Unattainable Standards of Beauty Essay Example

"Do I look fat?" is a question that everyone has heard or asked themselves. Whether it is posed by a friend, a family member, or yourself in the mirror. Either way, this question is mainly influenced by western beauty standards. In applications such as Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok, many filters have the ability to warp your face, allowing you to have smaller facial features, a lighter skin tone, and blue eyes, which makes those using them believe they are not beautiful or worthy with their current appearance. Beauty standards define what our society considers desirable, appealing, and overall “perfect.’’ As a result of this, it harms one’s self-esteem and views on their body image. Society has linked beauty into self-worth, which enforces harmful and most often, unattainable beauty ideals. Lastly, beauty standards may force individuals to take extreme measures to achieve the validation that society may apply to them. Whether they use plastic surgery, unhealthy diets, or exercising just to “perfect” their appearance, these measures can have long-lasting negative effects now, and in the future. In summary, beauty ideals and standards are extremely useless and only negatively impact society.

In the western world, society idolizes certain body types and characteristics. If society deemed your body image and appearance as “ugly”, how would you feel? Beauty standards in general have forced people's self-esteem to drop drastically. “Body image concerns can be a mental health risk factor for mental health problems such as, poor quality of life, psychological distress, and unhealthy behaviour.” (Mair, Carolyn, 2019, BPS). Positive body image is necessary as it is important to be comfortable in your own body and mind. When beauty standards rise above the surface, it has a significant impact on others perceptions of what beauty truly means. Research by Florida House Experience Health shows that 87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to others on social media. The key to living a happy life is knowing your worth and having good self-esteem, yet society is pushing it away, creating insecurities in people that they may never have even considered. This forces those who do not have or cannot achieve these standards to feel unworthy and undesirable. “59% of Canadian teen girls feel pressure to conform to unrealistic expectations of what it means to be a girl.” (ipos, 2017). In order to be a “girl”, social standards are to have long hair and wear clothes that society has deemed to be “girly”. Young girls growing up with social media may feel obligated to reach a level of desirability or perfection in order to feel validated. The same goes for both men and women, as both sides have unrealistic beauty expectations which may lead them to feel as though their own beauty falls short in comparison to beauty ideals.

Society establishes an unfeasible standard of beauty for women and men, which frequently shifts. Beauty standards fluctuate extremely easily which harms those who take extreme measures to achieve those standards. These measures are usually split into the following categories; harmful exercising, dangerous dieting, and cosmetic surgery. All of which are used to alter their appearance in order to fit within the standards. Many people develop a negative body image due to the models they see with distorted and unrealistic bodies. As a result, some succumb to the risks involved in attempting to obtain certain body types. Taking extreme measures using cosmetic surgery, unhealthy dieting, and harmful exercises can have negative long term effects. In only 16 years, the number of Botox procedures has increased drastically due to the popularity of celebrities with fuller bodies. “Botox procedures alone have increased 759% since 2000.” (attn, 2016). In addition, “½ of teenage girls and nearly ⅓ of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviours such as skipping meals, smoking cigarettes, vomiting and taking laxatives.” (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005). As reported by Eating Recovery Center, the health risks for eating disorders include possible organ damage, development delays, and death/suicide. In essence, many of those who partake in extreme measures to achieve their “dream body” face serious health concerns in the future.

As long as being 'attractive' remains a goal that everyone aspires to, a hierarchy will exist to divide the 'beautiful' from the 'ugly'. However, if we work to reestablish these standards, we can release several stigmas (e.g. feminism = females only, masculinity = males only), promote body positivity, let others/yourself feel more confident in your own bodies, etc. A report by Observsmart states that “A positive body image is important because it builds self-esteem and better mental and physical health. Feeling comfortable in your own skin can make you feel more confident, which affects important aspects of your life such as your work and relationships.” Our current beauty standards can be re-invented to emphasize beauty on the inside since that is what truly defines a person. The following quote effectively sums up how we should perceive ourselves: “It’s now time for body-positive initiatives. One’s identity should never be swayed by social conventions. One’s self-esteem should never be dependent on one’s appearance. Appearances aren’t everything. Characters, values, skills-these are attributes one must seek to acquire or develop.” (economictimes, 2018). Overall, we should work together to create a new era of beauty, one that does not involve physical appearances, but rather, character traits. 

Given these points, the standards the media has created affect society negatively. Particular standards that include body image, and appearance have harmed many individuals self-esteem and perceptions of beauty. While beauty is a broad topic, many people have agreed that only some particular features are attractive. These standards have compelled people to go to extremes in order to achieve these standards, which could be extremely harmful to the human body. Therefore, society’s perception of beauty is harmful, and it is only hurting those growing up, and surrounded by the media, which is why we need to encourage body positivity.