Pursuing Perfection: Society, Media and Beauty
Beauty has been long defined as a set of attractive features a certain individual appreciates. It is a generally accepted notion that beauty remains to be declared by the one who sees. However, as time went by, people’s sight blurred and along the chaos, this individual’s notion of beauty became the one and only truth. Being sensitive to what is real beauty is as dull as it sounds inefficient.
To simply redefine what is beauty is never simple. Influenced from certain icons, highlighted by flashing media, and affirmed by many socialites, beauty has become more than a description of the face. Women had to be always pretty and slim.
Men had to be muscular and strong. It has become a high demand in the market where hobbies and little appreciation became obsessions. The American society would almost chant miracles by cosmetic surgeries. The media plays a major influence, the society tolerates the subtle imposition, and the person within grasps the whole idea with both arms. Media Affirmation Media affirms the silent speculation of how people define beauty. People think they will not fit in with other people and ad commercials will show them how they can be happier when they are as beautiful as their models. It will be a challenge, the ad would say, but worth doing so.
Little did the audience know that they were simply trying to sell their products that truthfully caring for their lives. To be young and full of physical life is the only key to happiness. According to website Media Awareness Network, ads take advantage of the insecurities of the people. Those who are not beautiful should use their products. When they use the products, and achieve the kind of beauty they desire, then their lives would be worth living. These ads could be as simple as the right clothes to wear for the season or the latest trend in cosmetic surgery available in the market today.
Regardless of what product it is, it will make their lives perfect, or so their ad says so. Media has presented different options: shampoos, soaps, perfume, lipstick, make-up, clothes, accessories, shoes, bags, and even underwear. Media would allow people to choose to make them feel the freely did so. But each item on the racks and shelves of malls and grocery stores lead to say one thing: if you want to be beautiful, use it until you are. Society and the Tasty Bait In this regard, media hands over a product as a bait, and society takes a bite on it.
In any generation of people, what others think and feel about a certain person mattered a lot to that person. It dictates how they should fit in into society and how they can be truly happy when they are truly beautiful. When the ads say a person will have to be slim so that others would even find true friends, then it would seem then that the basis of relationships is shallow to begin with. For every culture, beauty is defined differently. However, in the latest trends of fashion and influences, and the rise of a global market, one construed definition has crossed borders.
It made the world want that kind of beauty. The kind that is rather superficial than appealing to certain existential individuals and society is most appealed by it. It is one thing to have all forms of media present a definition of beauty, it is another when the rest of society applies these bait to everything it was intended for. Website Associated Content noted that media distorts the meaning of beauty but the society takes as it is. One could even say that society even confirms the ads and everybody else should follow. People should always be beautiful and sexy no matter who or where they are.
Weakling Within There will always be the option to not follow the trends and be themselves no matter how eccentric they are. But as the society dictates, the individual is more inclined to follow. This means that other affairs associated with that person is influenced by the constantly changing trends. YGoY Beauty Tips even noted that even in employment, employers also consider the physical attributes of a person before hiring them under their wing. However, as observed of majority of America, they failed to consider other attractive qualities of a person that cannot be observed by the eye by first glance.
Being intelligent with a great sense of humor can also be considered as beautiful. The individual is weak and insecure. It has made them quite gullible and the companies have taken advantage of this by blasting all avenues of media possible solutions. They are saying, one will have to feel beautiful to be less miserable. With ads presenting mostly physical beauty than essential beauty, an individual will assume that beauty should start from the skin, instead of from the heart. Companies catered to the fears and insecurities and turned them around to make them buy the product to solve their problems.
These assumptions, according to the abovementioned website, were affirmed by a research study. People strongly believe that physically beautiful people are happy and content with their lives. It has become their personal goals to reach this level. They failed to see that without being the epitome of beauty, one can achieve great happiness as well. But because the society applies what the media says, an individual bends to these trends. As another article from Associated Content said, beauty is demanding. Conclusion In the end, the definition of beauty today is the misconception of what is really most important in life.
It deludes the public and make them feel secure enough to get into the next day. It pushed people to believe that you always have to fit in. Little did these people know that they are just being succumbed to buy certain products and make other people happy. Certain people bend for it and others end being obsessed with it. Beauty became a form of evil when it should be most appealing even with eyes closed. Beauty has been defined by media, as a marketing strategy to continually have their products on sale. Society takes on the definition beyond that an economic exchange. They made it as a way of life, indulging at what the media offered.
The individual succumbs to the manipulation to alleviate their own insecurities. With this, one loses the essence of being an individual. Being who you are no longer mattered and fitting in did. Being happy is not being able to express oneself completely. Instead it is about being beautiful and always appealing to anyone’s eyes. They pursue perfection. But how could anyone continuously look at a person’s face, and appealed by it, if the words that come out of their painted lips are not as the plastic face has promised? References (2005). What are the notions of beauty in society. Retrieved November 20, 2008 from http://beautytips.
ygoy. com/general-tips/effects. php. (2006, December 20). Society and the pursuit of society. Retrieved November 20, 2008 from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/103679/society_and_the_pursuit_of_beauty. html? cat=9. (2008). Beauty and body image in the media. Retrieved November 20, 2008 from http://www. media-awareness. ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty. cfm. Little Lady. (2006, November 8). Media distortion of beauty. Retrieved November 20, 2008 from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/84381/media_distortion_of_beauty. html? page=1&cat=60.
