Women's Attitudes, Behaviors and Comfort Regarding Societal Ideals of Beauty

Women's Attitudes, Behaviors and Comfort Regarding Societal Ideals of Beauty

Introduction

In today's world one of the most important characteristics considered in a human being is beauty. This innate characteristic of a human being has now led to a massive competition. Cultural and traditional perceptions are always co related with the standard of beauty of a specific society, as the standard of beauty in any society is a mere representation of its culture and tradition. Certainly it can be stated that there is no universal standard of beauty, which is why it differs from culture to culture. The standard of beauty in any culture is usually influenced by a chosen ideal of beauty, and this stereotype is usually the one with the possession of an impressive social status and wonderful sex appeal. America, where being beautiful for a women is a role that she has to fulfill, is a country where one-third of the population is mixed with different cultures and race, while the remainder being white people, which makes it quite obvious for the stereotype of beauty or the ideal of beauty representing the standard of beauty usually to be the white women, with light hair and colored eyes and a thin figure (www.puppethouse.org). The black or the dark people e.g. the Asian Americans were never considered beautiful and hence were never idealized for their beauty. This is a very popular issue in the American society and is discussed very often and has led to a lot of conflicts.

A very important thing that should be kept in mind is that media uses marketing only to create awareness about the happenings in society. And the main objective of marketing is to find out the wants and the needs of the general public and go by fulfilling them profitably. Now it is unfortunate that the society has created such urges which has provided media with an opportunity to cater this profitable market. Media has played a vast role in creating these differences and leading to these hardships, which the American girls and the women have to deal with, however on the other end it could be said that the trend is slightly changing (Donato 2012). Young women consider media to be the greatest challenge, as the constant display of the ideal women and its approach of convincing the young women to become like them with a persistent utilization of persuasive marketing, hence it increases their level of willingness and leads to disappointments and distress at the same time. Influence of media on its audience (women to be precise) is usually negative, which is why it is considered to be harmful, as its main effect is on an individual's identity.

Discussion

We all know everything has its advantages and disadvantages, it always depends on the approach taken towards it, whether it is perceived as a benefiting or a non benefiting factor, by the party associated with it. Similarly the set standard of beauty reflected by the ...