Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show the effects of beauty standards in women. Women experience daily harassment from the people surrounding them because they don’t fit the feminine beauty standards. It is an issue that should be addressed because with harassment, women start looking for ways to fit into those beauty standards and some of the procedures are harming their minds and body. Beauty standards gradually change overtime and these past years are a lot more toned down from before, but it seems that more people are harassing women because they fit and do not fit into these so-called feminine beauty standards.
Introduction
Beauty standards differ from each country. The West having the typical round eyes, small face, thin bodies (Hankart, 2019); and East Asia having fair skin, big eyes, and a slim face and body (Kong, 2016). Beauty standards from the West have changed dramatically. From skinny bodies to flawless skin, it was then a “trend” to become a bit more on the plump side. You will be called malnourished whenever you are leaning towards the skinny side, but will then be called fat if you are on the chubbier side (Kamit, 2020).
Although there are more beauty standards existing in society, these two are the most influential. More women desire to have these physical traits and it makes them insecure whenever they think that they do not fit into the stereotyped beauty standards. Opinion from other people in society definitely matters to a person. It may not be important, but it will be sure that you will be affected with one’s opinion on you may it be negative or positive.
With the harsh opinions coming from society affecting a woman’s mental health, it might take a toll on their physical health (Greenfield, 2018). Other’s who are called will undergo unhealthy diet plans, depression, and eating disorders. Those who are then called skinny eat too much to the point of vomiting. The one’s who criticized by their facial features opt to undergo plastic surgery to achieve their desired features.
Simple standards can cause those actions and the people around them are responsible for it. Women never desired to be picked on because of the fact that they do not fit into society’s standards.
Discussions
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. A common proverb that almost everybody knows of. But why do we still seek for a stereotypic beauty standard?
Beauty standards started back in Ancient Greek and continued to happen so. It was passed on every era and became what is it now. Diana Vreeland, a special consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York said that, “Faces go in and out of fashion,” hence the ever-changing beauty standards our society goes by. (Romm, 1987)
Although it does sound like these standards only cause negative effects, there are some underlying good outcomes from this toxic silent rule in the industry. Marketing, business, and many more hire women with faces and bodies that fit into these standards creating more audience for them and their products, although this is usually seen in men’s magazine (Arvidsson, 2009). One example is the Victoria Secrets franchise. As much as possible, they would use the stereotypical face and bodies to fit into their designs for clothes and lingerie. This creates a big impact for the models, the brand itself, and for society. But underneath all of that bling, the women who model for Victoria’s Secret undergoes through hellish body training and unhealthy diets (Boan & Opelka, 2019). With the standard “model body-type” Victoria Secret displays in the market, there are women who cannot buy this famous set of lingerie/clothes because they do not fit into those standards. This limits a woman’s potential to become “beautiful”. When this happens, women tend to succumb to eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia (Petre, 2019); others go through unhealthy lifestyles and push themselves with way too much exercise.
Another positive outcome from beauty standards is the wide variety of makeup. Since beauty standards has changed drastically overtime, many makeup companies expand their products. But again, this comes with a hefty price. The women they choose as models for their products has the typical smooth fair beautiful skin, high nose, big eyes. This directly influences woman consumers. Sometimes they’ think that this type of makeup or look won’t fit them because it will only fit those models and will likely choose to do plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is not wrong. You can pick whatever you wanted to do with your face, but the problem is that some plastic surgeries do go wrong. This causes complications like hematoma, infection, blood loss, nerve damage, etc. (Schaefer, 2019). Plastic surgery does not only take a toll on your physical looks, but it also affects you psychologically. Patients who find themselves dissatisfied with their surgery becomes depressed and anxious. This leads to social isolation, family problems, or even self-destructive behaviors (Dittmann, 2005).
If you are a woman that fit into those beauty standards, you are also most likely a target of harassment. This issue is not unheard of, but it is not addressed properly because society would think that they’re only giving the person a compliment. Women experience daily harassment may it be when they go outside, at their workplace, when they post pictures of them in the internet, whenever, wherever it may be (Chatterjee, 2018).
Summary
Women, whatever their size and facial features may be, experience harassment and bullying from society. These causes women to change physically and psychologically. Most outcomes have negative effects, but there are still very few positive outcomes. This problem will only be solved if society would stop having ill thoughts about women and if society would think healthier. We can achieve this by educating ourselves, standing up for women, and recognizing to the problem (Vargas-Cohn, 2015). Women can be so much more if we do not limit them to what our eyes see.
References
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