How can beauty be defined and how is it portrayed in art and fashion? Who sets the standards for beauty? What must one do to truly look beautiful? What does feeling beautiful mean? When considering the concept of beauty one must differentiate between the universal and relative perception of beauty. Among the components of universal beauty are harmony, symmetry and utility. However, perception of beauty is also relative, when it is defined by the standards of the time that are subjective to the socio economic values of the era. One of the ways these values are communicated is through images portrayed in art and in modern times through the media. ‘Fashion’ is the carrier of theses values though physical appearance and self-image that define power, rank, acceptability and belonging. Having ‘fashion’ as the medium of these relative values bring advantages and disadvantages. Although there are benefits of matching the fashion of the time, positive self-image and satisfaction with a feeling of acceptance these are temporary because fashion is ever changing. On the other hand not conforming to the contemporary standards can have a detrimental impact on self-image that leads to feeling a sense negative self worth and marginalized. Eating disorders are a powerful manifestation that fashion has on the psyche. The underlying idea of what fashion ‘is’ is value. Amongst all the change of fashion, value remains ever present. Different Impacts of how values influence beauty in art. Historically the idea of feminine beauty has reflected the standard and values of that era, “from the Rebenesque women of the 17th century to the contemporary symbols of fashion, different body shapes have been selected for, and associated with, desirable socia... ... middle of paper ... ...rsity Press. Linda Smolak, Michael P. Levine, R.S.-M. ed., 1996. The Developmental Psychopathology of Eating Disorders: Implications for Research, Prevention, and Treatment, New Jersey: Psychology Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6g1j1u6Mex8C&pgis=1 [Accessed April 15, 2014]. Signorielli, N., McLeod, D. & Healy, E., 1994. Profile: Gender stereotypes in MTV commercials: The beat goes on. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38(1), pp.91–101. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838159409364248 [Accessed April 14, 2014]. Steele, V., 1997. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xqEt6Dpb4TYC&pgis=1 [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Wolf, N., 1991. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, New York: Random House.
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Half way through the given time period, women were advocating for their rights to abortion and equal pay, which shows a significant amount of advancement when compared to how women were treated in the beginning, which was as nothing more than someone who stayed home to take care of children and lived an easy life. The link between fashion and how they were viewed by society is nothing small, and so is greatly connected. When women began to advocate for themselves more, their fashion became more unisex-like, and took some parts from men’s fashion for their work clothes. By reviewing previous decade’s fashion trends and the way women were viewed, it is easily found that, towards the end of this seven decade timeline, women are generally influenced in how they think of themselves as
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...
Throughout history, women’s clothing was made to accentuate all the feminine qualities of the body, with the main focus on the idea of fertility. In fifteenth century Europe, large, voluminous robes called houppelandes created what was called the “pregnant silhouette,” by adding a...