Daily, while in line at the checkout, we are bombarded with images of the perfect body and how to get it. These ideas are continually broadcast out, over every visual medium known to man, filling our minds with headlines such as: “Shrink Your Inner Thighs! In six minutes a day, Times He Wants You to Be Jealous, 4 Words That Seduce Any Man. Anytime.” (Cosmo Oct 11) What kind of messages are we, as a society, having put before us? What happened to the importance of character and depth in our society? Are magazines such as Cosmo, Vogue, and Glamour warping the image of women and in doing so putting physical looks over substance? Is pop-culture rewriting how we look at others?
Heidi Klum, Gisele, Tyra Banks, women considered the epitome of beauty. Maybe ten such women attain the title of “Supermodel” every decade, ye there are currently well over three billion women in the world who will never reach this acme of extrinsic beauty. The images on the covers of women’s magazines are always perfectly proportioned women with luscious lips, big eyes, airbrushed into flawlessness. The bold print surrounding her consists of articles on how the rest of the female population can fix themselves to look more like them or change themselves in order to have a better relationship, because the model is pretty so obviously she doesn’t have problems. There you have it, in an eight by eleven and a half inch cover you have all you need, buy this magazine for three ninety-nine plus tax and you can be just like her, perfect, happy, and problem free. Don’t buy it and continue to feel unsatisfied with yourself. Not to say that all women don‘t see through the high-gloss to the real message, but even the ones who admit that looking like a Supermodel is unrealistic, never-the-less hold themselves to these defined standards of beauty.
Cosmopolitan is the most well known of these women’s magazines, it is published in thirty-four different languages and distributed to one-hundred different countries. Nearly three-million issues of Cosmo are purchased every month in the United States alone, one could ponder at how many people read each sold copy, but never fathom just how many people see the cover. (Cosmopolitan.com) Covers, that surround the model with articles such as: The body you want now, The tummy you dream of, How to revamp your look in one week. In less discrete terms: Buy this magazine, try our get fit quick program, when it doesn’t work do it again next month, and keep hoping that if you work hard you can maybe some day be half as pretty as our cover-girl. Messages such as these are common place in most magazines who’s audience is primarily young unmarried women, a group that is for the most part looking for some sort of significant other. Instead of sending messages about the value men put on conversation, humor, intellect, and individuality, what’s presented is the better you look the more Mr. Right will like you. In a sense this may be true on a some level since all courting begins with a physical attraction.. Past that, is it of any benefit to strive for physical perfection; is it even possible to look like the women on these covers, naturally or otherwise?
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| Little photoshop goes a long way |
The truth is that practically every cover that you see isn’t an accurate representation of how that gorgeous woman looks in real life. Almost always these pictures go through intensive photo-shopping and touch-ups. Common touch-ups include: air brushing away portions of the thigh, softening eye and smile lines, adding color to lips and cheeks, reducing neck muscle, thinning neck muscle, trimming the stomach to achieve more of an hourglass shape. The list goes on and on, but what needs to be understood is that these women, the “10’s”, are not good enough naturally to make it on the cover of an internationally distributed magazine; unless they have the help of a computer along with professional lighting, make-up artists, hair stylists, nutritionists, tanning beds, personal trainers and for many, plastic surgery. How detrimental is this fictitious image of perfection in human form to women, specifically to vulnerable young women lacking a sense of security in their looks and still are trying to figure out life? What kind of message are they taking in, that the prettier you are the happier you are going to be?
In, “Buying a New Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals”, a study conducted by Renee Engeln-Maddox at North-Western University, young women were asked to look at a picture of an unnamed “physically idealistic woman” and rate their feeling on how looking like this would change their lives on a scale from one to seven. One being an extremely negative change and seven being an extremely positive change. The results are as follows:
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| This just needs to be said. |
Positive psychological impact 5.96/7
Positive social attention (nonromantic) 5.23/7
Romantic Success 5.00/7
Employment/economic success 5.21/7
Apparel 5.45/7
Less pressure about appearance from others 5.50/7
Negative social consequences 1.95/7
Negative personality consequences 2.34/7
The results expose a startling trend. Not only do women believe that their lives will improve in almost every area if they were more ascetically pleasing, they also reveal that beauty is perceived to result in a worse personality and social problems. It’s clearly assumed that the more attractive you are the better your work and romantic life will be. The study’s results shows that women feel pressured about their appearance by others and are anxious about what clothes to wear, a vicious lose/lose cycle in world of women. Another trend seen is the idea that the more physically attractive a person is, the worse that their personality is bound to be. These results imply that if women were to transform physically, they envision their lives as happier even at the cost of creating personality defects and social rifts. One must question if the proverbial juice worth the squeeze. Is that what this massive fixation on looks amounts to, being happy? Are these stereotypes even true? Can good looks really affect your life in such profound ways?
The study goes on to present research that disputes this ideal that the prettier you are the happier or more successful you will be. While it should be noted that there is evidence that people described as “good-looking” do make, on average, 5% more income than their “average-looking” peers. (ywca.org) Outside of these minor economic bonuses there is little data to support that being more attractive will affect your overall happiness, social life or standing in any fashion.
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| Pretty doesn't mean happy |
Highly attractive women are actually more likely to have a self-worth issues (either highly inflated or very self-deprecating), as well as less satisfying friendships and love lives in comparison to the rest of the female population. This may be due to our culture’s fascination with beautiful women having a profound negative impact on how they are viewed, creating a struggle of where to place their own value. They often fall to one side of the spectrum; thinking they are God’s personal gift to the world or developing issues with receiving attention and adoration solely due to their appearance and in turn being highly critical of themselves. In love, rather than a suitor being attracted to their personality, sense of humor, and ideals, he may be more infatuated with physicality while being no where near as interested in them as an individual. Friendships can also be turbulent, with friends often getting jealous about the uneven attention from the opposite sex. Couple that with varying degrees of egomania or insecurities about looks, it is not difficult to grasp why there might be regular interpersonal issues. Why then, do the participants of this study, a small part of a much larger whole that reflects the mindset of the modern young woman, see themselves as being happier and more successful if they were better looking? (Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30 (2006))
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| She never said a word. Literally. |
The answer is that women have been shown since birth images of the pretty princess getting swept up by the misogynistic prince and living happily ever after. Throughout their pre-teens and young adulthood they’re exposed to constant stimuli of beautiful women on top of the world, surrounded by the “finer things” in life: the good looking arm candy, nice cars, exotic vacations, big shopping trips, a neatly packaged unrealistic lifestyle designed for consumption. They never see, on any medium, a striking beauty reading a book or engaging in any form of artistic or intellectual pursuit. In turn they look at external beauty as the means to happiness and success rather than intrinsic peace, self-knowledge, and personal development as the true root of purpose, happiness, and positive relationships. The sick twist to this façade, that so many buy into, is that the frivolous pursuit of trying to change the way they look is a true catch twenty-two.
Since they will never change their God-given features outside of plastic surgery, they have set themselves up for failure. Constantly striving to have perfect hair, skin, teeth, and figure and still never able to look like a model only makes them feel more and more inadequate. In extreme situations that disgust towards a particular feature leads to plastic surgery; could you imagine hating your nose so much that you want to go under the knife just to change it? Not everyone has the resources or the self-loathing mentality to go the distance and get permanent changes to their features. Many settle for make-up as a way to accentuate and minimize their features, needless to say, it is not surprising to see the cosmetics business booming.
According to the 2007 US economic census the cosmetic industry netted 10.3 billion dollars in sales and these figures seem to increase every census; up from 2.4 billion dollars only ten years earlier. On average the adult woman spends around one-hundred dollars monthly on cosmetics (make-up, hair product, manicures, perfume ect..) (census.gov). All this money spent on cosmetics in the U.S., which could easily put a large dent in world hunger (especially when considering the combined hours spent in application and removal), for a temporary, superficial, “improvement” of one’s looks. Looks that everyday are slipping away, because even “10’s” like Gizele won’t naturally be pretty or perky at ninety.
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| Case |
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| And point |
None of this is to say that there are no positive effects that stem from wanting physical improvement or that we should just say “screw it” and lay waste to our bodies. Working out is great for building confidence, releasing endorphins and is an essential factor in a longer and fuller life. There is simply a fine line between staying in shape and trying to look like a Ambercrombie and Fitch model. A person should try to physically improve themselves. Not measure themselves up to someone or even to an image of a younger self. This sort of mentality will only make you feel like you’re never good enough rather than finding satisfaction with the results you’ve obtained through dedication and hard work. Trying to “measure up” to someone turns appearances into a silent competition. The presence of looks into a sort of hidden social competition helps shed light on the second part of the study’s results; being “beautiful” will cause negative social consequences, especially in female/female relationships.
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| Who's ever felt personally victimized |
The YWCA study “Beauty at Any Cost” exposes the reasons behind this: “The amount of relational aggression among women is related to their roles in the culture. A major cultural difference in men and women’s roles is the emphasis placed on physical appearance. Women want to be attractive and men want to have attractive partners, which may result in rivalries within both genders.” They go on to state:
In a research study about the unhealthy culture of competition between women, nearly 80% of women interviewed said that they competed with women over physical appearance. This competition over unrealistic beauty extends to women competing with younger women, women competing with “their younger selves” and seeking cosmetic procedures to attain younger and more beautiful images of themselves. These women are “driven by an unhealthy belief that winning the looks competition will somehow gain them the husband, the career, or the self they desire.”
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| So if she just keeps being nice he'll stop yelling? |
This again stems from what females have been exposed to from birth; the pretty princess gets the handsome prince every single time. They are left to think, “If only I could be more ______, (insert adjective here) I could be just like her.” Implanting, at a very impressionable age, a desire to change because how they are somehow isn’t good enough. Wanting something they won’t ever have, planting the seeds of jealousy, strife, and in-fighting between the female sex. Are these the seeds we‘ve sown? We’ve created a populace that never feels good enough; each generation moves ever closer to being completely surface deep, and wrapped in obsession over how others look and live. By focusing on looks and status we are forgetting what really makes an individual.
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| Don't be bro, bro. |
As a society we need to take a serious evaluation at what magazines, such as Cosmopolitan accompanied by the likes of Us Weekly and other celebrity gossip mediums, are doing to our culture. Pop-culture is taken in with a veracious appetite, tail-spinning deeper and darker into increasingly shallow preoccupations. The American Media’s focus on the extrinsic, limited not only to physical features but also material possessions, “What’s Hot and What’s Not”, effects more than our young women but our youth as a whole. The youth, our future voters and leaders, enveloped in the newest gossip and clothing styles. Their worried about what happened on the Bachelor last week because they were busy watching X Factor when they should have spent time reading the classics such as: Walden, The Republic, or Atlas Shrugged. The sad truth is that most young people would prefer to watch the “Jersey Shore” over the Presidential Debates. Statistically they buy more copies of Cosmo than NewsWeek and Times combined and the majority would rather read about what’s happening in Lindsey Lohan’s life than the background of the Middle East conflict. (Newsweek.com) Lost, except to minute group, is passion for the arts, current events, politics, and philosophy. We’ve created a culture orbited around entertainment and looks with no regard for the cost or what is sacrificed.
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| read this |
During the first half of the twentieth century the measure of a man was based on his character, not his money or prestige. Now, just past the turn of the century, our culture has digressed and begun to make the measure of man much easier to define. Turning a blind eye to character and focusing instead on his financial and social standing. Commending him behind closed doors, without being so forward, on the attractiveness of his wife, the car he drives, and the square footage of his new custom home. All the while we neglect his behavior and lifestyle choices because even though we are engorged by others faults, we refuse to publicly acknowledge what we secretly know. We firmly believe the choices that he makes, are the choices that he makes for his own life; it isn’t our place to judge so long as he‘s not hurting anyone. If he is hurting someone. we still aren’t open to talk about it because we wouldn’t want to slander his good name without firsthand knowledge. Yet we have no problem whispering about it just as soon as the PTO meeting‘s over. We’ve tipped our standards on themselves in a sickening way; we are creating an environment that publicly commends on the material while refusing to admonish poor ethics.
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| 1950's Prime Time Father |
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| 1990's Prime Time Father |
We’ve began to pursue the approval of others over all else; we don’t hesitate to join in the sick new twist of “keeping up with the Jones” by trying to get the newest flashiest toys the minute they hit the shelves. That way we can show off how nice the new features are, right up until the next generation comes out six months later rendering everything else obsolete, and pressing repeat on the American well-to-do’s game of life. At what point did the American Dream turn from a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage into a second home away from the city and a new car for each kid? When is enough enough, or has the American Dream always been about never having enough? Whether we admit to it or not, our culture now values material possessions along with the approval and validation of others over depth of character. A not so new standard, but one that in the last fifty years has over shadowed nearly every other measure of an individual’s worth.
Our obsession on looks, things, and how we package ourselves through clothing and style is nothing new. It is strangely critical to us as individuals. It’s what people see without engaging us, enabling them to define and value us without so much as knowing our name. They take that nice neat package of self-representation, that we try so hard and spend so much to perfect, consume it, and spit it back out. Defining everything we represent, what we’re worth, and what kind of person we are. All this from the way we look, without a spoken word; this process we all engage in is actually quite natural and relatively harm free.
That is until we label and lock that certain cliché; developing it into a one-size-fits-all approach. We then place the social value of some groups over others based on past experience, and in turn value individuals differently without a clue as to who they really are. If a homeless man were to clean up and put on an Armani suit, we’d think of him as a well-off, classy individual. The same goes for a Fortune 500 CEO growing a beard, not showering for three days, and throwing on some old beat-up clothes. We assign value, rank, and role based simply on appearance. We all naturally have a desire to fit in to a group, even if our group is trying to stand out from societal norms. We dress like them, talk like them, and think like them. It’s not hard to see how we label people when we ourselves generally refuse to miss a beat of our group’s simultaneous goose step. Are we even individuals or are we more like little leaves on our group’s branch of the culture tree? Sure we’re different, if someone looked closely, but they don’t, so we’re all the same.
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| Not meant to rip on a specific group, but think about it |
The real question is: Why do we care about what anyone thinks or how they view us? They’re not us and never will be. By focusing on approval, recognition, and validation from your peers you’ll easily let how you talk, dress, act, or even walk define you as a person. It’s easier to follow the group dynamic than it will ever be to think for yourself; any salesman worth his salt knows that people are simply sheep in need of a shepherd.
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| Birds of a feather. stay golden |
It comes down to this: It is what is unique about you that makes you beautiful. It’s not the clothes you wear, the size of your jeans, the music you listen to, and it’s definitely not what Joe-Frat-Boy thinks. Feel free to wave your freak flag at anytime, never shy away from being you. Focus on self-improvement, not only in physical wellbeing but in forming moral codes (whatever your morals might be, let them be black and white with no room for gray), steadfast beliefs, and take interest in the pursuit of substance. If you are going to judge, which as humans we all will, you should judge a person by the kind of character that they have, what is on the inside, never from how they look or the clothes that they wear. I hope to one day see people find satisfaction not in what pop-culture or their specific subculture defines as important. Rather from a deep intrinsic happiness that stems, not from self-indulgence, but from a search for something bigger than yourself; whether it be God, your community, your family, or even a quest for mankind’s greater good we all need to remind ourselves daily that it’s not all about us.
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| This guy isn't the guy you should date |
It is crucial for women not try to emulate themselves after the Media’s portrayal of beauty. An concept that can be aptly compared to a dog chasing after a car while pushing the other dogs over. Even if it got what it was looking for, it’d never be what was expected and the energy focused would be in vain. If you try, I promise you will always have a thousand reasons why you aren’t good enough. Continually throwing yourself under the metaphorical bus of happiness instead of just hopping on board. It’s your skin; you should be completely comfortable in it. Simply put, true happiness doesn‘t come from the outside inward, but true beauty starts inside and radiates out; that is the kind of beauty that will never fade. For the women that believe that they have to try to look “perfect“ for their prince to notice them: Would you want to be with a guy who only liked you for your looks? Isn’t there a whole lot more to you than that? The same can be said for you. When looking for a partner be sure to focus on substance. Only accept a man with character and class, who always does what’s just, and never compromises his morals for personal, financial, or socio-political gain. Don’t you dare settle for less. As you sigh “as if” because “he” does not exist on this planet; remember the great words of Mahamta Gandi:
"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do"
I wrote this paper for my English class, I hope someone benefited from it.
Mark 8:36
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
Luke 11:11
But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.“You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?“But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Proverbs 31:3
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
1 Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
God bless and may He shed His grace on you
Hope you're all having an awesome week
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