Why Do People Change Their Appearance
A person’s appearance and what is deemed acceptable is something that is learned early in life. It really does not come as a surprise when, a large number of people alter different parts of their bodies to become a positive viewpoint in societies eyes. When a child is born they are not born knowing, that being heavier than their peers will be viewed as a disadvantage in certain situations in life. This form of learning is usually notices during the observational phase of a child’s life. The heavier kid often notices that the smaller kid is more athletic; which leads to more friends and a higher self-esteem. People learn as early as grade school what they don’t like about their appearance. According to “Psychology
…show more content…
The term intelligence can be defined as, the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, reasoning, understanding, and comprehension. Some people with a low IQ can be easily convinced that there is something wrong with their appearance. They usually can be manipulated to change their hair, or alter their appearance to do something that a person with a higher IQ would not do. People with a high IQ generally do more research before changing their appearance, such as surgeries, or weight loss. Appearance change is not always caused by a person’s level of intelligence. There are some of the smartest people that are still unhappy with their appearance, so a person’s level of intelligence really doesn’t have anything to do with changing things about their body. Whether it is learning, memory, or intelligence each of these areas play a vital role in “why people change their appearance”. When people change their appearance it is often a problem with them that is learned early in life. Memories may bring about these changes as well. Regardless of any amount of intelligence, when a person mind is made up on appearance change it is made. This essay should have given the reader a overall clear viewpoint on learning,
People, especially men, are judging women’s bodies about if they’ve met the standard of socially-given
It’s not just an issue of physical attractiveness, but this also concerns the social norms that have been passed down from generations. Since we grow up in a society where breaking social norms is usually consider to be immoral, we tend to side with those customs even if we have different opinions. Thus some of the time we end up t...
Body Shaming has been one the most serious Issues we have in this generation.We are forced to judge ourselves,especially by the way we look. Almost like one has to look a certain way to get accepted in this
Society plays a big role in how people perceive their body image. Everyone has their own definition of body image, but it is simply one’s logic or ideal image of what one's body is or should be like (Dictionary.com, 2015). Females of all ages have high standards in society. Even though social expectations do not dictate that women change themselves, the media effects body image by giving us an image to strive to be. Sometimes this image is unrealistic. Over the past 100 years, body image has evolved. Each decade a new body image and style of how the ‘perfect’ female is supposed to look changes.
There is a “double standard” in the amount of pressure that the media exerts on males and females, which results in a disparity in the way each sex is affected by their beauty standards. Firstly, the media creates very strict rules of beauty for women. According to these rules, women should be extremely thin, tall, blonde, tan, and curvy (ideally a 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio, as dictated
We as humans were told from a young age that you had to be a size 0 to be beautiful. You had to have blonde hair and blue eyes, and you should always know and keep up with the everyday fashion. Everyone strives to look like the models on the cover of their favorite magazine, or their favorite Hollywood star. Society tells everyone from the moment they’re born that they must fit into this stereotype to go far in life, and to be “beautiful”. If someone doesn’t fit into these categories for some reason they are outcasted. These outcasted people aren’t given the time of day. People judge others without even knowing a person, and these judgements are made on appearances. People are put into categories based on how they are perceived by a particular person. There’s more to a person than what’s on the outside though.
Oscar Wilde once wrote: “It is only shallow people who judge by appearance. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible” (qtd in Davis 1). Obviously, humans have all been created differently. That is why we all do not look alike. But now, the idea of having the ideal shape and look is one of the issues everyone has to deal with. Some want to get thinner, while a few do not care about it. Others even change the color of their skin. The desire to be like someone else is getting bigger and bigger for so many reasons that cannot be completely explained. This is due to the fact that people are different and think differently about their own image. But most of the time, they are filled with a desire that Delia, a senior in college expresses well enough in Am I Thin Enough Yet?:“ I always wanted to be the thinnest, the prettiest. ‘Cause I thought, if I look like this, then I am going to have so many boyfriends, and guys are going to be so in love with me, and I will be taken care of for the rest of my life” (qtd in Sharlene 7). According to Richard Rodriguez, there are complexions because the persons, who care for us like a family, are usually the ones who explain us that we have something to be ashamed of (441). On the other side, Bell Hooks thinks that all these complexions take their origin in the historical supremacy of the white race toward the black in particular (446). These are only a few examples of the probable reasons why people decide to change their look. But I personally think that people change the way they look in order to be attractive and appreciated. They believe that this issue can help in their search for happiness.
We should not be forced to act and behave a certain way so we can fit in. Everyone is beautiful just the way they are, and forcing yourself to change is not only going to affect you physically, but mentally as well. I learned these views from my friends, family and personal experiences. I personally struggled with finding my beauty due to being bullied in elementary school and this made it very difficult for me to accept myself for who I was. Being bullied, helped me follow and acknowledge these views on this subject
The way we are raised, and what the definition of beauty has become has altered how we see things and essentially, caused us to associate them with good and fat with bad. It’s true that people with these implicit associations show prejudice and explicit stereotypes; however that does not make them a bad person. They may seem rude, but the stereotypes are embedded in them, it is all they know. Due to the norm, a customary standard behavior that is shared by members of a society, outcomes the normative influence. The norm in this situation would be that beautiful people are thin. The normative influence basically causes an individual to be influenced by the thoughts of the popular society. Therefore, I also believed that a thin person was
Body image has changed dramatically over time due to different perspectives. Body image is the way that someone perceives their body and assumes that others perceive them. Friend, Family, social pressure and the media often affect this image (GoodTherapy.org. (n.d.)). This term has dramatically changed since the invention of social media. The advertising people see on social media and television show models who are extremely underweight and unhealthy to make the product that they are advertising easy to the eye. Woman in particular are finding that the thin-ideal body is the highest likes on social media (Home. (n.d.)). The history behind this strong term has changed over time. In the 17th century, being curvy and full-figured was considered
“When she seemed more comfortable in her own skin, she became more appealing to others” (Flora). Women have to learn to accept themselves before anyone else can accept how they look. If women do not feel comfortable about themselves, others will sense this when they are around them. “Psychologist and counselors recognize that a negative body image has a powerful impact on self-esteem, our assessment of our value as individuals” (Maynard 101). The way a woman looks on the outside can affect how they feel on the inside. If women think they look bad, then their whole mood will begin to change. Women should always feel comfortable with themselves and how they look. Just because someone else does not like it does not mean it is wrong. Each person in the world has their own opinion about how they feel about different things. The positive side about people’s opinions is that they truly do not matter. Another person’s opinion can not be proven as a fact or it can scar anyone for life, because in reality anything anyone has to say is irrelevant, unless you show emotions for it to be thought of as other wise. A woman’s mood should not be affected by something so simple as an appearance. Women are constantly worrying about how they look. “Too many women have a “too” syndrome, whether they perceive themselves to be too big,
Growing up, I would look at the magazines where all the models in them were picture perfect: perfect skin, perfect breast, perfect legs, everything. But I started to realize how society looked at white and black women bodies differently. White women were plastered as tall, slim, and toned. While when it came to black women, they were shown as heavy chested with a coke-bottle shape. After a while, it did start weighing
Body image is defined as “a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reaction of others” according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. This can be either in terms of weight, shape, height or muscle tone (Kirsh, 126). This picture of oneself can be distorted by various external factors, one of them being mass media. The mass media takes various forms, like television, fashion magazines, video games and the Internet. Mass media are extremely influential, “reflecting and generating symbols that help to shape social values” (Cash, 561). Studies have even shown that the unrealistic images the media portray have adverse effects on individuals (Haas et al. 405).
Over the years, the media has promoted the idea that being thin is being “beautiful”. Because of
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 ...