The Role of Beauty and its Impact on Society - Essay Example

?Beauty The Role of Beauty and its Impact on Society Order No. 832553 ‘A Beauty on the Catwalk Ramp’ is what most young people aspire to be, but at what cost? However, wanting to be beautiful is not wrong, but making it an obsession is something that is not good. In this contemporary world of ours, beauty plays a major role, making it one of the most burning issues of today, because not only is it given such a prominent place in our lives and society, but it has become an obsession for many. Considering the fact that modeling has become one of the most lucrative businesses today, caution is thrown to the winds with people striving to maintain pencil thin images to bag modeling projects. When weighed against each other, Beauty is given much more weightage than good health, even though the harmful side effects are quite alarming. In our society today, considerable value is placed on beauty while leaving out the health factor. Due to this, there are a good number of youngsters who are badly affected with diseases such as Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa, thus shattering their dream of beauty altogether. Bulimia is a complex disorder that involves more than just body image and food obsession; in fact, eating disorders in general are thought to develop through the interplay of multiple factors, including emotional and/or personality disorders, genetic or biological pre-dispositions, and cultural expectations and norms. Bulimia negatively impacts the lives of sufferers in multiple ways, causing psychiatric morbidity as well as impaired functioning (le Grange & Schmidt, 2005) Individuals with Bulimia often exhibit Beauty - 2 a wide range of behavioral, emotional, psychological, and nutritional problems (Stuber & Strober, 1987). Anorexia is another dangerous food disorder, where the patient is unable to stand the sight of food. They eat very little food and often become so skinny, listless and weak. . This condition manifests itself in early adolescence and occurs in upper middle class or affluent families. The media does play a definitive role in emphasizing beauty and glamour because society teaches us, that looks matter a lot and so at a very young age children try to build an image of themselves that is not as natural as their true self. From a very early age, children are exposed to the television that advertises images telling us that slim is beautiful, or to lose weight, or fat people are made fun of or are said to be lazy and so many other such things. Very rarely do we see men and women with average body types or wearing clothes that are disheveled, giving advice. Though the media does advocate size discrimination and dieting, yet it is not fair to blame the media entirely because it is more complex than that. Our society is engulfed by advertisements of the mass media through Television, radio, magazines, the internet, movies, cable, books, music, newspapers and advertisements that somehow convince women that they have to be thin if they want to be beautiful. Magazines displaying slim or thin women do their best to convince us that we are not alright, we have to slim down in order to be beautiful and accepted. In order to break away from such unwanted norms, the media has to change their perspective of how to view and represent beauty in our society and thereby remove the existing stigma that only slim is beautiful. In the light of Beauty - 3 such a situation, it is very difficult to advise our children that what really matters is the inside and not what’s on the outside. Today’s society seems to be putting a lot of pressure on the younger generation who are most impressionable in this age group. They want to be good at everything they come across ranging from beauty to performance. The younger generation thrive on good looks and hanging out with the ‘in- crowd’ because no one wants to be left out of anything. The reason for such a condition is because they are exposed to too many things that grab their attention and leaves them with very little time to decipher the right from wrong. The young generation is easily influenced by their parents, peer groups, media and even their favorite celebrities. Though some of the younger generation have control over the kind of role model they chose to follow, such as a good sportsman, a great social worker, a good spokesperson etc., the majority of youth fall a prey to pursuing a very easy going life by going into drugs or alcohol or other illegal paths. The media is partially to blame for this because youth are exposed to such stuff that advocates their legality. Youth look up to celebrities and try to ape them in the hope of becoming a celebrity someday. On the other hand, the middle-aged generation is more cautious about such things because the realization of what is good or bad would have come to them through experience. Some common role models the younger generation look to include ramp- walking models, Hip-hop artists, actors and dancers because of the great importance given to them. 4 Body image, especially of women models in magazines has a great impact on the common man in society. Such Barbie doll like images where models appear to be so skinny but portrayed as beautiful by fashionable clothes and make-up, leaves the regular healthy women wondering if they are on the wrong planet. This definitely makes them so vulnerable to try and ape these models by undergoing crash diets or going in for dangerous surgeries etc. The media is responsible for giving out the wrong signals through women’s magazines by portraying the wrong sort of image to us which sends out wrong messages about body images. For example, there is the classic photo shopping of a Kelly Clarkson image in the magazine ‘Self’ which came in for a lot of criticism. Similarly in another popular women’s magazine, the image of a Ralph Lauren model had been photo shopped because she was not skinny enough. The ‘Vogue’ magazine shows such glamorous women between the ages of 18 to 25, whose image sends out the message that seems to advocate the ‘skinny’ image to be the norm. The normal healthy woman, as a result of such magazines fall vulnerable prey to fad diets leading to starvation. They lose their self-esteem and dive headlong into depression because they are unable to live up to the ‘skinny’ image that women’s magazines portray. Most of them come to hate themselves for the way they look because they do not realize that staying healthy is much better than have a model like figure. Women who maintain a slim image feel good and accepted in social circles, whereas women who are not so thin, feel quite uncomfortable in social circles because they feel they are not glamorous. Women who are in the modeling world may not have other skills besides modeling but 5 do not show any concern over it. However, for a regular healthy woman, having good skills or a presentable personality is not enough because they want to achieve having a skinny image in order to feel comfortable with themselves and with the society around them. Such a situation is only brought about by the ‘skinny’ portrayal of women in women magazines. Gender is not a criteria where influencing a population is concerned. Male models play an equal role in influencing men in our society. They are capable of giving a positive or negative impact depending on how they portray themselves. Models who advertise for cigarette smoking or drinking liquor would surely create a negative impact on many who try to follow them. The young male generation feels pressured into imitating the stereotyped male who possesses a lot of brawn and sexual appeal. Some of them even resort to muscle enhancing drugs such as steroids in order to build a muscular image that creates an impression. Body image is two pronged in the sense that it includes how they view their own body image and secondly how others perceive it. Negative body image in males occurs mostly during the transition period between adolescence and adulthood. Most males and females have a wrong perception of the ideal body image and the media does all it can to make this image more unrealistic by their portrayal of slim and well toned males or muscular males or super skinny celebrities on Television and in their magazines. Finally, discuss ways in which the media could de-emphasize the importance placed on beautiful faces and slender physiques. There is no doubt that the media plays a central 6 role where body image is concerned in our society. The media’s portrayal of unrealistic body images has certainly created a negative impact by influencing the young generation that only ‘slim’ is beautiful. This has led the young generation into thinking that they have to attain and satisfy this image. When this is not possible, they are faced with many risk factors such as low self-esteem and depression. The media certainly needs to wake up and take action against the damage they have already done. In order to shift beauty into the right perspective, there is a dire need for them to de-emphasize the importance given to slender bodies and beautiful faces. The media should understand that they have a great responsibility towards the citizens of any country and as such should help people change their attitude about wrong body images. This is easier said than done, but definitely it is a step in the right direction. Sending out positive messages to have a healthy physique and lifestyle while keeping popular culture in mind, would help youngsters to view themselves in a positive manner and increase their self-esteem and self-confidence. By making use of healthier models instead of the ‘skinny’ types would help to remove any wrong body image ideas they have of themselves and keep them away from stress, depression and other eating disorders such as Bulimia and Anorexia. By decreasing the emphasis laid on beauty and by enhancing their programs with health improving ideas, I am sure the media can once again become more a boon to our society and make it a much more healthier and happier place to live in. References Grange, D., & Schmidt, U. (2005). The treatment of adolescents with bulimia nervosa. Journal of Mental Health, 14(6), 587-597. Stuber, M., & Stober, M. (1987). Group therapy in the treatment of adolescents with bulimia: Some preliminary observations. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 6(1), 125-131. Read More