Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How beauty standards impact people
How do media influence behaviour of society
How do media influence behaviour of society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How beauty standards impact people
Name : Mok Wai Wah LANG1003s Section : T10
Is the image of beauty in the media and advertisement believable?
The ideals of beauty have been modifying along the development of human society. In the past, beauty was just a functional term to determine the fertility of women. Once being fat was one of the requirements of beauty in the world and nowadays we still could find it in some developing countries like Mauritania (Harter, 2004). However, the norm of beauty becomes more commercial, unnatural and unnecessary. It is not only related to the economic development along with globalization but also mainly contributed by the modern the advertising industry and the media. The consequence is miserable and induces a negative atmosphere in the globe.
The miserable consequence can lead to a serious health impact on the human body, causing permanent damage or even death. Whatever media or advertisement of talking beauty people meet in daily life, the basic norm of beauty has been always to have a thin, slim body with a Barbie-doll face. The image of beauty on TV and the newspaper bring an unrealistic belief in the society and led women to do everything that can attain such an unattainable goal. For example, in Hong Kong, women tend to obtain the ‘magic number’, which is below 100 pounds no matter what somatotype they have (Chu, 2010). In Asia, women try to lose Weight by dieting, taking pills, conducting cosmetic surgery or even through taking worms but no one would want to try doing the exercises since long office hour. They extremely rely on those methods and finally their body have to suffer a series of diseases like eating disorder, malfunction, and prominent damage on organ. Although using drag and condu...
... middle of paper ...
...ee, S.W., Fung, S., Ho, S.Y., Lee, P.W., & Stewart, S.M. (2009). Sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction and dieting in Hong Kong girls. European Eating Disorders Review, 17(2):152-60. DOI:10.1002/erv.900
Treasure, J. L., Wack, E. R.,& Roberts, M. E. (2008). Models as a high-risk group: The health implications of a size zero culture. British Journal of Psychiatry. 192, 243-244. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.044164
Tombs, A. G. (2006). Do our feelings leak through the clothes we wear?. In: Y. Ali and M. van Dessel, Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference: Advancing Theory, Maintaining Relevance. Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, Brisbane, Australia, (1-8). 4-6 December 2006.
Zuckerman, D. (2005). Teenagers and cosmetic surgery. Virtual Mentor, 7(3).
Retrieved from http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2005/03/oped1-0503.html.
Soh, N., & Walter, G. (2013). Publications on cross-cultural aspects of eating disorders. Journal of Eating Disorders , 1(4), doi: 10.1186/2050-2974-1-4
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 are disadvantageous to our culture as a whole. While most women perceive models as having perfect bodies, that is not always the case. Generally speaking, most of the health issues associated with fashion are emphasized on weight. Most models, if not all, are severely underweight.
As the modern world has changed, the idea of what is beautiful has changed as well. Since the middle of the last century, female adolescents have developed an obsession with their weight and how their body should look according to what is depicted in the media. As a result, this obsession has turned dangerous. Stress is placed on thinness to the point where looking normal is being underweight. Such a body image has become perfection. This is not only seen on television, in live action movies, and in animation, but in real life as well. For example, in the animated film, “Shrek”, Princess Fiona is an attractive slender woman during the day. However, at night she becomes an overweight, hideous ogre (Kovar, 2009). This indicates to young impressionable females that thin means beautiful and being overweight means not being attractive. Due to such images, an increase in body dissatisfaction and the development of eating disorders have put the health and lives of some young female teenagers in jeopardy (Van Vonderen, & Kinnally, 2012).
Lake, A.J. Staiger, P.K., & Glowinski, H. (2000). Effect of Western Culture on Women’s Attitudes to Eating and Perceptions of Body Shape. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 27, 83-89.
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.
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.
Wiseman, C., Gray, J., Mosimann, J., & Ahrens, A. (1992). Cultural expectations of thinness in women: An update. International Journal Of Eating Disorders, 11(1), 85--89.
Throughout time, the most controversial subject among female’s health has been body image. Society and our culture molds females’s brains into believing that being thin is what will fulfill complete happiness. Being thin means you are more successful, loved, attractive, and overall truly beautiful. Thin women are seen as having an altogether perfect life. However, there is another female figure that is seen as undesirable, hopeless, mainly disliked by most. This type of woman is the curvy or larger female. If one were to go out on the street and gather a group of men and women and show them the thin vs. large female and which one is more attractive, most would say the thinner is. Thus, we deny the larger women because they do not fit societies norms. Thin women are timid to turn into this other that is not widely accepted. To this extent, society and our culture have constructed a monster.
From this information it is clear that more research should be done on eating disorders in non-Western societies because women in those cultures do, in fact, suffer from poor body image and low self-esteem. Special focus could be placed on binge-eating in cultures where overeating is a natural part of life and overweight women are viewed as attractive. It is in these cultures that women feel torn between their traditions and the Westernized perception of beauty they are experience more.
Due to the media’s influence, women establish perplexed views of their own bodies, leading to the development of eating disorders. Eating disorders are massive issues within today’s society. The author, Sheila Lintott emphasizes in her article, “Sublime Hunger: A Consideration of Eating Disorders beyond Beauty”, that eating disorders are the “most dangerous mental disorders, resulting in a six time more likely risk of death, which is four times the death risk of major depression” (Lintott 78). Because women are striving to look thinner, they tend to follow an unhealthy lifestyle. They begin self-starvation in fears of becoming fat. Unfortunately, due to beauty related pressures, there has been an increase in body dysmorphic disorders. Body
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...
The attempt is made with this advertisement to define beauty with images of starved and malnourished models which Estee Lauder claims to be the standard for beauty. Estee Lauder presents its view of beauty to the consumer as the defining truth. The issue with the advertisement is the acceptance by the consumer that the Estee Lauder definition of beauty is truthful and factual. The targeted audience for this advertisement is women of all ages. Beauty is something extremely important to women and is constantly being reinforced in the society of today.... ...
Here in America, the conventional definition of beauty is what is perceptible in any form of our popular culture. This includes television, movies, music videos, billboards, fashion blogs, social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), as well as anything ran on print and in mainstream media. The business strategy that is often used in these forms of media is that, women’s bodies are often used as a tool for advertising products that are entirely not related to the items in play, for instance, fancy cars, liquor, as well as guns (Kitch 56). Much as utilizing women’s bodies as a tool for selling the products that are totally unrelated
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.
There are so many different opinions on what beauty is. The idea of beauty is purely opinionated. Beauty is your own idea, skinny or thick, long hair or short hair, light skin or dark skin. How people define beauty is unique in many different ways everyone has a different opinion. No ones idea of beauty is the same. In society today it has become more materialistic based if you wear the latest designer or you have the newest pair of sneakers out and the true meaning of being beautiful has escaped our souls. Beauty is not just what we see on the outside it is so much deeper then what we see its what we also have to offer on the inside.Your intelligence is beauty your mind, body, and soul. Beauty is not a single image, but the active embodiment