NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... ced so heavily by this culture and its standards force themselves to go to great lengths to feel beautiful, as their sense of self-worth becomes distorted. Whether or not they are too heavy, females who see themselves as overweight show decreased satisfaction with their bodies, reduced levels of self-esteem, and lowered psychosocial well being, as compared with females who do not consider themselves overweight (Stephan's, Hill and Hanson 4). It is almost evil how magazines can produce such advertisements that make average women feel so inadequate. First, women are convinced to buy them with high hopes (as they are so appealing to the eye), only to be left with empty promises. In this case, women are placed in more than just a catch- 22.
Women dont slough off criticism so easily when it comes to their looks. One college student confesses; The advertisement showed me exactly what I should be, not what I was. I wasnt tall, I wasnt blonde, I wasnt skinny. I didnt have thin thighs, I didnt have a flat stomach. I am short, have brown curly hair, short legs. They did offer me solutions like dying my hair or a workout or the use of this cream to take away cellulite (Hesse-Biber 32).
Always recommending ways to makeover looks, lose weight, or update the latest trends of celebrities, beauty magazines sell the myth with no remorse. The advertisers who make womens mass culture possible depend on making women feel bad enough about their faces and bodies to spend more money on worthless or pain-inducing products than they would if they felt innately beautiful (Wolf 84). Female consumers will try just about anything in an attempt to capture a more desirable self, to feel more powerful in a world so judgmental to appearance. As one author writes, Women will go to extraordinary lengths to become thin. There are various ways in which American families, schools, popular culture, and the health and fitness industry undermine young womens self confidence as they inculcate the notions that thinness is beauty and that a womans body is more important than her mind (Hesse-Biber 1).
Plastic surgery is a common choice made by women who are willing to not only shell out thousands of dollars, but also experience the pain involved in making themselves more attractive. Never has the saying Pain is beauty, rang so true. According to a survey by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, approximately 94 % of their patients are women (53). Not only are women choosing to have plastic surgery performed for their not so ideal looks. One study shows that, In 1998, 22, 000 American teenagers had cosmetic surgery a 95 -percent increase from 1992.
Among the most popular procedures were liposuction, rhinoplasty (nose jobs) and breast implants (Underwood 3). It could be assumed then, that beauty standards are literally becoming more plastic! Besides the pain that is involved in surgeries to refine beauty, women have taken more extreme measures in an attempt to meet the thin figured ideal. Why do women go to such measures? One author argues, Women continue to follow the standard of the ideal thin body because of how they are rewarded by being in the right body.
Thinness gives women access to a number of resources: feelings of power, self-confidence, even femininity; male attention or protection; and the social and economic benefits that can follow (Hesse-Biber 67). Many of the routes taken to achieve this thin ideal often include chronic dieting and other semi-starvation methods. Most eating-disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is, in turn, a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness (Stephan's, Hill and Hanson 2). Chronic dieting, though, is not as promising as is its likeliness to worsen self-esteem.
Deprivation of certain foods can only last so long without driving one mad. Failure of these dieting methods usually lead to more threatening forms of health hazards, such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. It is generally accepted that anorexia and bulimia are more common in countries that value slimness, and that when people move from cultures that value plumpness to those where slenderness is valued they become more likely to develop problematic relationships with foods (Hesse-Biber 168). Social pressure never seemed so dangerous.
Through a combination of western popular culture integrated into print advertising's manufactured images, the beauty myth is kept alive. The competition in advertising companies to create the most appealing eye-candy through aesthetics holds strong and is not likely to become empathetic to young women who develop body image distortion on their behalf. Celebrities and fashion models gracing the glossy pages of beauty magazines hold up an especially devious mirror they offer, help to women while representing a standard nearly impossible to attain! As the power of the plastic surgery and dieting companies grow through print advertisements, so do the number of patients who are willing to trust these ads to make them beautiful.
Eating disorders and other serious health hazards will continue to plague young women as long as this cultural view of extreme thinness remains ideological. The myth of beauty goes on, growing stronger as each beauty magazine is purchased. So will the myth ever die? In closing, one woman hypothesizes this matter: Unfortunately, since the media routinely give accounts of womens appearance in a way that trivializes or discredits what they say, women reading or watching are routinely dissuaded from identifying with women in the public eye the ultimate anti-feminist goal of the beauty myth. Whenever we dismiss or do not hear a woman on television or in print because our attention has been drawn to her size or make-up or hairstyle, the beauty myth is working with optimum efficiency (Wolf 274). Works Cited Grogan, Sarah.
Body Image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children. London: Routledge, 1999. Hesse-Biber, Sharlene. Am I Thin Enough Yet?
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Kamins, Michael A. An investigation into the match-up hypothesis in celebrity advertising: when beauty may be only skin deep. Journal of Advertising. 19. 1 (1990): 4 - 10. Stephan's, Deborah Lynn, Ronald Paul Hill and Cynthia Hanson. The Beauty Myth and Female Consumers: the controversial role of advertising.
Journal of Consumer Affairs. 28: 1 (1994): 137 - 154. Underwood, Nora. Body Envy. Maclean's. 113: 33 (2000): 36. Wolf, Naomi.
The Beauty Myth: how images of beauty are used against women. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc. , 1991
Free research essays on topics related to: beauty myth, plastic surgery, popular culture, women feel, social pressure
Research essay sample on Examining The Ideal Of Beauty In Print Advertising
