Self-Esteem Vs Beauty

To make matters worse, these obsessions center around the misleading belief that the band members want to run away with the young girl watching. This promise of escape is utilized as a means of convincing her to imagine the picture-perfect nature of such an event taking place. A teenager and some male model fleeing to a remote paradise. In fact, 5 Seconds of Summer uses this exact trope in the music video for their song, “She Looks So Perfect.” In it, Calum Hood calls upon these young women by exclaiming into the microphone, “If I showed up with a plane ticket And a shiny diamond ring with your name on it Would you wanna run away too? 'Cause all I really want is you.”

This common convention, as seen in several music videos involving boy

A lack of confidence in one self and her abilities is extremely common as one undergoes the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. In fact, according to “Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem,” 70% of young girls feel as though they are “not good enough,” which includes her discontent with how she perceives her own body image and complexion. Therefore, it can be quite comforting to hear five charming men from One Direction, who are staring right in your eyes, utter the words, “Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe … You don’t know you’re beautiful.” For once, a girl feels like she is finally accepted for who she is, quelling those insecurities. Now that they have these women on the hook, they can “sincerely” claim that they only want to promote positivity and for girls to respect their own

Their music videos share common conventions and elements, such as pointing and establishing direct eye contact with the person watching. Yet this still does not explain exactly what created this issue in the first place. Adult women are incredibly independent, so why do young girls lack that same confidence that these songs tend to exploit? Various media outlets, such as magazines, continue to perpetuate this idea of perfection that further exacerbates the issue of self-consciousness on those teenagers’ minds. Low self-esteem is not necessarily some innate quality present in all girls, as it really only exists because that same girl is forced to grow up in a world where she is constantly told how imperfect and inferior she is compared to other women. Therefore, when a man is making direct eye contact and gesturing towards her, with the promise of some romantic escape, why wouldn’t she fawn all over him? Why wouldn’t she break her piggy bank, just so she can finally feel loved and accepted for that “one thing” that makes her special? The blame should not be placed upon the record companies, but rather those in society who allow this to happen. Love should not be some emotion that boy bands, or any male musician for that matter, exploit for their own monetary benefit. Instead, an