ipl-logo

Beauty Myth Essay

801 Words4 Pages

Within the economy of beauty, women are judged by their appearance depending on “standards of near perfection,” expect women to have flawless face and figure; yet, at the same time, the standard of beauty varies, and “looking right remains open to interpretation” (Wolf). Therefore, I propose that the utmost purpose of beauty myth is gender discrimination, preventing women from rising in power.
Cosmetic surgery, beauty pornography and beauty sadomasochism reinforce and perpetuate the beauty myth, compelling women to accept the beauty myth as social norms, thus gradually undermining female power and implicitly discriminating women.
Cosmetic surgery attracts women by making them feel ugly, a similar method used by doctors in hospitals: To gain profits from the patients, doctors tend to make people feel they are sick or having some potential health issues. Similarly, doctors in cosmetic surgery industry have “a direct interest in a social role for women that require them to be sick,” thus encouraging women to improve their appearance by having plastic surgery (Ehrenreich).
Cosmetic surgery makes women more vulnerable: it is difficult to get accurate or objective information about the risks of cosmetic surgery (Karmi); therefore, women are kept unaware of the negative consequences yet only know that it can restore youth and beauty, resulting in a sheer fantasy of cosmetic surgery and facilitating the development of cosmetic surgery industry which becomes “the fastest growing

Show More
Related

  • Self Fulfilling Stereotypes Analysis

    523 Words  | 3 Pages

    Additionally, this assumption and stereotype that women are required to look like is unlikely. After all, there are many women who pull off the “masculine image” rather than the “feminine image”. Therefore, we should all work towards deconstructing this impossible “beauty image”. One way we could work towards that is not to idolize “perfect women” who apparently uphold the beauty standards to prevent this image from spreading to future

    Read More

  • Journal Entry: America The Beautiful By Darryl Roberts

    763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Essentially, industries decrease people self-esteem in order to make money and sell their advertised products. Companies advertise the “perfect” body that even the models do not have because of edited images, all the while contradicting themselves saying “be yourself”, then promoting unrealistic standards. Roberts inductive thesis fell at the end of the film, stating that the promise of being beautiful leading to a better life, is propaganda and that women’s health is not as important as corporate profit. The primary appeal in this documentary is the appeal to authority.

    Read More

  • Tina Fey's I Want A Famous Face

    183 Words  | 1 Pages

    It’s an argument we’ve all heard before and there are more than a few books that have tackled the subject. But what’s different from even the last three years is just how widespread the media has become. Today’s teens spend an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes absorbing media in just one day, which includes the amount of time spent watching TV, listening to music, watching movies, reading magazines and using the internet. This is a generation that’s been raised watching reality TV – observing bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover; faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. They are, as Tina Fey puts it, bombarded by "a laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.”

    Read More

  • Plastic Surgery In Brave New World

    1571 Words  | 7 Pages

    Plastic surgery is the rigorous medical process of altering the human body through means of reconstruction, the removal of tissue, and the addition of tissue for cosmetic purposes. People see it every day and do not even question it. People’s faces and bodies are augmented in ways that humanity sees so regularly that viewers have become blind to it. Seeing faces and bodies perfectly sculpted by knives for sharp cheekbones, fuller lips, larger breasts, and a slimmer waist has tricked society into forgetting what the average person actually looks like. Consumers have become so blind to this constant fake image that humanity does not notice the difference until an unaltered, natural image is forced down our throats.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In The Film Real Women Have Curves

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today's society is constantly besieged by the media, through advertisements and extolling the importance of female beauty and discrediting other virtues such as

    Read More

  • Cosmetic Surgery Persuasive Essay

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    Young adults who want to have plastic surgery often have a different intention and goal than adults. They decide to have plastic surgery to improve any physical features they feel are troublesome or imperfect. If these imperfections were left uncorrected, they could affect the teen later in life. Teens should be allowed to have corrective cosmetic surgery, because it can help improve self-confidence and self-esteem and it can help medically.

    Read More

  • Jane Martin's Play Beauty Analysis

    1625 Words  | 7 Pages

    Imagine being told as a female in today’s world you must look or act a ¬¬certain way in order to be accepted. Being what you want to be is not allowed and changes have to be made in order to be included. They say “pain is beauty, and beauty is pain” as they way a woman looks today are completely different from ten or even fifty years ago. In this paper, the reader will understand the mind of a woman in today’s society and the difficulties to be not only accepted but being her own person as well. Not only has the appearance of a woman changed but also role titles and job descriptions as well.

    Read More

  • Barbie Dystopianis Duhamel Analysis

    805 Words  | 4 Pages

    This constant fixation on physical perfection has created unreasonable beauty standards for women, ones we cannot possibly achieve on our own. Such standards permeate all forms of popular media, particularly fashion magazines and advertisements. Women are bombarded with the notion that we must be thin in order to be desirable. These images project an

    Read More

  • Beauty In The Media's Unrealistic Standards For Beauty

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).

    Read More

  • Social Media Affecting Women's Body Image

    1702 Words  | 7 Pages

    According to a survey done by Jesse Fox, Ph.D., 80% of women feel bad about themselves just by looking in the mirror (Dreisbach). This has happened because of social media being changed to make girls feel like they need to have a certain body shape. Models and celebrities in magazines and media show unrealistic beauty and it contributes to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and much more (Seventeen magazine). Media has put lots of stress on women throughout history with changing body shapes. A survey done by Dove found results that 9 out of 10 women want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.

    Read More

  • Psychological Effect: Self Confidence And Self-Esteem: A Psychological Analysis

    1139 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Britton (2012), last 2008, YWCA USA developed a report Beauty at Any Cost wherein they discuss the consequences of beauty obsession of every woman in America. It shows that beauty obsession results from a decrease in the level of self-esteem. It also gives a problem to the Americans because it’s also putting a dent in their pockets. It states that because of those cosmetics many people have decreased the level of self-esteem because of those cosmetics.

    Read More

  • History Of False Advertising

    1525 Words  | 7 Pages

    Also, cosmetic procedures have increased by 39% over the past five years (from 2011) with surgical procedures up 17% and nonsurgical procedures up 44%(ASPS statistics). It shows that young women are willing to put themselves in danger because they feel the need to meet society's expectations of beauty. When going into cosmetic surgery, there is a risk of death or side effects that people are aware of, but still undergo the procedure. All because we live in a world where first impressions are made by how we look and thanks to magazines advertisements they set the “ideal” look for us and we all try to reach that look no matter how it

    Read More

  • The Purity Myth Analysis

    1385 Words  | 6 Pages

    One of the categories in being the ideal woman is being conventionally beautiful because, according to the media, a significant portion of a woman’s self-worth rests in appearance. This can be seen through women’s magazines in particular, which promote altering one’s appearance leads to the significant improvement of one’s “love life and relationships, and ultimately, life in general” (Bazzini 199). Therefore, the media presents a direct relationship with beauty and success: the more attractive a woman is, the better her life will be. Thus, a woman must the take initiative to look beautiful in order to be successful. Through the repetitive exposure of the same type of image in the media, what society considers beautiful often resembles a definitive checklist.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Barbie Doll

    1108 Words  | 5 Pages

    Your decisions to comply with society’s view of “beauty” are no longer subconscious, but rather are more conscious-driven decisions. Barbie’s slender figure remains idolized; however, it has evolved from a plastic doll to a self-starving model that is photo-shopped on the pages of glossy magazines. You spend hours in front of a mirror adjusting and perfecting your robotic look while demanding your parents to spend an endless amount of money on cosmetics and harmful skin products to acquire a temporary version of beauty. Consider companies such as Maybelline, which have throughout the ages created problematic and infantilizing campaigns and products for women. More specifically consider the “Baby Lips” product as well as the company slogan, “maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline,” that reiterates the male notions of beauty to which women are subjected.

    Read More

  • Roger Scruton Why Beauty Matters Summary

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his documentary film “why beauty matters” English philosopher Roger Scruton introduces the idea of beauty is disappearing from our world. The philosopher implies, that Art has become ugly, as well as our physical surroundings, manners, language, and music. Nowadays, the main aim of art is to disturb and break moral taboos. It has now lost its initial duty and is used to show solely the ugliness of our world, instead of taking what is most painful in the human condition and redeeming it in the work of beauty. What according to Scruton is the main purpose of art.

    Read More

More about Beauty Myth Essay

Open Document