A lot of women have an idea in their mind of how they are meant to look. Even if you don’t admit it, there have been times where you have compared your body to those of others and wished to look like that instead. Society sees beautiful as being, tall, skinny, having clear skin, nice hair and just overall looking “perfect” all the time. This is super unrealistic and toxic for women. This can lead to many women having eating disorders because they starve themselves and are malnourished in order to be skinny just all the models. “When young girls see these unhealthy messages, such as the need to have a thigh gap or flat stomach, it can increase their chance of developing eating disorder behaviors in order to obtain these body types.” (Gonzalez 2016). These beauty ideals often come from celebrities and models because these are the types of people that most men find beautiful. A lot of girls feel like they need to look pretty and perfect in order for a man to like them. Magazines always use the pretty and skinny celebrities on their covers, and if they aren’t perfect enough the photos will get photoshopped to be more attractive.
Not only are beauty standards about having the ideal body but it is also about race. Going into a makeup store or pharmacy, a white person will have no problem being able to pick out their right shade of foundation. Contrarily, if you are a person of colour and need a foundation, the selection is much smaller and the chances of finding a shade that is right for you becomes very slim. “The reason it is difficult to find beauty items for people of color is because the standards of beauty are discriminatory to anyone who isn’t white. Any face that represents anything relating to beauty is white, and if there is a person of color representing a certain beauty product they often are light skinned.” (Mattimore 2017) This may cause people of colour to not feel beautiful because they aren’t represented a lot on magazines and in fashion shows because the majority of the time the beautiful people that you see walking the catwalks are white.
Something else that I found was interesting was beauty pageants. You hear stories all the time of young girls competing against each other to be the most beautiful contestant. This is really bad for girls to do because if they don’t win they might begin to question their beauty and wonder why they weren’t good enough to win. You shouldn’t be judged based on the way you look. Girls are put up on stage and are voted if they are pretty enough or not to stay in the competition. It isn’t right that these young women are being pinned against each other based on what they look like. “ Countless people argue that they teach young girls that they have to aspire to arbitrary beauty standards.” (Mantai 2019) I believe that women shouldn’t be judged on how they look because it can lead to many problems that aren’t just insecurity. Health problems can develop due to feeling imperfect in their own body. What some people fail to understand is that everyone is built differently and just because someone looks a certain way doesn’t mean you have to.
It isn’t right that women should feel like they have to be a certain way. What people fail to understand is that every individual is unique and that there are no two same people in the world. If all women looked the same, wouldn’t you agree that the world wouldn’t be an interesting place?
Works Cited
Gonzalez, Felicia. “Media Today : Unattainable Beauty Standards.” Girls Empowerment Network, Girls Empowerment Network, 27 July 2016, http://www.girlsempowermentnetwork.org/blog/media-today-unattainable-beauty-standards.
Mantai, Joshen MantaiJoshen. “Argument in the Office: Are Beauty Pageants Feminist or Flawed?” The Daily Nexus, 15 May 2019, dailynexus.com/2019-03-09/argument-in-the-office-are-beauty-pageants-feminist-or-flawed/.Mattimore, Dylan Megan. “The Problem With Beauty Standards.” Medium, Gender Theory, 25 May 2017, medium.com/gender-theory/the-problem-with-beauty-standards-5069f3e4569c.
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