Our generation's definition of "beauty" is distorted now because of the pressure from Hollywood and the media. Women tend to care more about their appearance and obsess over the idea of beauty more than men. Whether women are looking to impress or attract others, the pressure to be a size two and to look nearly flawless is not only draining, but also expensive. Women feel that tanning, purchasing cosmetics, and investing in plastic surgery achieves their superficial goal of what consists of beauty. Unfortunately, some of these drastic measures have more negative consequences and dangers than benefits.
A rising trend among young women is tanning. These women are unsatisfied with their fair skin, and desire a tanner appearance to attain their concept of beauty. Although a tan may look nice now, its long-term effects are very harmful. Research done by Cosmopolitan's Practice Safe Sun Campaign finds that indoor tanning before the age of thirty increases the risk of melanoma by 75 percent. Knowing that tanning beds are carcinogenic, it does not make sense why people would spend money to be diagnosed with skin cancer later in life. Indoor tanning also leads to premature wrinkles, skin damage, broken blood vessels, and lines, which I personally would not consider beautiful.
Girls are beginning to wear makeup younger and younger. Women use cosmetics to highlight certain features and hide imperfections like blemishes. The cosmetic industry consistently grows because women will spare no expense at the cost of beauty. For example, some women spend 30 dollars on a tube of mascara from Sephora rather than 3 dollars on a similar product at CVS. The use of cosmetics heightens a woman's sense of insecurities, and some refuse to appear in public without applying makeup.
Plastic surgery is another way women attempt to perfect themselves. It is very common to see celebrities like Heidi Montag in magazines that recently went under the knife for implants, leposuction, and botox procedures. The average woman may feel the need to compete with such people, and receive similar procedures in order to impress others. Plastic surgery procedures are easily thousands of dollars and have many risks that are often overlooked. When researchers for Forbes looked into the risks of plastic surgery, they found that some surgeons do not have the proper certifications and accreditations. This means that if not researched properly, the procedure may not be legitimate. Other consequences include scarring, infections, temporary numbness, tissue and nerve damage, blood clots, and ultimately death.
Women: With these risk factors and dangers in mind, is the price of "beauty" really worth it? Do you feel pressured by the media along by other women to fit the criteria of what makes a woman beautiful and attractive? How far are you wiling to go to feel beautiful? Guys: How do you feel about women going out of their way to do these things? Are tans, flawless faces, and enhanced body parts really that desirable? If not, what do you consider true beauty?
As time passes and the population moves towards being more accepting, it is also going against it. Now a day women and men worry so much about their apperances and each time they are just going further to achieve it. Sure back in the day women and men also worried about their looks, but there weren't things such as plastic surgery, tanning, and especially PHOTOSHOP!
ReplyDeleteMen and woman today are trying to acheive a perfection that doesn't even exist. The way that women and men want to look is something that is unreachable because it's mostly created by a computer program. The perfect skin doesn't exist, a computer creates it.
So for a the girs/women trying to become as beutiful as the women on magazines. Maybe you should invest more money on your inner self/beauty.
I was once a "tanorexic" female during a time in High School, so I can easily relate to this article. I use to feel like the risks that came with tanning were worth the benefits of feeling confident with a golden glow. I felt like the main source of a desire to take extremeties for beauty is competition. If a girl wants to impress a guy, she'll sometimes do anything to make herself feel like she looks better than the other girls he may be talking to. Now I am glad I haven't used tanning beds in a while, because they are carcinogens. When you are young, you usually just don't care about your future health. Looking good and feeling good is all that matters when you are young. Girls care so much about physical appearance because it is the first thing a guy will notice about her. It's definitely a shame that most guys care more about looks, and proof is in the fact that they use words like "hot" and "sexy" to describe girls they are attracted too.
ReplyDeleteGoing to extreme means in the name of becoming more attractive and physically appealling to others is becoming an increasing trend in society today. Men and women are pressured and sometimes addicted onto enhancing their appearance for the sake of beauty. This topic is very significant in terms of the results that come about from people compelling themselves to become "more beautiful" to themselves and others. Though, this concept is not very important when we are talking about the addiction or pressure itself. Individuals (especially teenagers) are so obsessed with being the best-looking person they can be through means such as plastic surgery and tanning to improve their overall apperance. This pressure arouse from the public media (i.e. television, movies, videos, and magazines as a primary contribution that brings forth a standard of what one should look like and even others around them as a direct method. However it is unfortunate that they don't realize that most celebrities, stars, and models are not near to perfect in beauty and physique as they imagine. Photoshoots and other media means are often altered to MAKE the models look perfect in the eyes of the audience. Perfection in appearance and beauty is not possible no matter what a person might do to enhance their complexion. There will always be insecurities amongst people about their looks no matter how beautiful you get. Even though it is a cliche, beauty comes from within rather than as a result of physical appearance. It is okay that people want to be better-looking since its human impulse, but it is not worth it if it means going to extremes to accomplish that aspiration. Going to the gym or putting on makeup is sufficient enough rather that putting your life on the line through plastic surgeries and tanning that can result in skin cancer, which is definitely a worse consequence. Instead of trying to improve appearance, more individuals should rather focus on their inner self and inner beauty as it is the most significant factor when presenting yourself to others. Most people can agree that they rather want a pleasant looking, nice, kind, sincere person as a companion rather than a rude, obnoxious, and selfish one who happens to be a bombshell.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with this article that girls/women go to the extreme to be beautiful. I feel that beauty truly comes from within. When you are feeling good on the inside, you glow and radiate on the outside. I will admit to tanning my senior year of high school because I wanted to look bronze for the senior prom and the graduation events. I realized that after tanning for a few months that I was theoretically killing myself. Why would I continue to tan if I knew that I could develop cancer, and I was the one initiating it. I feel that society today puts so much emphasis on looking beautiful that women go the next level. A point that should also be mentioned in this article is eating disorders. Sad to say, but eating disorders can lead to death. So many young women will literally starve themselves to be considered skinny, which is considered pretty. Why can't we live in the old days when being plump was considered beautiful because it meant you had enough money to eat hearty meals? I also agree that the time and expenses that go into makeup, tanning, and plastic surgery is outrageous. Also, the media is not a good influence on women because it shows how pretty actresses/singers are and will criticize them when they put on a few pounds. I feel that women should love the bodies and features they were born with.
ReplyDeleteWithin in the past decade there has been a steady increase to which women have been trying to "achieve" beauty. For example, the media seems to be "addicted" to following celebrities and their everyday actions; the media builds up this image of the beautiful actress and her gorgeous make up. The media portrays these celebrites as perfection, but in reality buying top of the line beauty products can not help buy beauty. In our society, women go to great extents spending hundreds of dollars a year between tanning, make up, and getting their hair done. Women believe these great beauty extents will help "up" their image in society. As a result, many women disregard beauty's detrimental effects to their health. As previously stated, plastic surgery and tanning can lead to cancer. Putting my life in jeopardy would never be worth the end result of "beauty" (which I think is often misleading because media creates this mold of what beauty really is!). Kendrick makes a good point, expressing how the true meaning of beauty should be based upon your inward appearance (personality traits) vs. outward appearance.
ReplyDeleteWhile writing this article, I remembered seeing a tv show on VH1 called "The Price of Beauty". Hosted by Jessica Simpson, the show is a world tour of international countries and their idea of beauty. Simpson's show illustrates that each country has their own "Hollywood trend" of what beauty means in their country. In the United States, women believe "beauty" comes by applying makeup and being tan; Thailand's definition of beauty relies less on make up and more towards natural regimens as a means of natural beauty.
I feel that this perfection standard is based on society's distortion of the "perfect female." People don't realize that models in magazines are digitally restructured: every imperfection is covered up, skin is airbrushed to make it look darker, and cropping and expanding is done to improve their physical appearances. The media industry has centered people's attention on looks rather than personality. The thing is that physical qualities attract a crowd and sell. With all of our attention focused on the girl in a bikini on television, or the model in the magazine, of course girls are trying to perfect their appearance.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the price of beauty is worth it! I think it is outrageous that women are paying to increase their chances of skin cancer by 75 percent. They do all of that just for a little glow in the wintertime. People are too focused on how the media portrays beauty. We forget that pictures of supermodels and celebrities are doctered and definetly not what women really look like. Unfortunately, this is a major reason for depression in girls. They are too worrried about the stereotypical beauty you see on television. Like other responders mentioned, people should be more focused on internal beauty. That is what really matters in life. When we are old, it is not going to matter what we looked like in our youth, it will be our personality that matters. And we should not be willing to give up years of our life just to look tan when we are teenagers. Everyone should take a different approach on life and stop worrying about beauty to the point of obsession. I also strongly disagree with plastic surgery. I think the risks far outweigh the benefits. There can be complications, and people should accept you for the way you are. I feel pressured by the media to look a certain way, and wear a certain style of clothes. However, you can be pressured by many things not just the media, but in the end it is your choice how you want to look. I think the key is to focus on internal beauty. I am also not willing to go far to look the stereotypical "pretty". A little make up is the extent of it and I am not willing to pay large sums of money for mascara!
ReplyDelete“Judge nothing by the appearance. The more beautiful the serpent, the more fatal its sting.” (WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY, Proverbs) We nowadays live in an egotistic and hateful society, where people are not allowed to be unique. Being different is looked at negatively. I could never grasp how “beauty” is power. For both men and women, the need to look a certain way changes what makes us who we are. Are persona begins to be not as important because we are judged by our appearance. Everyone wants to be “perfect” but the reality is that we all have our imperfections. And what I find humorous is that we are criticized on our imperfections instead of being judged on our perfections. I am the kind of person that believes every person should be given a chance but in many instances, people are not given that opportunity just because of the way the look. In being judgmental it truly brings out persons insecurity. For me, a women’s appearance is important but I am a firm believer that personality is a much more important trait. A good personality out-weights the outer complexion of their beauty. Consequently, their people who look for strictly appearance, not only is that shallow but it portrays that kind of person you are. Being narrow-minded is a trait that makes you only accept one type of person, and disallows you to meet many different people. I am not the judgmental type because I am not ignorant. I take pride in meeting all kinds of people and appearance, race, and gender has no bearing on how I view a person. In final, society today places a huge emphasis on confining to a certain image, which distorts the true meaning of “beauty.”
ReplyDeleteWomen in the media are portrayed as perfect, but to get to that “perfect” level takes more than exercising and eating correctly. It takes women to a whole new superficial level, nothing is real anymore on television, there is plastic surgery, tanning, and makeup to make a girl pretty, and in magazines there is Photoshop if they don’t like how the girls look they can crop her to make her magazine approved. This to me is disgusting, because young girls don’t need to be shown how to become the perfect women, they are still young and should stay for as long as it takes. They are getting the wrong idea on body image, it shouldn’t be what people are seeing ion the outside it should be do you like what you see in yourself and that should be all that matters to others. This perfect image is superficial and fake, so girls are trying to achieve a fictional reality, there is no such thing as a perfect body, and everyone has flaws. The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” goes well with this issue because just because you see the person for whom they are on the outside doesn’t mean they are like that on the inside. The media distorts our whole perception on women and as many women we see on television we expect every woman to be just like that. But, the fact is not there are so many perspectives of beautiful in society today.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with this article because word "beautiful" for women as a new meaning than it used to have like back in the day. Beautiful is now like, the more makeup, shape,dressing techiniques the better. Women have to know that there is no perfection or true definition of beauty, it all depends on who you are and how you treat your self, that is where beauty comes from but not how others view you.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article and a lot of these comments. Society has these high expectations for men and women. It starts at a young age when Barbie and Ken come into play. They are the "ideal" male and female figures. After we grow up and get out of the "Barbie and Ken" stage, the media comes into play. We start hearing provocative songs and watch reality shows like "Jersey Shore", "Toddlers in Tiaras", and "The Real World". This idea of being pretty and perfect gets stuck in our heads and people push their bodies to do the impossible. I personally believe that there is no need for makeup and tanning beds, you should be happy with who you are and how you look. Everyone has bad hair days and sure every once in a while acne makes an appearance, but so what, it happens to everybody. I can see if once in a while you wanted to dress up and add a little something to your appearance with some makeup, but so many people do it everyday and it's really unnecessary. Your friends should like you for who you are on the inside, they shouldn't care about whether or not you are wearing makeup.
ReplyDeleteAs a guy, I personally am not into the whole materalistic idea that some women have. Alot of girls tend to focus on the physical aspects of beauty, and set aside the aspects of "inner beauty". I know that when I look for a girl, I am attracted to those who have a great personality. Physical beauty is fine, but it can only take you so far.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say about the price of beauty. 'Looking good' can really have a detrimental effect to one's health. I recently even found out that many make-ups contain carcinogins. So not only is tanning, plastic surgery and makeup expensive, it is also toxic. Our society seems to be so focused on outward beauty, which is actually causing more internal health problems. This fake image of beauty on the outside is in reality causing us to look quite ugly on the inside.
ReplyDelete