepy eyes? The truth is every time we look at ourselves in the mirror we can not help but notice some of our imperfections. Whether it is our nose, eyes, lips or ears there is always something. The beauty standard pop culture has today on women is unattainable. Women somehow have to have a thin body, giant chest, big rear, and tiny waist. Unfortunately these are the molds young women in America wish to fit into in order to feel beautiful. The word beautiful has many different meanings, but most interpret it as a physical description. Many young women believe that in order to acquire this beauty standard they need
The concept of beauty and racism in modern western society is held to the highest of standards for all of it’s members; including celebrities. The perfect woman is described by Odette (2013), as solely for men’s pleasure and domination. If we look on the cover of any popular magazine, the women are usually: light skinned, slender, and tall. Men on the other hand must be tall and powerfully built. Our culture is valued on the basis of how men and women are perceived by their image, making it impossible for the average man or women to achieve the high beauty standard expected in society. Celebrities play an influential role in the way people view themselves, making the need to look like our favourite celebrities all the more desired. A person's
One way the world encourages conformity is through society's beauty standards. “Considering the vast diversity in this world and the countless cultures it contains, one would expect that surely there must be different culturally dependent standards of beauty” (Brichacek). However, Brichacek researched examining the physical attractiveness of the female body often uses the
body that every woman wants. However, a plus size woman (12 and up) won’t get the same
How do we standardize female beauty? How do beauty standards differ globally? Can society function without beauty standards? Before we can answer these questions, the first thing we must understand is what beauty standards are. Essentially, beauty standards represent an “immutable essence” of femininity (Beauvoir, 279). What is femininity? It is a hypothetical criterion that one must observe to be considered a woman. At least, that is what it is alleged to be. The true question that we must ask ourselves is if femininity exists at all. According to Judith Butler, a contemporary feminist advocate, femininity is “a kind of imitation for which there is no original” (Butler).
The media is extremely powerful and can send young boys and girls the wrong message about what is a healthy normal body weight. “Ultra-thin models and actresses appear in ads on television and in movies. Even though media photos of many actresses and actors are airbrushed so they appear younger and thinner, many people see them as having achieved an ideal weight. One study found that the average height and weight for a model in 5’10” and 110lbs., while the average height and weight for a woman is 5’4” and 145lbs. Considering that the average person sees approximately 3,000 ads and commercials daily, it’s no wonder that media have created a distorted ideal body image.” (Brawn 2017)
Although many women say that they go thru this procedures because it’s something that they truly want for themselves, there has to be some kind of background on why a women wants to change a certain part of their body. Like in my previous example, breast. Women aren’t just born hating their breast, it isn’t until they start associating with society, reading into the beauty standards, or someone put them down about a certain aspect of themselves that they start creating an image of what they believe that they should look like, leading them to this altering procedures for their
...th the modern era defining beautiful as having less weight. (WiseGeek, n.d.) Another argument is that thin is a feminist issue and they just use this as a headline grabber because 39.4 million of Americans suffer from obesity and the British NHS survey of Disordered Eating noted 620 hospital treatments for anorexia or bulimia (with some patients registered twice or more) for 2005 to 2006 as opposed to 17,458 for the same period for obesity. They also argue that more material is being saved when models are thinner and clothes look more elegant and drapes effortlessly on skinnier models. Most models and designers argue that models are not supposed to eat and they are meant to be skinny to sell more clothes or make them look more appealing.
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...
Throughout history there have been many claims about what is beautiful and what is not on the face and body. America’s idea of beauty in the past changed many times from the fragileness of the Steel-engraving lady to the voluptuousness of the Greek slave. The ideal beauty in America is not so different from the ideal beauty of cultures around the world and follows many of the traditions practiced throughout history. The widespread of advertisement and technology is something that’s said to be the contributing problem to the ideal women phenomenon, but I believe history and trend plays the bigger role.