The Culture of Beauty,
by Gale Cengage Learning, in the Opposing Viewpoints Series, talks about how
the media has been influencing and pushing teens, among people of all ages, in
the pursuit of unreachable beauty. Beauty is increasingly becoming more and
more important, beginning in the 1980s period, to now. “Since then, stories
such as Cinderella and other ‘transformation narratives’ are increasingly being
woven through popular culture, consumer advertising, media images, and
television shows… illustrate, for many main-stream American women, Cinderella-
like transformations.” The media sets unreachable standards every day, that so
many people attempt to reach, and this ends up ruining so many lives, with
stress and permanent additions to one’s life, for example, plastic surgery. On
tv and in magazines, often, unreachable standards of beauty are portrayed, but
with the help of photo shop, filters, and other photo-changing and enhancing
computer affects. As computer programs’ boundaries are raised, so are the
beauty standards. These standards, that aren’t surpassed or even reached by
anyone, are what cause huge amounts of stress and ruin lives. Many people spend
hours each day “preparing themselves,” as if they’re not good enough without
styling their hair or applying make-up.
While, on the other hand, the book describes how
the pursuit for beauty is what causes people to want to get to know you, and
that “just because a woman would make a sandwich for a homeless person doesn’t
make a man fall for her.” While who you are and your character are important, that’s
only part of it. In the wild, animals release odors or exhibit colorful
feathers or emit calls to attract and appeal to each other, when selecting a
mate. This can be compared to humans, where we strive for media standards of
beauty, such as styling our hair, wearing make-up – adding or changing
ourselves to appeal to each other.
Striving for beauty can’t be considered bad, but
it can’t really be considered good, either, mainly due to the fact that it’s a natural
thing and there are always going to be “better looking people” and “worse
looking people,” because the world can’t tie with itself. There are always
people on top, and at the bottom. Equality and Life living in harmony is
impossible, because in order to live you cannot just breathe, eat, and sleep –
you must experience.
