Culture of Beauty in America

c CULTURE OF BEAUTY IN AMERICA In this country, we as Americans have developed a strong a tragic obsession with beauty. From the endless advertisements and media feeding us with an unattainable standard of beauty, we have become desensitized to what is truly beautiful; corrupting our perceptions, ideas, and even ourselves to define what is “perfect”. The whole concept of beauty has been corrupted by the hunger for money by people selling dreams and false hopes, and rattling our confidence only to capitalize on our low self-esteems that they have created.

Realizing how critically judgmental and shallow our society truly is only probes me to wonder, does how we look truly define who we are? In the documentary “America the Beautiful”, they sporadically show a couple of average guys answering questions with their opinions on their expectations of a perfect woman, and what they responded with was absolutely horrifying. It was truly appalling to watch a couple of blue-collared guys sitting around drinking beers with their guts hanging out picking at women and saying how they have no value if they’re ugly, and getting plastic surgery would definitely earn them a “month extra on the lease”.

It’s judgments like this that lead girls to conform out of pressure to the unrealistic goal of perfection. To think that these guys represent the majority of the norm who, by the way are constantly itemizing females goes to show how shallow and superficial our people, especially men have become overtime, but I don’t think the men are to blame in total. If anything blame the media, because it is them who are shaping our minds as to what beauty is and what beauty should be.

The media is constantly imbedding this unrealistic version of a woman in our men’s heads until it influences their perceptions completely. Even the already beautiful models and actresses that are constantly photographed have their own images altered to the standard of perfection, so what does that say about real beauty? It is always easy to blame one thing or another for people’s thoughts and actions, but the media is no doubt at fault for destroying our self-images and creating ego inflations all at the same time.

We are sold tons of products that will promise us hope to become more attractive, and that seems to go for everything from hair products, to make up, to clothes, perfumes and shoes. We are the only country that favors fake tanning, plastic surgeries, and such materialistic things to portray and chase this unrealistic image of flawlessness everyone is after. In the movie, there was a study done saying how the island of Fiji was one of the only places left to maintain to their original traditions and culture with no interference from media.

Then within 3 short years of being introduced to T. V. , people were already displaying rude behaviors, disobedience, and signs of anorexia which proves how influential the media is on our self-image and actions; as well as how pressured these “set standards” can make young children growing up feel and think. I think in all cases of beauty, women obviously have it the worst. Not to say men don’t feel a pressure to look a certain way either, but women tend to look past looks a lot more than men do.

With all the Hollywood glitz and glamour we’re famous for in the states, it puts beauty on such a pedestal that it’s almost unattainable. We become constantly picked on to pieces about what we look like, and who we are as humans tend to not matter at all. Biased judgments and comments are always being made where the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t seem to exist. Women do not only go through psychological torture with deciding what looks good or not and being comfortable with their bodies, but it also drags along into physical torture, leading to suffer from bulimia and anorexia.

Women can never be completely comfortable with themselves, because the trend of beauty is always changing. It’s just like a dream you’ll forever be chasing. When I think of traditions of beauty in this society, I can’t help but think of how this idea of “super-beauty” originally came about and why it hasn’t changed. It reminds me of this T. V. show that aired for a bit starring Jessica Simpson, where she’d go around the world and see how other cultures defined what’s beautiful.

In comparison to this country, it is truly astounding to learn what other traditions perceive as attractive. In Asia, they prefer their women to be as white as snow. The paler you are, the prettier. So women over there actually bleach their skin and invest tons of money in white paint for their faces to appear the prettiest. While here in America, we have this grave obsession with being as tan as possible. In Fiji, the biggest woman is the most prized, while here people are literally dying to be skinny idolizing supermodel stature.

So what really is the true meaning of beauty? Is there no unified meaning we can all agree on universally? When it comes down to it, beauty will forever and always be in the eye of the beholder. It’s just a darn shame the media has affected our senses in such a way to distort what beauty truly is. Many people suffer from life-long battles with themselves, sacrificing their emotional saneness for an infatuated fixation with their looks. And all for what? To fill a void of low self-esteem with pseudo-confidence?

We are constantly put down and ostracized for not looking a certain way, and I think this society needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Intelligence, wisdom, love, loyalty, honesty, kindness, generosity; these are things that are beautiful, not this fake, superficial Barbie doll plastic nonsense. There is no doubt that physical appearance is important to an extent, but a personality, a soul is what makes a person stand out and sets them apart from the rest. Beauty captures the eye, but it is the soul that captures the heart.