Life

Life in the present is bombarded with many influences that make it difficult to resist no matter how people try not to succumb to the pressures and expectations of society. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but it is another story if the beholders are one’s peers, social group, and parents and even love ones. Beauty will always be skin deep, but what is seen will always be the first to be judged. As persons, an individual evaluates him/her self based on how others respond to him/her.

In this society, beauty is defined by what is seen in the outside, the physical attributes are evaluated as attractive, sexy, desirable or fat, big, ugly and gross. Within this context, people develop an unhealthy obsession with their bodies, in order to become good looking and attractive. Obsession with one’s body is a result of social influence, peer pressure and media influence.As a social being, man constantly interact with other people and is both influencing his environment and is being influenced by it.

In the American culture, one’s body is regarded as a personal property; no one can dictate to a person what one wants to do with his/her body and with it comes the personal responsibility in making sure that the body is in its best form. One of the reasons why people become obsessed with the perfect body is because of the many social influences that everyone is constantly being subjected to. An attractive body or physique would mean that an individual has invested in his/her body and that he/she can use it to his/her advantage thus the need to maintain the perfect figure through artificial or natural means.

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For example, fitness products have become a major player alongside the cosmetics industry, because as one advertisement says, “maybe she was born with it” and if it isn’t then there is always a cosmetic product or a diet pill that would enhance what she has or eliminate her flaws. Social expectations in the form of how others define physical beauty have made us believe that physical beauty is important. Having the perfect body is like having the power to be needed and wanted by others. The attractiveness of the rewards of being physically beautiful and perfect motivates a person to seek means to be beautiful in the eyes of society. Different social groups place a premium on the perfect body, evidence of which is how people react more positively to attractive people. Pretty girls get better service at bars; they get appreciative nods and smiles and are perceived to be confident and witty while hunks get the hot girls, they get better jobs and are popular. Wanting the perfect body may be caused by social expectations, but a more significant cause is peer pressure.Becoming obsessed with having the perfect body can also come from the pressures that a person feels from his/her peer group.  It is within the peer group that a child learns what is valuable and important, when teenage girls have slumber parties, they talk about what is important to them and it is mainly how to be hip and fashionable and they trade secrets in how to keep their hair that way, how to cheat on their weight and how important it is to look good for the boys in order to be popular. When boys get together, they also talk about how girls like boys who have the muscle, who are tall, who are sexy and a stud. Good looking girls and boys who are genetically endowed with the perfect body would not have difficulty in this area but those who are unfortunate to be fat and big may be consumed with the need to have a perfect body. In the peer group, a child or adolescent is continually evaluated based on their own concept of what a perfect body is and if they somehow fall short of what is desired then they are consumed in finding the means to change their appearance and body. A girl who has been teased about her nose because it is not the perfect shape may become obsessed with how to enhance or hide it and if all else fails then the answer is cosmetic surgery.  The pressure from the peer group to look perfect is very real and adolescents are very susceptible to live up to the pressure because it would ensure their belongingness to the group.Lastly, a significant cause of obsession with one’s body are found in the media, the  influence of the media is so pervasive and it constantly sends out the message that physical beauty will make people rich and successful and it promotes an unhealthy concept of beauty that is based on physical attributes only. Browse through a magazine and almost half of the entire magazine is made up of advertisements that depict the perfect body as slim, lean, and well proportioned, have great skin and attractive features. Movies and television shows always depict celebrities who are perfect in every way and these celebrities make it a point to be beautiful and fashionable, to be fit and alluring. They endorse products, diets and exercise routines to help achieve the perfect body, they are saying that if you want to become a celebrity, look at me!  Clothes modeled on the runway or even in the mannequins of Sears and Wal-Mart are often made for thin women and slim men, indirectly it is telling people that fat and big people are an anomaly and they should be concerned with their bodies if they want to feel good about themselves.In conclusion, it can be seen that all the messages and influences that a person receives directly or indirectly from social expectations and the media in the importance of having the perfect body have made people develop the obsession to have a perfect body. Obsessions in having the perfect body may take the form of wanting to change a body part, have rigid and extreme exercise routines, invest in cosmetic surgery, use make-up extensively, and have implants and others. The peer group exerts pressure to its members to have the perfect body as it is often the standard at which group belongingness is judged. Becoming obsessed with physical beauty is a result of the premium that is placed on how a person looks and the consequences associated with it.