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Beauty Standard
Beauty standards are a concept that raises controversial questions, which is always a debating issue in every sphere of life. Each nationality and ethnic groups have several questionings revolving around beauty standards. Some communities believe that beauty standards vary and depend on the beholder. Besides, an individual’s well-being and behaviors are affected. The media also plays a role in shaping, describing, and projecting beauty in ‘thin ideal.’ Traditional and modern media projects beauty ideals, such as skin, hair, and facial features, which shows their psychological factors that impact appearance and body image. Body shape, weight, size, performance, physical characteristics, self-esteem, and movement. There are dissatisfaction feelings that consume individuals when they feel like their appearance is bouncing off from ‘beauty ideal,’ like body accumulating excess fats and body scars. Actually, these imperfections are highly scorned by media, especially the entertainment industry. This body dissatisfaction may lead to unhealthy behaviors, like chronic dieting and eating disorders. Several beauty satisfactions delineate body dissatisfaction origin. Consequently, beauty standards projected by all life spheres, especially the media, have negatively impacted youths and children, aiming to look attractive to the extent of trying surgery fixations.
Westernization perspective of beauty standards incorporates both non-surgery and surgery means of hitting beauty ideals. Notably, western, especially the US, is the main source of cultural exports in fashion, media, and celebrity. For instance, currently, the Japanese beauty ideal revolves around the competition between Japanese small-sized breasts and American larger-sized breasts, while in Brazil, breast reduction is vital to maintain the traditional beauty ideal reference for small breasts. Non-surgery techniques, like botox and fillers, are widely used to enhance beauty, alongside multiple surgery implants done daily. Moreover, the US is not the only culture exporter, but Brazil and South Korea have their own celebrity and pop cultures, whose influence has spread beyond their borders.
Local ideas of skin color are important to understand why and how cosmetic procedures are manifested differently within distinct societies. This is where skin color arouses the ‘race’ notion of beauty. Political economy has a critical role in westernization through urbanization, modernization, neoliberalism, and industrialization. Politics, especially on gender and race, are vital while rendering particular desirable procedures at particular periods of time in distinct markets of cosmetic procedures.
The slim ideal is a perspective that historically, societies have associated with beauty, symbolically representing the beauty of female fecundity. It shows a full female figure and indicating the valued resources access. Many parts of the world have a slimness obsession that draws economically secure societies. Contrarily, societies that do not take sufficient food for granted still rate large body sizes in beauty ideology. A study from the International Body Project suggested that despite the societies withs sufficient food appreciating large body sizes, they prefer underweight body shapes. Two categories of groups of people, sated and hungry, were invited to rate the bodies’ shapes. The sated group preferred the underweight figures, while the hungry group preferences varied from underweight to overweight body shapes. Therefore, body ideal beauty is linked to an individual’s society and access to food.
National politics, though disconnected from appearance, critically play a role in influencing beauty ideal. Currently, China has embraced cosmetic surgery powerfully to achieve deemed acceptance, which are ideals of the early cultural revolution era. High heels were broken in the streets during the cultural revolution era, and cosmetic surgeons were perceived as endangered species in the earth’s face. In Brazil during the early 20th century, the perception of cultural and racial ‘mixture’ was upheld as a racial equality form, while it was conceptualized as a ‘racial democracy.’ This Brazil notion was contrasting to the United States segregation cases associated with kaleidoscopic beauty ideal that fostered ‘mixture’ celebration. This political beauty ideal did not accept the diversity of looks but managed to expose the competing and co-existing beauty norms. These beauty norms manifested include body contouring, which gives an erotic ideal of slim waist and curves that were achieved by translocating body fat from one part of the body to another. Also, black identity manifested the distinct beauty in dark skin that faced competition from ‘whitening ‘through bleaching. These diverse beauty norms appreciate different beauty ideals globally from the ‘mixture’ celebration.
Further, the entertainment industry beauty ideal has created some unrealistic beauty standards, which have negatively influenced youths lives’. Some have developed steroid use, eating disorders, and plastic surgeries are rampantly increasing among the young population, aiming at hitting these standards. Body slimness is emphasized and celebrated in the entertainment industry. The women figure in this industry has one main role, maintaining a trim figure and use these photos to send messages on how to become a beautiful girl. The average weight of these women increases but makes sure that they remain slender. Thereby, most teenage girls are encouraged to become actresses and lose weight as much as possible. In the process, some develop eating disorders, while others starve themselves. Further, the entertainment industry recommends high cosmetic use, whereby cosmetic products are destructive, especially to girls with hyper-sensitive skin types. Also, teenage girls perform plastic surgeries and brotox injections to improve their shapes and figures. All these beauty options provided by the entertainment industry to attain their prescribed beauty standards are harmful and deadly. Ads a result, what media, particularly the entertainment industry, ranks as beauty standards have lowered esteem of body images of most girls, where some have risked their bodies with plastic surgeries for validation.
Also, some communities like Lebanon view cosmetic procedures from a different angle. These procedures are described in such a way of enhancing one’s tidiness and social relationships. As a result, cosmetic procedures are highly esteemed and valued in this nation. People are frequently advised to take cosmetic procedures regularly. This is whereby one’s ability to take care of themselves enables them to take care of others in return.
Finally, beauty standards strongly influence people’s confidence and esteem, wellness, and psychological stability. Most people, especially teenagers, try to undertake risky behaviors, like poor dieting to attain beauty standards projected by media, societies, sociopolitical and economic influences. This gives unrealistic body images, shapes, and sizes that are not easy to achieve and maintain. Westernization standards of beauty have significantly boosted cosmetic and non-cosmetic beauty procedures. It has made plastic surgery’s performance a no more big deal, besides Botox injection to improve females’ body images in particular.