History of Standards Of Beauty

muniment of S erythema sol bedards Of BeautyWe peppy in a consumer culture and we atomic number 18 bombarded with advertising, retail and entertainment indus sweat. It is forcing us to procure and consume increases, promising us contentment and self-transformation. Media is ever present in our lives. We wager to the media to help us define, explain, and function the world around us (Kellner, 2003). We discharge comparisons of ourselves, those close to us, and situations in our lives later beholding images in the media. And as a result, later on these comparisons we argon incite to try to acquire new goals and expectations.In the contemporary world, subjects more or less goods argon whole pervasive- advertising has increasingly filled up the spaces of our daily man it is the air that we breathe as we live our daily lives (Jh entirelyy, 1990 250). The important amour is that we bottomland non avoid comparisons of ourselves to the images which we ar surrounded with from media and nigh of us leave alone describe ourselves pitiable when we do this (Kellner, 2003). How some(prenominal) epochs support we after seeing near bonnie fair sex in a magazine or on TV, thought I deficiency bull, lips, physical structure, breasts or something else equivalent she has? Media is our most important information source. further I estimate we atomic number 18 non ameliorated by it. We believe in e in truththing that media serves us.This es s tush seeks to address so umpteen women who feel they just dont measure up when it comes to their determines. Women who believe their thighs atomic number 18 too big, their breasts too small, their hair boring, their flake off flawed, their dust shaped funny, or their draining app bel outdated. We are surrounded with women who believe their life would improve if they could simply lose 15 pounds if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite lotion if they got a nose job, a feeling lift, a bulk tuck, etc, women who feel shame or unhappiness when they think or so some part (or all) of their body. In some other words, e really day we see in that respect is a great majority of women who feel this mien. We all want to be beautiful. scarcely I want to write astir(predicate) what lies female genitals that, behind that ravisher myth.In this essay I impart try to seek and to explain, how media plays a dominant use of goods and services in influencing females perceptions of the world around them, as well as helping them to define their sense of self. I will try to examine the influences that media has on females feelings towards their place in golf-club, sexuality, self-esteem and body image.I hope will give some answers to some questions. What media does in terms of imposing the apricot myth? How standards of steady sterilizeingd allwhere term and yet dish for women is still compulsory? What nominate we say close pressure on women as op posed to men when it comes to looks? How is watcher beingness sold to women and what the consequences of these issues are? I will try to in scarper you who is acquiring the profit in this non-ending battle. In other words I will try to answer these questions that at one point we all should bring ourselves.STANDARDS OF BEAUTY THROUGHOUT THE PASTThe cultural standard of kayo, when it comes to body shape, is invariably changing. Womens bodies is non what changed, it is the thirstls (Kilbourne, 1995). Advertising, retailing and entertainment produce nonions of sweetie that change over time. These notions place pressure upon women who try to be in vogue (Wykes and Gunter, 2005). among 1400 and 1700, a fat body shape was considered sexually appealing and jaunty (Attie and Brooks Gun, 1987). By the nineteenth century, the fat shape was replaced by luscious figure, centered at a generous breasts and hips and narrow waist (Fallon, 2005). The busty shape for women persisted th rough and through the primaeval part of the twentieth century, and eventually was replaced by the minute shape of the 1920s (Mazur, 1986). The curvaceous ideal continued through the 1940s and 1950s (Mazur, 1986). By the mid-1960s, however, fashions stimulateed once a pee towards the idealization of slender body shapes over curvaceous ness. Since so the and slight shift from extreme thinness as the feminine ideal was the muscularization of the still very(prenominal) thin body during the 1980s (Mazur, 1986).We are bombarded today with images of the double-dyed(a) woman. She is unremarkably a gorgeous blonde, although brunettes, redheads and exotic women of color are also shown. She is long-stalked and skinny, weighing at least 20% less than an average woman weighs. She rarely looks older than 25, has no visible flaws on her skin, and her hair and clothes are al airs immaculate (Kilbourne, 1995). In other words, one perfect woman looks pretty much like the next. Like Kilbourn e (1995) said in Slim Hopes it is likely that these women we see are not real.BEAUTY AND WOMENThe beauty myth arranges a story The quality called beauty objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to birth women who embody it. This embodiment is an imperative for women and not for men, which situation is necessary and inborn be gravel it is biological, sexual, and evolutionary Strong men battle for beautiful women, and beautiful women are more re carrefourively successful. Womens beauty must correlate to their fertility, and since this system is based on sexual selection, it is inevitable and changeless.None of this is true (Wolf, 1990 12)In the near ago as the new wave of feminism emerged women involve broken public treasury many of the material and legal obstructions. And finally they got out of their houses and became emancipated. But then more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty withdraw come to burden upon us (Wo lf, 1990). And direct we are in the affectionateness of a unfluctuating reaction against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against womens advancement and success.According to Wolf (1990) beauty is a currency system. Like economy it is determined by politics. It is not rough women at all, it is about institutional power. I will show you later where the money goes. It seems like we are a good way to make money. We are vulnerable when it is about our self-worth and self-esteem.The ideal of womens beauty contradicted womens immunity and power by moving the social limits to womens lives directly onto our hardinesss and bodies ( Wolf, 1990). And the consequence is that we now ask the questions about our bodies, skin, hair, clothes etc, which women a generation ago asked about their place in society. After so many age competitiveness to stop our rights to every(prenominal)thing, we are now prisoners of our body. And beauty image presented in time i s our tormentor. Once again we brace to fight for our rights and freedom of choice. Throughout the years, on that point assimilate been forces in culture that attempt to punish women who tray to succeed in their lives, in other words to get control over their lives and surround (Wolf, 1990). There is a strong cultural reaction against women that uses images of female beauty to keep women in their place. And we baffle to ask ourselves where men in that strong reaction against women are.MEN AND WOMENMedia pressures women to distort for the very thin look. For example, magazines for women celebrate the very thin look, plainly magazines for men do not do that. In point, thither are not so many that skinny women in mens magazines. Women dumbfound rugged self-esteem because they are surrounded with male idea of beauty that is linked with media representations. We all think that men want to stimulate the beautiful women we see every day in magazines or on TV. That is the thing t hat Wolf (1990) claims to be the beauty myth. We all apply to strive for beauty because men want to possess women who have it. In other words women are being sold to themselves in army to achieve a self whom the men in the future might choose. But Loaded magazine said that women do not have the clog of living with the male idea of beauty shown on the catwalk. John Perry in Loaded magazine stated No, men fancy models because they have beautiful faces, not because they look like theyve been fed under a door. sleeping with a supermodel would be about as pleasurable as shagging a bicycle. The truth is it is women themselves who see these freaks as the epitome of perfection (2002 79). We all think that men want to possess beautiful women like the ones shown on TV and in magazines. And the key point is that a womans sense of her body rattling has not been hers entirely mans view of her body. Women see themselves trough mens eyes. But Berger (2005) notes that this is not an equal and opposite phenomenon. custody are pressured to be thin and well-toned too. But they can get away with imperfection as long as they have charm and humor (Gauntlett, 2002). Levels of skinniness are irrelevant. Almost all of the beautiful women in both womens and mens magazines are thin, not fat, and this must have an impact. Magazines impose us standard of beauty and women feel inadequate after seeing men longing for some perfect woman correspond by media with flawless face, big breast, narrow waist, long legs, beautiful tan etc.Our culture teaches women they cant be happy unless they are beautiful, precisely I have to emphasize that it also teaches men they cant be happy unless they are rich and/or healthy (Wolf, 1990). But the divergence is that rich and powerful men come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. Men can get away with every small imperfection. But when Julia Roberts was seen to have armpits at the premiere of Notting Hill in 1999, the worlds press went crazy with fervor over this (wholly natural) outrage (Gauntlett, 2002). So we have to face the fact that in that respect is a difference surrounded by media representation of women and the one of men. We all are pressured because media does not just reflect our world but also shapes it. And it sells us all kind of solutions to improve ourselves.SELLING BEAUTYWe are all bombarded every day with messages from television shows, movies, advertisements, magazine articles that we need to look a current way in order to be accepted(Kilbourne, 1995). For many of us, these images are neither realistic nor achievable. The result is that we feel sad about ourselves if we dont measure up. This gives a sense of insecurity among women, and this drives sales in the beauty intentness. In Slim Hopes Kilbourne (1995) argues that some could say we cannot blame only advertisements, but they are the most persuasive aspect of media power to influence us culturally and individually.Girls are extremely enviable to adve rtisers because they are new consumers, are beginning to have significant disposable income, and are developing dirt loyalty that might last a lifetime (Kilbourne, 1999 259). Girls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful and thin. They get the message that with enough effort and self-sacrifice, they can achieve this ideal. And the result is that young girls from the early start to feel bad about them.Kilbourne (1999) argues that these images of perfect women that surround us would not influence us so much if we did not live in a culture that imposes us the belief that we can and should remodel our bodies into perfect ones. These images play into the American belief of transformation and ever-new possibilities, no long-term via hard work but via the purchase of the right products (Kilbourne, 1999 260).Magazines represent a strong insistence that women of all ages must do their best, and that they must drop dead their money in order to look as beautiful as possible. Some of their content is the fashion and beauty material, which takes up many pages in the magazines. But womens magazines today construct women in a social way too. As Beetham and Boardman say, magazines not only address women as consumers but also as readers, as in search of entertainment or in need of instruction in various social roles ( 2005 41). We can say that magazines for women took the task of defining what it meant to be a woman, or what it meant to be a limited kind of woman. Through advertising women are told clearly what women should be, and what particular product they could use/ profane to help. Women are suggested an identity and told they are not good enough being natural. We can say that women are asked to buy themselves. As Berger localises it, the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the set of the product (2005 43).A massive worldwide application is eager to part women that there are products for sale which can improve their looks. And we all buy them, dont we? And the worst part is that identity is understood as something that could be reworked, change upon, and even dramatically changed.There are so many magazines that promised every girl the chance to get a stylish and attractive look that fashion models and famous women have. Spending money on clothing, decoratives, and accessories are presented as necessity if we want to construct a desirable self (Ouellette, 1999). How many times have we as we read some magazine or watch TV advertisement and thought I have to have that? We all have products in our homes that we bought because of some add on TV or magazine article that told us that it is the best product for our hair to be astonishing , for our face to be immaculate, our figure to be fit, our lips to be attractive etc.And the important thing is that it seems like women get the messages/promises from magazines wide-cut of articles telling us that if women use these pr oduct they will improve their looks and, theyll have it all-the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. But actually there is no link between these things. I think that it does not mean that we will be happy in our life if we try to change our looks using some product. integrity of the most powerful disciplinary practices for women is that of victualsing. By dieting women are disciplining their bodies to only consume a certain amount of food. By doing this women feel they are becoming more like the image of the perfect (properly feminine) woman. Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight (Kilbourne, 1995). Many women tend to over diet which leads to anorexia and women who dont diet are mocked by society or they feel guilty for not doing that. After filling up the women listening with images of super-thin models, television networks then proceed to show hours and hours of commercials on weight-loss, dieting and fitness programs (Kilbourne, 1995). We can se that this is a marketing strategy. Firstly, media makes us feel bad about ourselves by showing us stereotypes of beautiful women that we are not and then they offer us the best solution to improve ourselves, to change our looks into prefect commodities of beautiful women.Another disciplinary practice that is given by the media is that of skin care and make-up. A womans skin must be nuts, hairless, and smooth and ideally it should not show any sign of wear, experience, age, or deep thought. Magazines can give you page upon page of makeup tips and skin care strategies that women should meet in order to conform to the universal feminine standard (Wykes and Gunter, 2005). cosmetic products are being sold to women to achieve those attributes that makes a women desirable. An unwrinkled face, thighs without cellulite, and enlarged breasts have become the metaphor for female success because reaching these female symbols needs a lot of sacrifice, hard work, and self-control ( Wykes and Gunter, 2005).But I have to mention one thing that could lead us women to a completely different era when it comes to beauty. Theres a very different advent from dive with its revolutionary campaign for real beauty that has received awful publicity by using women of all shapes and sizes wearing white bra and pants to advertise their products.The whole point is to make beauty more accessible, as accessible as it can be, explains Alessandro Manfredi, vice president of Dove. So by widening the definition of beauty, we believe that more women will gain the confidence, because they will see beauty is closer to them than the beauty of a supermodel that is so far, and people could give up We dont want women to give up, we want to tell them beauty, its at your reach (Austen, 2006).Dove is launching a major gap in order to en courage discussion and debate about the disposition of beauty. The Campaign for Real Beauty asks women to give serious thought about beauty issues such as societys definition of it, the quest for perfection, the difference between beauty and physical attractiveness, and the way the media shapes our perceptions of beauty.1Dove has established the Dove self-conceit Fund to raise awareness of the connection between beauty and body-related self-esteem.The Dove Self-Esteem Fund in the US helps build self-confidence in girls ages 8-14. The Dove mission is to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging todays stereotypical view of beauty and stimulate women to take great care of themselves.2But we have to face the fact that Dove, is the No. 1 personal wash brand nationwide. One in every deuce-ace households uses a Dove product.3That includes bar cleansers, body washes, face care, anti-perspirants/ deodorants and hair care. Dove is available nationwide in food, drug and mass outlet stores. So we must ask ourselves, is it really about women or again some beauty industry is manipulating us and making money from our pockets?BEAUTY AS PROFIT all this beauty selling leads us to the question who benefits from this beauty market Is it really about women or are we tricked by those who have the power? Media and beauty industry including diet, surgery and cosmetic industry is manipulating us by making us throw our money on reworking our looks.That leads me to one conclusion that it cannot be about women, for the ideal is not about women but about money. We should ask ourselves how much money we overlook on the best thing that will make us desirable and beautiful. The cosmetic surgery industry in the United States takes $300 one thousand thousand every year, and is growing annually by 10 percent (Wolf, 1990).One reason why media is so influential is that advertising is 130 trillion dollar a year industry. The average American watches 30 hours of TV a week and sp ends 110 hours a year reading magazines (Wolf, 1990). It is very unfortunate that the media influences society to the point that it defines the ideal woman.Advertising is a powerful force in our culture that informs us but does not educate us. Economics is also a significant factor in the development of the ideal image. There is a wealth of businesses that depend upon the American desire for thinness to survive (Wolf, 1990). Exercise and diet companies are an example. In order to create a market for their product, they attempt to make women feel inadequate about their own bodies through advertisement. According to Wolf, the diet industry has tripled its income in the past 10 years from a $10 one million million million industry to a $33.3 billion industry. When we compare some results with UK we can see that there is also a lot of profiting leaving on. The UK beauty industry takes 8.9 billion a year by selling products to women.Magazines are financed by the beauty industry (Greer , 2002). They start with young girls and teach them how to use the right product and they establish loyalty that lasts a lifelong (Greer, 2002). We all probably have one cosmetic product that we use for so many years. Cosmetics for teenagers are relatively cheap but within a few years more cultured market will persuade the most logical woman to throw her money on the right product that promises to present women from their own weaknessSo we can see that the economy depends on manipulating consumers to buy as much as possible. And we can link the beauty industry and mass media, it is as Wykes and Gunter say symbiotic relationship, because beauty industry depends on mass media and vice versa. It seems there is no limit in how one can be beautiful, or how much money can we spend in order to feel beautiful, completely disregarding our health. And the consequences are harmful or sometimes even devastating.CONSEQUENCES OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIONWomen learn to trace themselves. It is second nature to disguise them, dress them and decorate themselves with a ample range of materials. Over the past 30 years they have at rest(p) further than ever before in this process. They can re-arrange some of the perfect material that is their body-sometimes without any harm, sometimes with devastating consequences.(Wykes and Gunter, 200548)A research by the British Medical Association has shown that eating disorders have one of the highest deathrate rates of all psychological illnesses, and that the level of skinniness enforced by fashion models is both unachievable and biologically inappropriate and gives a defective picture of an ideal body to young women (Gauntlett, 2002). However, we cannot blame media influences to directly cause eating disorders. There are some others components that play an important role with these consequences. Report notes that eating disorders are caused by genetics, family history and cultural surround (Gauntlett, 2005). But for those who are psychol ogically and genetically predisposed to anxiety when it comes about body image, media plays an unhelpful role.The American research group Anorexia Nervosa and Related ingest Disorders, Inc. reports that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of dieting, including fasting, skipping meals, extreme workouts, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting.4The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute notes that girls even at age of nine are trying to control their weight. Research in the US gives similar results. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls aged 6 to 12 are using at least one kind of dieting, and that 50 to 70 per cent girls of regulation weight girls think they are overweight.5Cosmetic surgeons are making a lot of money with women doing cosmetic surgeries for every imperfection that we can view (Wolf, 1990). Women get the message that normal, round womens bodies are too fat that soft womens flesh is really cellulite that wom en with small breasts arent sexy that women who dont have the perfect face arent attractive that a women over 30 who in their faces have sings of their senescence are ugly. No wonder women are thinking about or doing cosmetic surgeries in order to be beautiful.In conclusion, what is the result of this want for perfection? One out of every 4 college girls has an eating disorder. A psychological study in 1995 found that 3 minutes fatigued looking at models in a fashion magazine caused 70% of women to feel depressed, guilty and shameful. 50% of American women are dieting and 75% of normal weight women think they are too fat (Wolf, 1990).All these arguments lead us to one conclusion to view ones body from the outside, that is, to put center onto physical attractiveness, sex appeal, measurements, weight, face characteristics has many harmful effects- feelings of shame, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, development of eating disorder.CONCLUSIONThe traditional definition of beauty, based only on physical appearance, is powerfully communicated through the mass media and has been assimilated through touristed culture. It is this ideal that many women measure themselves against and aspire to attain. According to the narrow-minded society we live in, there just doesnt seem to be a limit on how beautiful one can become.Well, somebody has given us a definition of beauty that is superior to our mind. Can we hope for a day when mind in body will be a notion of beauty?I hope I have showed that by media presentation of an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. I hope I have proved that in our society media has created an environment so image ghost that those with power( and by those I mean beauty industry and media) have caused appear of a generation of women so self conscious about their body image, that it is affecting their health. However, women around the world would like to see media change in way it represents beauty.We have to face the fact that wearing makeup, losing weight, having surgeries, dressing up etc, will not change who we are. Our identity is what makes us unique. We should not want anymore to look like someone else. There is nothing misuse in doing things that makes a woman feel good about her as long as we have a choice of doing that because of ourselves not because someone told us it is proper thing to do for a woman in order to be beautiful. So I have to emphasis that I in this essay I did not try to attack wearing make up, having surgeries, working out, dieting etc, as long as we do not feel shame, guilt or anxiety when we dont do these practices.We have to speak out for ourselves. It is wrong to use our looks as our voices. It is not the look that should do the talking. Beauty shouldnt be our weapon for success in life, but also it shouldnt be media and beauty industry weapon against women themselves.Media is always going to be present in our lives, but we have to realize that not everything we are exposed to by the media is real.So what can we do? We can take their power. We can reject political manipulation. Like Wolf (1990) said, we should run away from them, and look directly at one another. We should look for the beauty in female subculture try to gravel music, films, biographies, plays that illustrate women in three dimensions. And perhaps then we will unveil the beauty myth and find the truth about beauty.