You Wear It Best

In my philosophy class, a hot topic has been the unrealistic beauty standards for women. In Jean Kilbourne's film, "Killing Us Softly 4," there is a clip of how a regular girl is transformed into a billboard “beauty” for a Dove advertisement. She has her makeup done professionally and is then Photoshopped. The picture of the model that goes up onto the billboard for thousands of people to see looks nothing like the real girl. What is dangerous about this is that girls everywhere look at these pictures, magazine covers, and advertisements and think that this is what celebrities look like and what women should emulate. This, however, is simply not true.

Real life men and women have flaws, but with the wave of a Photoshop wand, love handles or wrinkles can be erased and abs can be added. Not only does this idealized and false beauty standard make women look at themselves differently, but they start to compete with other females.  The media plays a major role in creating what beauty is and what qualifies as “cute” or “hot.” Just like fashion, beauty has trends, too. One year skinny, tall, blondes will be trending, while the next year is all about exotic-looking brunettes.

Here is an example of how the media pits women against one another:

Photo Credit - channingtatumunwrapped.blogspot.com

 We are constantly judging and critiquing one another – so much that it has become an unhealthy obsession. To add insult to injury, women are often put down if they are intelligent, educated, and not living up to beauty norms. Because technology doesn’t move backwards, Photoshop and beauty-altering creams and devices will be a constant pressure that both men and women will have to deal with. Instead of spreading false images around, it is more important to spread the truth around - the truth about what actually goes into creating magazine covers and that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.