Today's Unrealistic Beauty Standards - Who do we blame?

In today's world, unrealistic beauty standards have been on the trend for quite a while now, and it's not going to hinder soon. Beauty standards like : 

1. Glowing and Perfectly Clear Skin: This skin is always clear of any blemishes, scars, or signs of aging, often achieved through intense skincare routines or cosmetic procedures. This ideal can lead to overuse of skincare products, unnecessary treatments, and anxiety over normal skin imperfections.

2. Plastic Surgery Perfection: That is high cheekbones, perfectly symmetrical faces, full lips, and often enhanced body parts like breasts and buttocks. The "Instagram face," which includes features like smooth skin, large eyes, and a small, contoured nose, is a common example.

3. Excessive Use of Photoshop and Filters: Flawless skin, altered body shapes, and unrealistic features that people edit heavily using software or social media filters. This practice can distort reality and set unattainable standards for beauty.

4. Youth Obsession: Anti-aging products and treatments that promise to erase wrinkles, maintain youthful skin, and look significantly younger than one’s actual age.

5. Extreme Thinness: Models and celebrities often exhibit deficient body fat percentages, with visible bones and minimal muscle mass. A "size zero" figure frequently characterizes this look. This standard can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, and severe malnutrition.

Today, society is heavily influenced by what we see in the media, unfortunately disregarding our authentic selves. Our society's beauty standards are not just affecting today's youth; they're weighing them down, focusing on being artificial rather than genuine and raw. For this reason, women or even young girls are likely to suffer from depression as they are being body shamed and bullied by society for actually how they look, and that's never-ending.  

Media Influence: The Power of Advertisements and Social Media in Shaping Beauty Ideals

However, the question arises: Who is to blame for the insane beauty standards? Social media, models, and Instagram influencers have created the dominant culture in society. But we strive for perfection and neglect that every person in this world has flaws and imperfections. Therefore, people go awry in accepting themselves as they are because they are overwhelmed by society and worry about how people will think about them. 

Recently, plastic surgery has increased drastically through the years and has become popular among the youth.  Every other person is going through the danger and complications of injections and other procedures just to make themselves look perfect. Why have people become so desperate to change themselves to plastic? Well, the answer is simple. Social media stars like The Kardashians have set this trend of plastic surgery to obtain the body or face they want. Lip plumping, chest and hip expansion, and a high bridge nose are all features obtained by medicalization and are considered today's beauty standards. Women would not compromise their health if it weren’t for the beauty standards that push them to get these surgeries. 

The Role of the Fashion and Beauty Industry:

The truth behind the highest-paid models has been dermal fillers and numerous plastic surgeries to look as beautiful as possible. They are super skinny and set the bar high for young people to do the same. They are the highest-paid models because they are plastic and slim fit, which covers the criteria of being a model. The most famous models are speculated to be the most beautiful women according to science. However, people fail to acknowledge that they had tons of plastic surgeries, and that's what makes them a fake attraction. For example, this research article by R. Watson dives explicitly into how social media and the fashion industry have set unrealistic beauty standards for all women. 

Psychological Impact & Effects of Beauty Standards on Self-Esteem and Mental Health

This obsession fuels societal pressures to appear glamorous and have a specific body type. Instagram influencers often flaunt their lavish skincare routine and flawless, fair skin. Teenagers often seem too concerned about their pimples or having bad skin; they dwindle to believe that it's natural and that they look beautiful even with their imperfections. Furthermore, eating disorders and dangerous hospitalization have been a direct result of pursuing a particular body type by following a social media star’s diet plans. On the other hand, those who follow these standards less are underrepresented and left out. 

Furthermore, editing and Photoshop have gained wider use among social media influencers, promoting an intrinsically unnatural and impossible ideal of beauty. Consequently, youth may feel dissatisfied with their appearances because they don’t match this fictitious image. Overall, our failure to address the usage of image-modifying technology can perpetuate poor mental health effects even though this outcome can be easily changed. 

While I highlight the Instagram models and influencers who significantly destroy our youth and create reference groups, our pluralistic society follows their example. It attains toxic beauty advice that normalizes unrealistic and narrowly defined beauty standards, promotes potentially harmful beauty practices like surgery, and implies that the key to building self-esteem is physical perfection, like an hourglass figure, super skinny body, double eyelids, and plumpy lips (lip fillers). Ultimately, we undermine our natural beauty and question our existence, feeling the emotional toll of these unrealistic standards. 

Beauty Corporations Promoting Unrealistic Beauty Expectations

Unfortunately, our celebrities often promote fairness cream advertisements, making people with dark complexions feel insecure about their skin color. Excruciatingly, our social media fails to encourage today’s young teenagers to love themselves. Recently, South Koreans, especially those in the K-pop industry, have often been derided for having darker skin tones. Korea has a distinct beauty standard, including big doe eyes, a slim nose, a v-shaped jaw, and especially clear and fair (pale) skin.

These are all features that the Korean pop industry has heavily emphasized. However, young people go through relative deprivation as they are not considered beautiful people who are cherished by society.  These characteristics of a flawless human being are determined by prejudiced people who are irrational and have built toxic beauty traits.  

Studies prove that beauty standards directly contribute to anxiety and depression. They can trigger body dysmorphia and disordered eating. They can fuel low self-esteem, self-harm, and even suicide. These conditions have risen in recent years and are unequivocally connected to beauty standards. Our youth needs to stop obsessing over these celebrities, who are entirely fake on social media and appear to be the most perfect human beings. 

Truthfully, their lives are falling apart: they suffer from anxiety disorders and other mental illnesses. You never know that you are living better off than these ideals. 

It may be utterly soul-crushing to feel pressured by the need to fit in with what society considers attractive. It may result in mental health problems such as sadness, anxiety, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. Individuals who portray people in media, periodicals, and television adopt ridiculous beauty standards.

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Being self-conscious about one's appearance is very normal, but it is vital to remember that beauty can refer to anything that appeals to the mind aesthetically. Thus, it does not need to conform to society's unrealistic beauty standards. 

Seeing these insane beauty standards all over the media, young men and women feel as though they have to meet these standards or they aren't good enough. From my perspective, I have explained everything in detail why this insane beauty standard is now deemed as modernization. At some point, people will age, and all their beauty and surgeries will go in vain; what matters is their inner image. You need to change yourself, and the world can change its heart. The beauty lies in the rarity, and each of us is unique. 

Works Cited: 

Watson, Robert. "Appearance-focused social media use, unrealistic beauty ideals, and body image dissatisfaction." Journal of Research in Gender Studies 12.1 (2022): 114-129.

Laham, Martha. Made up: How the beauty industry manipulates consumers, preys on women's insecurities, and promotes unattainable beauty standards. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2020.

Moeini, Ali, Karim Faez, and Hossein Moeini. "Face recognition across makeup and plastic surgery from real-world images." Journal of Electronic Imaging 24.5 (2015): 053028-053028.