Women's obsession with beauty leads to depression - Essay Example

Women’s’ Obsession with beauty leads to depression Introduction It is believed that women have always been conscious about their beauty image and most of the spared time is spent on the activity of improving their physical looks. “This desire was induced in them by Nature so that they could attract the male attention and unite with them in order to procreate and continue the existence of their species. So it has an evolutionary significance. But in these days of media’s bombardment about the ideal figure that a lady should have in order to be admired by all, the craze for hour-glass-figure has reached obsessive levels. Young girls are starving themselves to death in order to make that unrealistic figure theirs. Girls are going on crash diets to lose those, not extra, but very necessary pounds” (vidyaranya). This obsession to the beauty seems really to be the fact that not all women are born genetically in a similar fashion and almost all women do not share the same genetic makeup including all the different sizes and shapes. Women when find themselves not fitting this criteria cause them psychological disorders which cause them depression to them. The growing depression in them therefore creates low self esteem and pessimism in them as women have double chances of acquiring the depression as compared to men. This essay will analyze the women’s obsession with the beauty and will hypothesize that this obsession leads them to depression and other psychological ailments which deteriorate their overall health. Introduction to Depression Naturally women have the tendency to be jealous and extra sensitive and cautious to the things which men find it normal otherwise. This tendency of them expose to them to view things differently as compared to men. The obsession with the beauty by women is one such thing which provides them reason to compare and compete with each other on potentially unproductive activities. Struggle to be beautiful is such an activity which women effectively do all the time however as described above, the failure to achieve so cause great psychological ailments in them. Depression is one such thing which, upon failure to get the desired beauty level, engulfs women and causes serious depression in them. Though the causes of depression in women are unknown and medical sciences can not say it with certainty that depression is also the result of failure to get desired beauty level however it is one of the causes of depression in women- the changes in the hormones level within women may be the cause behind creation of this depression. (www.familydoctor.org). The depression in women due to their beauty consciousness also get worse when the perceived benefits from the so called beauty of the women are not obtained or gained by the women. This is in fact the cases where women fail to attract the attention of opposite sex and implicitly loss their sex appeal and attraction. This further aggravates the overall depression level in women. Depression in Females As discussed above that the addiction to beauty within females create depression in them as women neurosis get affected by the continuous thought process of obsession with the beauty and perceived benefits it can provide to women. There are various causes of this depression. Right from increased social pressures to the media’s continues fuelling of the entertainment space regarding the perceived myths related with the women beauty. Media through continuous projection of various advertisements and through other techniques continuously project the myth that how much beauty can contribute to the overall appeal of the women to the opposite sex. The mass media’s projection of the feminine and even masculine beauty is something which is not easily achievable by the common people. This in return creates an image of the society where presentation matters a lot no matter what the actual thing is. The social pressures it causes to the society and women especially are therefore strong enough to create strong distortion of reality which ultimately forces men and women to ignore other important variables of importance and attraction. It may also be noted that our concept of beauty is not true in its entire sense as we and women especially fail to appreciate the true meaning of love and beauty. This distorted image created through media thus creates a false image of beauty in women and when this false image is not being fulfilled, depression seems to be the ultimate outcome of this. (Oudenaarden). It is further believed that the men’s view of beauty is slightly different then the women. Intelligence seems to be the prime factor which most of men prefer to have in women they like therefore for them a combination of beauty and brains is very important. To get attracted solely through beauty of women therefore can hardly attract them to women thus there is a very strong chance that men practically reject women with lots of beauty but little brains. It must also be noted that the very debate in psychology that the nature and nurture both shape the personality of the persons therefore nature seems to be one of the strong reasons behind the development of beauty myths in children right from their age of puberty. Thus the obsession with the beauty is an acquired phenomenon and not a natural phenomenon as perceived most of the times. The very social norms in our societies make young girls realize that they will get preferential treatments if they are beautiful, slim and smart. This dream or reality when not fulfilled as the child progresses into her adulthood creates strong depressive tendencies in them. The culmination of these depressive tendencies finally appears in the form of full fledge depression which can effectively end the practical life of a person. The continuous realization of not achieving the way they wanted finally may lead persons to commit suicides even. Works Cited Oudenaarden, Cornelis. "Societys perception of beauty off the mark." 18 September 2002. The Penn. 17 June 2008 . vidyaranya, latha. "Women’s Obsession with Body Image." 7 December 2007. http://empoweringall.wordpress.com. 17 June 2008 . www.familydoctor.org. "Depression in Women." 2008. www.familydoctor.org. 17 June 2008 . Read More