Beauty Industry And The Creation Of The Beauty Stereotypes - Essay Example

Beauty Industry And The Creation Of The Beauty StereotypesThe beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar, world-wide one, where brand images assume cult-like influence. The success of the industry depends on promoting habits and perceptions that create a demand for its products. Chains of beauty salons spread the message at street level. The fashion industry complements the beauty industry by providing the accessories that claim to enhance visual perfection. The media are willing accomplices in the act, since beauty and fashion attract large numbers of customers.

The perfect beings projected by them possess perfect bodies, in all the correct proportions. Unfortunately, reality is something different and most people yearn to acquire these perfect bodies, spending huge amounts of time, effort and money in the process, only to be frustrated ultimately. However much people try to cover badness, animosity or hatred, they will show, at least through expressions. Real inner beauty will show in faces, expressions and actions, unaffected by the imperfections of creation.

Hence, we can easily see that the beauty and fashion industries really create a negative impact on people by promoting frustrations.They in turn try to overcome these frustrations by resorting to shortcuts that go against nature itself. Plastic surgery, steroid use and severe dieting regimes are common. So too are consequences like anorexia, bulimia, depression and feelings of inadequacy. They often indulge in these futile attempts at acquiring beauty at considerable expense, even beyond their means.

The male stereotype is tall, well built, aggressive, possessing speed and strength. The perfect female has a perfect figure with all the right proportions, is petite, delicate and submissive. Reality is something vastly different. Women starve themselves to imitate the mannequins in shop windows, or consume weight loss products that claim to lose all the calories they eat. Men use steroids to build those bulging muscles they see projected in the media. Eating disorders are common and health suffers.

Men are not satisfied with the size of their chests and get pectoral implants, while women undergo surgery to change the shape or increase the size of their breasts. Tissue damage, abnormal looking features and premature aging are dangers of facial surgery. Nerve and sensory damage and unevenness are possible side effects of breast enhancement surgery. Scarring, blood clots and infection are common dangers of all plastic surgery. Aging cannot be hidden beyond a certain limit and ageless beauty will always remain a myth, unless it comes from within.

Hormones to prevent aging and its outward manifestation are at best temporary, fraught with serious health risks. When people fail in their efforts to construct beauty, they also suffer psychologically. They feel inadequate, lose self esteem and suffer from depression. All these products and treatments come at a price, often unaffordable, particularly when attempting to replicate the risqué lifestyles that are projected along with these superficial ideals of beauty. People spend on gym memberships and home fitness equipment that come at fancy prices.

The vast majority of people are built very differently from the unrealistic body images promoted by the fashion and beauty industry. Trying to recreate these images in themselves will only harm most men and women. However, these tendencies will continue till people accept and love themselves for what they are, realizing that real beauty comes from within the self. “Those who make money have a mind, and those who spend have forgotten they have it. Beauty is nothing but a mindset, and you are actually a positive or a negative mindset when you look beautiful, or do not.

” (Parva). Works CitedBlack, Paula. (2004). The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure. UK: Routledge.Madbum. Dangers of Plastic Surgery. Things to Know before Getting Plastic Surgery. Available from: [Accessed on December 4, 2006]Parva, Sanjay. What Are You When You Are Beautiful? Does Beauty Really Matter?Available from: [Accessed on January 4, 2006]