(This is the first part of a paper I wrote for school on the impact that images of beauty in the media have on women. I was stunned by some of the things I discovered as I did the research. This first part is a bit depressing (Sorry), but I promise the second part is a little more positive.)
The Media's Influence on our Perception of Beauty
Are you beautiful? A study by the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty of over 3,000 women in 10 different countries discovered that 98% of women would answer no to this question (Etcoff et al. 4). Beautiful is a word most, if not all, women would love to use to describe themselves. The desire to be beautiful is almost inherent in our nature. Yet many women feel average at best and ugly at worst. Much of the way we perceive beauty has been shaped by our modern media. The media perpetuates a narrow view of what is beautiful and feeds a dangerous obsession with the superficial, but the battle for real beauty, that which begins with a beautiful heart, is one that is well worth fighting.
Women today are bombarded on every side by images of perfect women. The average American is exposed to at least three thousand ads every day (Kilbourne 58). In the majority of these ads, women are portrayed as thin with perfect skin, hair, and bodies. Their symmetrical faces smile happily or pout prettily. These perfect women tell us that perfection is possible, even normal. If these ads are to be believed, with physical perfection comes success in career, romance, friendships, and family. 81% of women in the US strongly agree that “the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can never achieve” (Etcoff et al. 28). According to a study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the desire of many girls to lose weight was connected to the frequency with which they read magazines. While only 29% of the girls were actually overweight, nearly half said magazine pictures made them want to lose weight (Kilbourne 132).
Just how different are the bodies of fashion models from those of real women? Many models are 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11, average 120 to 124 pounds, and wear a size 2 or 4 (Hellmich). Today, the average American woman is 5-foot-4, weighs between 140-150 pounds, and wears a size 12 or 14 (Peeke). Not only is the average woman 20 to 25 pounds heavier, she is also 6 or 7 inches shorter than most models.
“Media images, [Nancy] Etcoff notes in an e-mail, are often so rarefied that "they change our ideas about what people look like and what normal looks like … Our brains did not evolve with media, and many people see more media images of women than actual women. The contrast effect makes even the most beautiful non-model look less attractive; it produces a new 'normal'" (qtd. in Postrel). It’s like women are the victims of a huge brainwashing scheme that’s working all too well. We know, consciously, that these images are most likely photoshopped and airbrushed so much that they bear little resemblance to reality, but our subconscious mind absorbs them over and over and soon they become our standard of normal. This new standard becomes the one by which we measure ourselves. One wants to ask, “Who are they to tell me what is beautiful?” What or who gives the media the authority to determine what beautiful looks like? After all, ads are all about selling something. If the media can control what is beautiful, if they can convince a woman that she must have flawless skin or shining hair to be beautiful, then they can sell her products that promise to accomplish these things. “They [advertisers] are just doing their job, which is to sell a product, but the consequences, usually unintended, are often destructive to individuals, to cultures, and to the planet” (Kilbourne, 75). We allow people who are trying to sell makeup and diet products to persuade us that we need these things to be beautiful and by extension, happy and fulfilled.
This drive for physical beauty becomes all-important. In fact, in a 1985 survey of thirty-three thousand women, it was discovered that women would choose, if they could, losing ten to fifteen pounds over success in love or work (Wolf 185). 45% of women believe that beautiful women have greater opportunities in life and 59% believe that men value beautiful women more than the average woman (Etcoff et al. 25). It is no wonder then, that many would choose weight-loss over success, since they believe weight-loss will lead to a better life. It is as if women have been convinced that the only obstacles to an amazing life are ten or fifteen pounds.
This fixation on physical appearance does damage in more ways than one. Women diet, exfoliate, pluck, style, and paint their bodies in an attempt to achieve the ideal beauty set forth in the media. In extreme cases, women even throw up, starve themselves, take dangerous drugs, or have plastic surgery in their pursuit of this new “normal.” Not only do women wreak havoc on their bodies with dangerous diet regimens, but this preoccupation is also damaging to one’s mental health. One study of 350 men and women found that the “tendency to view one‘s body from the outside in,” giving precedence to physical appearance instead of to health or fitness, can lead not only to eating disorders, but also to anxiety, depression, and even lower mental performance (Kilbourne, 132).
(I'll post part 2 in a few days. It focuses more on what can be done about this drive to look like supermodels)
Works Cited
Etcoff, Nancy, Susie Orbach, Jennifer Scott, and Heidi D'Agostino. "The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report." Dove. Sept. 2004. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
Hellmich, Nancy. "Do Thin Models Warp Girls' Body Image?" USA Today. USA Today, 26 Sept. 2006. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
Kilbourne, Jean. Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising. New York, NY: Free, 1999. Print.
Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, Pamela. "Just What IS an Average Woman’s Size Anymore? « Everyday Fitness." WebMD. 25 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
Postrel, Virginia. "The Truth About Beauty." Atlantic Monthly Mar. 2007: 125-27. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.
