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Introduction about beauty standards
Introduction about beauty standards
Beauty standards in society
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Many people will say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however if you look back through history it is apparent that beauty is in the eye of society. Just like fashion, the image of a “beautiful woman” has varied with culture and time. What was considered attractive in Elizabethan Europe was pale, blonde, and curvy whereas today in America it’s tan, blonde, and thin. Women have put themselves through misery attempting to change their bodies and their features to match what society is calling beautiful. Today they cover themselves with makeup, diet to extremes, and go through cosmetic surgery, all of which can actually be harmful to the body.
The first cosmetics were used for religious purposes. Primitive men used make-up to disguise themselves so that evil spirits could not find them, however as time went on the cosmetics began to be used for looks as well. The Egyptians developed eye shadow, eye liner and perfumes that were used as displays of wealth. Fragrant ointments and mascara were used in India to attract men. In Ancient Greece women dyed and curled their hair to look like the goddesses’ (Angeloglou 34). But cosmetics were primarily used by the rich and didn’t come into general use until the reign of Elizabeth I in England. The queen used cosmetics extravagantly and women immediately went along with it, plucking their eyebrows, dyeing their hair and covering their faces with make-up (Angeloglou 48).
During the late Victorian period many people began to look down upon cosmetics and the use of them actually became “sinful.” Then, in 1904, Harriet Hubbard Ayer wrote a booklet for the Pond’s Extract Company entitled “Beauty, a Woman’s Birthright: How Every Women May Look Her Best.” It served as an insp...
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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.
Women are told that in order to get anywhere in life they must constantly worry about their outer appearance. In Jennifer Weiner’s article, “When Can Women Stop Trying to Look Perfect?” she delves deeply into how today’s society women’s worth is based on how they look. Weiner believes that women who do not meet the standards of beauty do not have as many opportunities.
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
Makeup and skincare products are very important as a mile stone in our history, it also symbolizes the development of human civilization. Around 3000 BC, the Egyptian have had already discovered the every possible cosmetic products we are using today. The Ancient Egyptians were famous for their knowledge of beauty and their practice in cosmetic products. Until recent years the remains of their enormous palace, temples and monuments like the Pyramid attract archeologist and tourists alike. The Egyptians are well-renowned for their precision and techniques in the field applying methods that even modern day technologies wouldn’t be able to reproduce. Their pursue for perfection was not only contained in their monuments but also to the perfection of their self-appearances. The Egyptians were the first ancient culture that was recorded to apply and develop skim care and techniques. They had creams for stretch marks and to counter aging. They used oils to hydrolyze their skin and they had array of perfumes which all exemplify a well-developed civilization in terms of luxurious social culture. Their sense of beauty is deeply related to their religion. It is believes that presenting an attractive appearance is the best way to embrace the god and get closer to the god.
The purpose of our project was to examine how accessible it would be to make medieval cosmetics from the Trotula while evaluating the effectiveness of these cosmetics. The Trotula was written in Southern Italy and consisted of a group of three texts describing women’s medicine. The third section of the Trotula focuses mainly on Women’s Cosmetics. The purpose of this section was to teach females how to improve their appearance themselves, except females, did not read these resources. It was not written by a woman, but by a male physician for male physicians. These male physicians wanted to discover “women’s secrets”. Due to the authorship of the Trotula, there were several problems that appeared when trying to replicate these recipes. Male physicians
Our society is entirely based on looks and how “the perfect women should be”. To be pretty you are expected to have the perfect body with the perfect face and hair. You could never cut your hair short because you would be considered a dyke. If you’re makeup isn’t perfect you are considered ugly and if you don’t have the “hourglass figure” you are considered fat and overweight. “Despite higher global self-esteem, women do not feel good about their appearance. This disconnect can be attributed, at least in part, to concerns about body image.” (@PsychToday, paragraph 4) Our society and social media is so caught up on how every woman should look that our own judgment has been clouded and we always believe we need to look and act that way. “The truth is that women’s insecurity about their appearance is driven by competition with other women.”(@PsychToday, paragraph 16) All we do nowadays is compare ourselves to others and that’s not how it should be. You are considered to be a “whore” such as Eve if you sleep around, so women are afraid to do it. You are considered to be “weak” if you stay at home and can’t support yourself, such as Lori. Our world is so caught up in people thinking that they need to be a certain way in order to impress themselves and others. Why do women shave their legs? Why do woman dye their hair? Why do woman get spray tans? Everything we do has to do with our appearance in order to impress
The transition to modern consumerism involved not just the introduction of responsible product formulation, but fundamental transformations of social behavior. Women were at the heart of this development in the cosmetic industry, and we will consider the contributions of two of them: Annie Turnbo Malone and Madame C. J. Walker. These women and their contemporaries paved the way for Estee Lauder and Mary Kay Ash in our time.
“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
The Web. 24 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. The "Eating Disorders" University Health Center. University of Nebraska, n.d., a.d. Web.
Makeup and cosmetics have always been used long before the first century. Researches never really found exactly who was the first cosmetologist, but they do know who were the people who mixed ingredients together to be able to apply and beautify were the Egyptians. Some sources still find that hard to believe, because the ancient hunters were the first people who mixed urine and mud to camouflage their scent, but that would mean everything from bug spray to VapoRub is a cosmetic, but not all materials that are mixed together are able to apply onto the
In the 1920s, makeup played a vital role especially for women trying to recover from the fears and horrors of the war. After the recession, it lead to an increase of manufacturing new cosmetic products and brands such as Maybelline. As makeup made its debut to the world, stores were opening and slogans such as “try before you buy” just like Gordon Selfridge proclaimed women to get a sense of what products to use along with spreading the word to others if content with the amazing outcome. Face and complexion was considered by most as an important factor for representing beauty of an artificial face. Face powder was very essential because many women wanted to create a light, sandy
The purpose of cosmetic surgery in adolescents is to enhance their appearance by altering a displeasing physical feature through surgery. While first looked down upon with alarm, as technology and greater understanding spread, it became more widely accepted and the number of procedures tripled and even quadrupled within fifteen years. (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2011) Cosmetic surgery on adolescents has been ...
For this assignment I will be doing a timeline of the history of beauty therapy and significant practices that have taken place. I will begin with interesting facts during the ancient times, and carrying on through to this present century. My timeline will consist of information about ancient beauty tool’s and equipment, product history, the history of massage, and makeup styles throughout time. I will talk about New Zealand’s involvement in beauty, and give a brief summary of the impacts that historical events have made on today’s beauty techniques and practices.
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...
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.