Pretty Hurts: The Influence Of Social Media

1550 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Social media influence on individual social identity dissertation

“Don’t you ever a let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are”, said Lady Gaga, singer/songwriter of pop music. This means everyone needs to be comfortable in their own skin and like who they are. In society today, social media plays a large influence in personality and how everyone should look and act. This influence take a toll on people, especially on girls because they are so pressured to look a certain way or else they will not be accepted by other people. Often we hear that people need to be skinny to be perfect and have clothes that are top of the line, quite honestly this is not true. In Beyoncé’s fifth album she wrote a song Pretty Hurts. This song was released in 2013 in an effort to raise awareness about the pressure put on girls to be perfect. Her song won the Best Song with a Social Message award in 2014 and was named to best track by the Associated Press. In Pretty Hurts, Beyoncé makes people aware that perfection and self-esteem is an …show more content…

This lyric overall means stand up and take what is truly your own. The lyrics, “Pretty hurts/Shine the light on whatever’s worse”. While prettiness is something that is highly looked upon and highly regarded in society, it hurts for people who are pretty and who are not. The pretty people have to hurt their body to keep up with what people view as normal, while the people who aren’t at that level are judged and are hurt by the judgement. “Perfection is the disease of the nation/Pretty hurts,” Beyonce sings. In the world, girls are expected to be perfect and get things right. “Shine the light on whatever’s worse/Tryna fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see it’s the soul that needs the surgery,” is the last lyric line. Girls have a bad habit of exaggerating the negative parts of themselves, rather than looking at the good things. It also goes to how people judge others on their body

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Song Runaway Love by Ludacris and Mary J, Blige

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    These three girls described in this song relate to sociological characteristics of poverty, education, healthcare, marriage, and family. The biggest sociological aspect seen throughout all three girl’s stories, is poverty. Poverty is a big part of the song and shows some cases in which it is like to live in poverty. At the end of the song Ludacris is talking about how he has no idea what these girls have been through. He tells the girls to close their eyes and pretend that they are running away from their lives, when they open their eyes their problems will be gone and everything will be ok.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Uglies And Harrison Bergeron

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Uglies, being a pretty is the one thing everyone can’t wait to be. If you’re not a pretty, you’re pretty much thought of as useless until you turn 16 and get to have the long awaited surgery that transforms your face into something completely new and better. It is nearly impossible for Uglies to not want to look pretty. Even if one was to hate another, they would still want to look and be like them if they had big eyes or full lips. The text says, “There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid's; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds, people were always looking for these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain” (Westerfeld 19). In other words, Tally is saying that it is part of their biology to want to be pretty. There is almost no freedom in Tally’s world and the only way to be accepted is to undergo the surgery and look like everyone else. The author is showing today's generation that this will be the future if teenagers keep idolizing and doing the same things as celebrities. Teenagers see someone they idolize with big lips and go get lip injections or see someone with long eyelashes and get eyelash extensions instead of just embracing how they

    Read More

  • Perfection In Hawthorne's The Birth Mark

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real

    Read More

  • Caillat's Song Compare And Contrast Essay

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    The video promotes a realistic portrayal of women while undermining negative societal expectations put to those women. Furthermore, the message behind it, one calling people to accept themselves and to not feel the need to strive towards unreachable goals set by the media, can be applied to the lives of not only women but men as well. While the song was obviously meant for women, it is still holds the important message for people of any gender, age, or race to understand that being true to and learning to accept one’s self can only lead to positive

    Read More

  • Victoria's Secret Body Image Essay

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every teenage girl goes through a time in her life when she just does not feel good enough. That time when the perception of what a girl should look like is just not realistic. Body image is a big part of a girl's life, no matter if it is a positive or negative one. It helps decides whether or not she will grow up to be confident and strong or scared and nervous. Having a good perception of yourself is important to having a positive body image. However all around us society is shoving “the perfect body” in our face and shaming those of us who don’t fit the cookie cutter image they’ve created. From lingerie store Victoria's Secret, to popular teen magazine Seventeen, all of the women that we up to seem to have that perfect body. How are we letting something like pretty underwear, promote a perfect body for teenage girls? Dove steps in eventually to explain that nobody on this Earth is perfect.

    Read More

  • Alicia Keys: 'Time To Uncover'

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    The constant pursuit of being perfect, including covering oneself with innumerable coats of makeup and going on extreme diets, is an enormous problematic that is attributable to deep feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem among girls. Given that nobody is capable of being entirely perfect, the aspiration to be that is unrealistic, and hence infeasible. This is exceedingly damaging because the incapability to attain this objective can give rise to feelings of major unhappiness or even depression. Consequently, it is crucial to call a halt to such a destructive goal. One of the most ground-breaking individuals who has made the attempt is the famous singer, songwriter, and actress, Alicia Keys. With her essay

    Read More

  • Pressure And Media In The 1920's Body Image

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...rities, so why not try to be them? Social media opens us up to a world of ‘fake’ beauty that is beyond our reach; no matter how hard someone tries to look like someone off the Internet or his or her favorite celebrity, it simply cannot be done. They can never look like an image off the Internet. To try and attain the image of perfection that women see on the Internet, they will diet, change their lifestyle, wardrobe and will even go as far as changing their appearance through plastic surgery to help them reach the image of perfection that they have instilled in their mind. Plastic surgery is not be the only ‘go-to’ when trying to fit the image of perfection, but dieting to the point of having an eating disorder is something else women will result to. The world of social media can be either a negative or positive thing and it all depends on how you perceive it.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Beyonce's Pretty Hurts

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Perfection is a disease of a nation” (Beyonce Knowles Lyrics). Beyoncé’s music video “Pretty Hurts” is a behind the scenes look at a beauty pageant on how women really feel trying to fit how the media wants us to look. The media makes women and girls feel that the only way they can be happy is by being pretty. The media sets the standards high for someone to be pretty enough to fit in. The video was released on April 24th, 2014; it was filmed at a small high school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. It was filmed at a high school because the producers wanted the video to feel more like a small town pageant. While Beyoncé was growing up she did beauty pageants and experienced first handedly what they were like for girls. The song was written by Sia Furler, and the video was produced by Columbia Records. In

    Read More

  • Tyra Banks: America's Next Top Model

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    “According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, about 70 percent of girls grades five through 12 said magazine images influence their ideals of a perfect body, a fact that’s plain to see in the online world of teenage ‘thinspiration’” (Krupnick 1). This quote explains that girls in grades five to 12 are more likely to have a lower self esteem because of the idea of a perfect body beinging spread through social media. Models enjoy sharing their work with their fans their instagram and twitter accounts, which isn’t wrong. However, sometimes the pictures they post are exposed subtly, this causes for the pictures to get under someone's skin before they notice. These models, like Kylie and Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, are idealized but billions of people and have millions of followers on social media but all they do is post pictures of them living the luxury life that everyone watches. These posts could either help influence teens to work harder or cause them to try to achieve what they want in a harmful way. Having weight and height limits will lower the self esteem of others because they put out an image that most people think they must look

    Read More

  • Girl In Pieces: Themes In Charlotte's Girl In Pieces

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nevertheless, the girl screeching in horror of her own reflection is not the only teen, who talks about, each and everything they despise about themselves. Furthermore, this girl relates to Charlotte, in the book Girl In Pieces, which is about a young 17-year old girl that was so insecure that the cuts that were imprinted on her wrist, she was determined to hide them. She made such an effort to look somewhat normal that she had to wear long-sleeves even when it was scorching hot outside. She was so insecure about herself, which caused her to suffer on the inside. This is the problem, teens suffering because of their insecurities.

    Read More

  • Beyonce's Identity

    1598 Words  | 4 Pages

    This stipulates that we as a society have moved beyond feminism – that we now live in a society where ‘the issues at the forefront of feminism have somehow gone away; so there is no room for feminism in contemporary political culture’. One might ask how Beyoncé’s identity can be interpreted as anti-feminist while her lyrics address some important ideas in mainstream culture and attitudes. Because of the interpretation of Beyoncé’s identity as a performer, I suggest that we still live in a ‘society plagued by biases’. For example, in Beyoncé’s song “Flawless” she quotes a famous Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who brings attention to the fact that as a woman in modern society you are expected to - “"have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man."

    Read More

  • Does Social Media Create Unrealistic Expectations For Girls?

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    Girls are being pressured to have the “perfect” image these days more than ever before. The reason behind it is because of all the magazines and models on social media. Women in magazines and on social media should stop being altered because it creates unrealistic expectations for girls, it lowers their self-esteem, and society’s standards adjust to those unrealistic ideas. Going through social media or a simple magazine impacts a girl so much nowadays. Seeing their favorite model with the “perfect” body makes them belief that that’s how they are supposed to look.

    Read More

  • What Does It Mean To Be Perfect

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    But there seems to be a lack of these types of people in the media. It is absolutely essential for adolescents to go through life being completely comfortable with expressing their individuality. This can sometimes be rather difficult, especially with the people they are looking up too. Society's main focus is looking a certain way, and if someone does not fit that "look" they could possibly feel extremely insecure with themselves. No one should ever feel like they are not good enough or beautiful because of the image society has produced.

    Read More

  • The Influcen of the Fashion Industry on Teenagers' Standard of Beauty

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    No matter how serious the impacts of eating disorders are, the fashion industry still continues to give out the products called “doll clothes” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009) to young women. People in our society do not want to see teenagers with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009). We really want to see girls with healthy body image. Clearly, there is a need to curtail the cases of teenagers suffering from body image pressures immediately (Kennedy, 2010).

    Read More

  • Influences Of Social Media

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is no secret that a modern day teenager’s life is built around the usage of technology. As a result of society’s heavy reliance on technology, social media has become popular amongst people who are “technologically advanced.” Though there is a wide variety of social sites that can be accessed through modern day technology, a few have become very popular. Social sites which have become widely popular among teens include Instagram, Tumblr, and Snapchat. These social networking sites provide instant social connection and emotional support while letting teens post and send pictures of their everyday life. Many teens look towards social media for emotional support and social acceptance. The continual usage of these sites are negatively impacting the self- esteem of teenagers worldwide since they heavily rely on social medias to portray images of what they believe is acceptable for the society we live in.

    Read More

More about Pretty Hurts: The Influence Of Social Media

Open Document