Pop Culture and its Effect on the Perception of Beauty - Essay Example

Joon Suk Lee ENG-W131 Dalia Davoudi 28 June Pop Culture and its Effect on the Perception of Beauty Popular culture is the type of culture in which most people today, regardless of age, gender and status; look upon to stay in trend. It can be observed in music, films, and at some point in the beautification schemes of people and their perceptions of beauty. Hence, most people look up to personalities in the popular culture and they tend to base their actions and decisions on the possible implications it might bring in consideration to the culture they are into. Lady Gaga had been a trendsetter in fashion and beauty for several years to date. Her photo to be featured in this paper and the way it was presented is much more similar to what she portrayed herself in public – deviant and trendsetter. Beyoncé, on the other hand, had been a role model of popular culture for more than a decade now. She depicts talent and beauty that most young people look up to and desired to be. These two personalities in their own ways set the standards for beauty and define what popular culture is. By this, my paper will try to evaluate the effect of popular culture in people’s perception of beauty. I will explore two photos to prove that there is a connection between the photos, the popular culture and its role in influencing people’s lives and perspectives in terms of their social roles and in the aspect of beauty in particular. In her study “Britney, Beyoncé and me – Primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular girl’”, Barbara Read, discussed how gender and culture shape the values of young girls today into aligning them with what their role models are, like for example Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. According to Read (2), children’s peer culture play an important role in shaping the way they value things and construct meanings such that the more their friends want to become like their role models, they wanted the same things to happen to them too. According to the results of the study (Read 5), school girls look up to their female teachers primarily as their role models but this can be argued to be normal as teachers are the next best thing they normally look up to. The next school girls’ role models include female singers and performers such as Britney and Beyoncé (Read 5). Source: American music photo set. The photo above showed Beyoncé as she performed Oxygen Festival in Ireland. The photo is an example of a framing vector in which the artist used edges of the image as well as other vectors within the image to direct viewer’s attention; this type was specifically used to include certain elements while excluding others (“Tools” 6). By using this type of vector, the artist/photographer was able to portray Beyoncé as an object in which viewers can direct their attention (“Tools” 7). The objectified pop star can now be subjected to scrutiny and in turn may influence the perception of people especially pre-teen girls and women. They were able to see Beyoncé in this photo as a role model in the way she look and dress and how beautiful and talented she is. The perspective of the photo was oblique in which there is a slightly more detached sense of involvement (“Tools” 14) and the long shot social distance that pertains to distance between people who are to remain strangers (“Tools” 17). In support to this claim, Read suggested in her work that pre-teen girls look up to people that are popular and are stranger to them (6). Read’s extensive works on the subject lead her to conclude that pop music had been important for pre teen girls in construction of their identity indicated by their interest in unknown or rare songs or bands/singers before looking up to anyone else (6).The photographer clearly conveyed the extent in which popular culture influenced a large number of people through capturing within the frame of this photo the millions of people looking up to Beyoncé and by representing her as the beautiful and talented person that she is. In the same light, Naomi Wolf discussed in her book “The Beauty Myth”, how the female gender lean to things that influences their perceptions of beauty and how popular culture affected their values and constructions of meanings as well as their roles in society. According to her, women’s perception of beauty conforms to the popular culture, popularized by influential people and supported by multi-million dollar advertisements (4). Among the examples she cited in her book were: women undergoing silicone breast implants, and lesser clothing materials to cover the body (4), as well as the popularity among women of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in which they consider as perfectly normal within that context (5). She also suggested that the beauty myths, that were most commonly adhered to and desired by women today to change and upgrade their roles and status in society and to catch up with what the world see as “beautiful”, was in fact a political idea such that the female beauty was used as a political weapon against women’s advancement and considered it as a currency system that was determined by politics (10). Source: American music photo set. Looking at the vector in this photo, it can be noted that it was demand type such that the picture is demanding the viewer’s attention and is trying to establish contact to the viewer (“Tools” 8). The perspective, as suggested by the same presentation, is frontal since it promotes a high level of involvement and the sense that the viewer is directly engaged with the image (11) and with close up social distance such that the image was presented in a way that implied that the viewer is looking up to the object or photo (15). The photographer presented Lady Gaga the way she had always presented herself in public. The strong arrive of the photo to the viewer suggest that she had a demanding and commanding sense of influence to women. According to Wolf, advertisements and influence of people in higher status greatly affected how women perceived the concept of beauty (4). In this photo, Lady Gaga suggested that she was the modern day woman, free from the constraints of the beauty myths and able to do what she wanted to do. However, Gaga’s self expression and her trendsetting activities supported Wolf’s claim that the stronger women’s role in society were, the greater the burden of beauty would be to them (3) and implies that physical appearance was something that is related to female liberation and female beauty and not out of shame and guilt (9). The photographer was effective in showing that popular culture influences people especially women in terms of beauty and their role in society. The close up shot of Lady Gaga represents how engaging and demanding culture is to women’s sense of worth and by worth meaning beauty and physical appearance. In summary, the focus of the photographs and the contexts in which they are laid down influences the behaviour of people. These people who are considered to be the viewers look into the dimension and perspective of the photos as if they can influence them. The photos were evaluated to align with how gender and culture influences the perception of beauty for the pre-teen girls and the full pledged women in our society. It can be noted that culture influences the behavior of pre-teen girls to link their role models to pop stars and icons mainly for their appearance, personality and accomplishments while full pledge women were considered to be under the influence of beauty myths in which men are at the centre and stereotyping and consumer culture prevail (144). This instances left girls and women vulnerable to misconception of gender roles and value of beauty. Works Cited American music photo set. “Beyonce performing at Oxygen Festival in Ireland.” Photograph. Web. 27 June 2013. American music photo set. “Lady Gaga.” Photograph. Web. 27 June 2013 Read, Barbara. “Britney, Beyoncé, and me – primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular’ girl”. Gender and Education, 23:1, 1-13. Routledge. 2011. Web. 25 June 2013. “Tools for Visual Analysis”. Power point presentation. Lecture Notes. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: Anchor Books, 1992. Print. Read More