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Beauty standards in society
Beauty standards in society
Beauty standards in society
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Beauty standards in society
Beauty standards in society
Beauty standards in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Make-up, trendy clothes, hair dyes, and cosmetic surgery can be utilized in order to obtain a warm sense of belonging. Seeing forms of artificial beauty as one of the main keys in being included exerts that people tend to value artificial beauty over natural beauty, as they overlook inner beauty characteristics such as loyalty, friendliness, and confidence. However, some members of today’s society believe that natural beauty is regarded more highly than artificial beauty. Many new models have gained popularity for embracing the physical effects
Introduction Advertisements can really shape how humans see themselves as a part of society. When marketers brainstorm and create new campaigns to get consumers interested in new products or services, they try and use emotions to drive potential customers to want their products, which is known as a pathos marketing ploy. While they can use positive emotions to make a person feel happy or nostalgic, some advertisers will get someone engaged by playing to their insecurities. CoverGirl is known for having spokespeople who are of all ages, races and now even genders. In 2011, the company put out a television commercial, titled “Hey Wrinkle Face!”
In Rosalind Gill’s book “Gender and the Media” she addresses the shift in advertising’s portrayal of women. Originally women played a very submissive role, often times appearing as a sexual object. Gill highlights that in postmodern feminist advertising women have taken on a new role, one of power and dominance. These women no longer appear as sexual objects but rather as desiring sexual beings. Often times this will mean women appear to be more masculine or controlling men with her sexual power, as if to say being sexy is liberating.
Now, not only have women in the work place been subjected to unfair conditions, we also have an impossible look to achieve. Jean killbourne, now a speaker, once a model was destroyed by societies standards on what women are to look like. When we watch television and we see a simple shampoo commercial we do not realize it at the time, but if we stop and look at the bigger picture we realize that the “girl next door” who is just washing her hair like every young lady does is anatomically perfect. Killbourne in her speech shows the audience a picture of a young woman that has been photoshopped to the point of distortion; it shows that young lady’s hips are smaller than her shoulders, and her waist no bigger than a child’s. We know that as women it is hard enough to focus on our careers, but now we must look like barbie’s as well?
This book specifically enforced the idea that to be a woman, was to be beautiful, but it also introduced a secondary element. As a woman, my beauty needed to be valued by men, and this book’s focus drove that concept home for
Women, in our own minds, we have it set that we are expected to maintain a certain look. That is due to many years of advertisements of women plastered on the television, billboards and magazines. Products are being advertised that say we have to wear this product, or use this product, or drink this product to look sexier or prettier. As quoted by students Frances Black, Gabriella Kountourides, and Laura Ferris, who created a change.org petition, “Every day women are bombarded with advertisements aimed at making them feel insecure about their bodies, in the hope that they will spend money on products that will supposedly make them happier and more beautiful.” These women are now petitioning the Victoria's Secret ad that says " The Perfect Body" Victoria's
According to a Harvard psychologist, Nancy Etcoff, by examining the campaign she found out that women nowadays describe themselves as beauty on a wider variety of qualities outside of just looks, such as confidence. Through the latest “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” clip, they successfully make most of the women to take home the message being “you are more beautiful than you think.” The launch of the video clip immediately became a hot topic and generated much discussions between the public, both positive or negative. Dove still feels like it needs to play a role in ongoing discussions about beauty and body image.
Women who are more attractive by social standards often have advantages over other women. Naomi Wolf’s essay “The Beauty Myth” dives into detail about how women constantly feel pressured by society to look a certain way- even if that look may be unhealthy- just to be viewed as acceptable in society. Wolf argues how large of a role beauty plays in society by saying “beauty is a currency system like the gold standard” (Wolf 12). She also discusses how women’s appearances have a major influence on how they are treated in society. Women feel that they are being judged not only by the men of society, but also by themselves.
Naomi Wolf writes another book that describes the beauty myth and how the images of beauty are being used against women. “….. Physical appearance, bodies faces, hair, clothes ------- matter so much” (Wolf, 9). Women in our society hide so much behind the ideals that we have rights, and are able to work and have our own, that they are too ashamed to admit that there is a new constraint ¬¬¬¬¬---- our beauty. The fact that women are not acknowledging the fact that our beauty now defines us, gets us more dates, helps us get out of certain issues, and earns us free things shows that they are still be controlled by the beauty myth. The beauty opens up discussions about appearance in our society that deem it ok to critique a woman’s appearance to
It is argued that other racially diverse models are told to work harder in maintaining their “model beauty”. In an interview with a white female model in the article, “managing the semiotic of skin tone,” she states that “they ask more things of black models than they do of white models” (Wissinger, page 165). This can be demonstrated in the documentary when Renee’s New York agent, Justin Peery discuses “beauty” within the industry perspective. He states that when agencies want to include diverse models, they look for women that have white girl features, in other words, he mentions that the fashion industry only accepts “white girls dipped in chocolate” (St. Philps, 2010). Thus, what is being argued is that when comparing a white model to a black model, if a white female model’s features are somewhat “off,” the white model is still given an opportunity although they don’t see her to be “perfect.”
As mentioned the media often depicts the “beautiful” women to be tall, thin and often white. By showing these different types of aspects that are seen as flaws in other companies, Dove is using these aspects to generate a relationship with their consumers. In an interview conducted by Jennifer Millard, she asked women what they believed were the intentions of Dove. Interviewee response of Dove’s body wash was “…they are selling you on the experience and here’s how you can get the experience with this bottle” (Millard pg. 160). This represents that by showing these advertisements of positive messages on real beauty, is generating an experience in which a customer can remember when coming across a Dove product.
Ideal beauty exists in every part of the world, however hard one may try, one cannot run away from the concepts of a perfect body. Ideal body image is created by celebrity beauty campaigns, cosmetic surgery endorsements, and the exploitation of beauty on television shows, advertisements, and other media platforms. Companies participate in celebrity beauty campaigns by featuring well-known celebrities who are considered to be at the essence of beauty, and then sell their products to consumers by using the celebrities’ looks. For example the Viva Glam beauty Campaign, “Wham! Bam! VIVA GLAM!
Mind-numbing advertisements that incessantly shown to us have become ingrained into memory, altering the definition of beauty into something superficial and vile. Sadly, beauty has been commercialized to represent fashion lines and cosmetics. Fashion is defined as “the prevailing style (as in dress) during a particular time” (Fashion). Furthermore, cosmetics are defined in Merriam Webster as, “done or made for the sake of appearance” (Cosmetics). This vision of what beauty is nothing more than a fantasized or “photoshopped” vision of superficial beauty.
Not only women have been objectified, but also the average female reader has been forced to face an unrealistic misconception towards the female body. In Grace Bai’s article Ad Bank Semiotic Analysis: Cosmopolitan and Maxim Magazines we encounter the stereotyped female figure and how contemporary advertising customs create ultra sexist notions
The women are shown deceiving towards the camera while revealing their “perfect bodies”; flat stomach, thigh gap and long-limbed. By seeing such images, it is rather difficult to alter the ideal model of a flawless women. Candice Swanepoel (present in this campaign) is often associated with the definition of perfection, which results in once again results in a temptational desire to become just like her. Therefore, Victoria’s Secret Swim Special proves the idea that mass media greatly influences our mindset and expectations while intriguing an audience ranging from young girls to