With the omnipresent reach of the modern media putting constant pressure on women to conform to a certain mold of beauty, I explore some of the damage caused by Western beauty standards.
While beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, the mass standard for defining beauty has transformed over time, in turn altering the way people both view and model themselves. Though beauty comes in all shapes, forms, and sizes, the media hammers in a specific image of what constitutes beauty. This vision of beauty is presented in a very narrow and limited form, causing many to feel they are on the outside of acceptable beauty standards. This leads to many harmful effects, such as the pressure to conform and an inability to accept one’s natural beauty. Beauty standards also shape our perceptions of people, causing judgments to be formed based on little to no information. It’s time to examine what physical traits we value and why we do so, as well as the damaging effects of having a limited perception of beauty.
Switching Standards
What’s considered beautiful has evolved. Back in Colonial times, men were valued for having thick calves and larger physiques were favored because these traits indicated that the people were wealthy enough to eat well. Shakespearian times saw the praising of pale skin, as it indicated wealth due to lack of sun damaging labor. Nowadays, tanned skin indicates the ability to vacation often, lounge in the sun, or purchase tans, once again tying skin pigmentation into wealth. It’s also no secret that beauty standards have increasingly pressurized women to lose weight, as the representation of the average model depicts an extremely thin figure that does not come close to representing the average size of an American woman.
While the 90s saw the popularization of “heroin chic” that led to dangerously thin standards and a glamorization of a strung-out emaciated look, at least today’s beauty standard features an element of fitness. Now it’s no longer acceptable to just be super thin— a woman must also possess ample assets. But as I will next explore, this standard is equally problematic. Ultimately these reinforced and inescapable images of beauty that inundate the average person daily create a permanent state of inadequacy and dissatisfaction. Western beauty standards impact the lives of women to such a degree that as much as 90 percent of women aged 15 to 64 worldwide stated they want to change a minimum of one aspect of the way they look. Furthermore, the survey reported that a whopping 67 percent of women said that they have actively withdrawn from life-sustaining activities because they felt poorly about the way they look. Not only are Western beauty standards making people feel bad about themselves, but they are preventing them from engaging in their lives.
Modern Day Crisis
Medical advances, fame, and constant media scrutiny can, unfortunately, be a recipe for disaster. Plastic surgery is now able to visually transform people into entirely different beings. While plastic surgery may be empowering for some, it inarguably erases the individuality of faces in the effort to conform to the prevailing beauty standard. For example, plastic surgery was named the culprit in explaining how over a dozen Miss South Korea contestants ended up looking hauntingly similar back in 2013. With the ability to purchase the “ideal” look, many celebrities have started looking eerily similar to each other. Furthermore, the pressure to both be thin but have a curvaceous body has led to an obscene obsession with implants, namely butt ones, that are causing women to look deformed as they flaunt body types that are hardly attainable by nature. (Looking at you Kardashian clan.) Not only are people starting to purchase the same faces and bodies, but they are setting a beauty standard that is nearly impossible to naturally attain.
When the average person looks at celebrities, they seldom realize the amount of work that goes behind creating a seemingly flawless image. From lash extensions to $800 facials, there are many luxurious components and procedures to enhance even a “no makeup” look. Furthering the out-of-reach beauty standards are apps such as Facetune that allow users to manipulate their images to reveal the impossibly slender button nose, large eyes, full lips, and flawless skin that have become synonymous with Western beauty standards. And with celebrities lying about surgeries and portraying their doctored photos as untouched, countless impressionable youth are left feeling gravely inadequate as they marvel at a beauty that is, in fact, impossible to achieve because it oftentimes doesn’t truly exist in the real world.
Representation Needed
Lastly, it’s impossible to discuss beauty standards without acknowledging how limited their representation often is. The glorification of physical traits primarily associated with certain rates creates a society in which people who don’t conform to these very specific standards feel marginalized and outcast. Conforming to a limited standard of beauty robs people of both their individuality and their heritage. People come from so many different walks of life, and the vast diversity of physical beauty in the world is mesmerizing. While we should be celebrating the parts of ourselves that make us unique, that carry a backstory and represent the people we came from, we’re instead erasing our idiosyncrasies in the hopes of attaining an impossible beauty standard.
The permanent sense of personal dissatisfaction that Western beauty standards create leads to people doing extreme and damaging things, such as bleaching their skin or ending up like a human Barbie doll. The obsession to become perfect has blinded people to the damage and deformation they are causing. People are altering themselves because they have been told and had the message reinforced time and time again that they are not beautiful as they are. Lacking relatable and realistic figures to look up to leads to many youth feeling suffocated by the impossibly limited standards of beauty. Thankfully many organizations and people have finally started to broaden the spectrum of what is considered beautiful to be more inclusive and representational of the real world, but there is still a tremendous amount of progress to be made.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, people should do what is best for themselves. If having work done empowers a person and they can afford to do so, then they certainly shouldn’t be shamed for doing it. But when public figures lie about their procedures and alter their photos, they contribute to a standard of beauty that is impossible to achieve and harmful to impressionable minds. Platitudes often bear truth, and beauty is only skin deep. Many beautiful people also have warm and wonderful personalities, but a pretty face with nothing to say will only charm for a limited amount of time. Internal traits need to be emphasized, nurtured, and celebrated as, at the very least, equally as important as physical beauty. Furthermore, it is possible to celebrate someone else’s physical beauty without wishing yourself to be them like so many young people do. Ultimately, accepting yourself as you are is the best chance you have at being happy. And no amount of surgery or alterations can buy you that peace of mind.