The Entertainment Industrys Influence on Male/Female

The following sample essay on “The Entertainment Industry’s Influence on Male/Female” examines the pressures on women from the entertainment industry. The media emphasis on the beauty and attractiveness of women has indeed grown into a global problem.

Plato, an Athenian philosopher described beauty, truth and goodness as the three important values in his philosophical system. He said that good and truth are always beautiful, but what appears to be beautiful is not always good or true (Adamson & Zavod, 2006: 188-193).

An American film and television producer, Aaron Spelling said that he is unable to define beauty, but when it walks into the room he acknowledges it (Adamson & Zavod, 2006: 188-193).

Perfection is the disease of a nation, sings Beyonc? in her song Pretty Hurts. These words bring up the question: Why do we relate our outer-image to how beautiful we are?

In todays societies females are photoshopped into globalised beauty standards through media. This statement will be discussed in die following essay through three arguments: All females are in some way a victim of globalised beauty standards, media sets beauty standards for females and our bodies become cultural creations rather than unique individuals.

Firstly, all females are in some way a victim of globalised beauty standards. We all know the saying: Dont judge a book by its cover. I grew up with the value of inner beauty is much more important than outer beauty, but in reality, our society places much more prestige upon one’s physical beauty. Disappointment fills my mind as I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, seeking out only my imperfections.

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I then realised how the globalised image of physical beauty is imprinted in my conscious.

Globalised beauty standards force females to question their beauty. Dove has researched women all around the world that are not feeling confident in their beauty and the results were as follow: 61% in the US, 86% in China, 96% in the UK and 72% in Brazil (Fetting 2018). The proportion of women dissatisfied with their outer representation increased from 23% to 56% from 1972 to 1996 (Adamson & Zavod, 2006: 188-193). All humans consist of a spiritual longing to have an outer representation that complements their dreams, visions and moral aspirations (Adamson & Zavod, 2006: 188-193).

There is a parallel between beauty and body image therefore individuals with body image issues may be one of many other individuals that are constantly striving towards a beauty ideal (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564). Body image is identified by bodily evaluation and body investment (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564). Body image can then be defined as the degree to which one is satisfied with their body and the level of psychological importance associated with appearance (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564).

An article on Beauty and body image concerns among African American college women stated that European aesthetic is overvalued while aesthetic of other ethnic groups is undervalued, for example, the U.S. considers a “fair” white skin, blue eyes and straight, long blond hair as the paradigm of beauty (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564). When individuals body image doesnt reflect this paradigm of beauty they strive after globalised aesthetic.

Females hair was a domain of a study about beauty and body image that has been done with 31 African American students in the United States. Some of the results were as followed: the participants have realized the sacrifice of money and time they take to feel good about their hair because straighter hair or relaxed curls are more ideal for them because it is closer to White beauty standards (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564). Mintel, a market research firm, found that the sales for home relaxers in the U.S. were $45.6 million in 2008 (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564). These women are victims of beauty standards and that is the reason for spending so much money to transform their natural hair.

Another domain of the study was skin tone. People just couldnt see past the skin colour my whole life you know even when it came to prom and homecoming queen. We had very pretty dark-skinned girls at my school but the light-skinned girls always won . . . it was just because they were pretty or just because they looked more like the White people,” one participant noted (Awad et al., 2015: 540-564).

The dark-skinned girls became victims of the globalised beauty standard of a light skin because they also desired the title of prom queen. Secondly, media sets beauty standards for females. Why is a slim body, straight hair, large eyes, high cheekbones and a narrow face seen as perfect? Why do I desire Charlize Therons body rather than my hourglass figure? Why can’t I look at my curly hair and appreciate it? Why do I constantly see the cellulite on my legs rather than being grateful to have legs? Why can’t we embrace the imperfections of ourselves and others? The answer to all of these questions comes down to one simple word: Media.

Social media is one of the biggest examples that set beauty standards for females. In the International Journal of eating disorders, there was a study on 1 087 girls between the age of 13 to 15 years about the relationship between internet exposure and body image concern, with particular focus on the social networking site of Facebook (Tiggerman & Slater, 2013: 630-633). The study gathered the following statistics: 75% of girls had a profile on Facebook and spent 1.5 hours daily on it (Tiggerman & Slater 2013). The girls who use Facebook scored drastically higher on the body image concerns than the girls without Facebook (Tiggerman & Slater, 2013: 630-633).

Media that over-emphasise beauty and attractiveness are not only happening in western countries, but it is also a global issue (Yan & Bissell, 2014: 194-214). One example of social media setting beauty standards for women globally is the Cosmopolitan women magazine that is published in 36 languages, has 63 international editions and is distributed in more than 100 countries (Yan & Bissell, 2014: 194-214).

Prior to globalisation different ethnic groups had different standards of attractiveness derived from traditional views about beauty, for example the traditional Korean image of beauty was average or even overweight in size because it represented abundance, in China and Japan, women with round faces and mild plumpness were seen as beautiful and healthy (Zhang, 2012: 437-454). Chinese women today are expected to own their traditional Chinese virtues like being submissive and nurturing but also to refashion their physical beauty in terms of Western beauty standards (Zhang, 2012: 437-454).

Celebrities are putting pressure on females to conform to their ideal beauty standards. The “celebrity-effect” is a term used to describe the media that pays significant attention to celebrities and how these celebrities meet certain beauty standards. These celebrities inspire young Chinese women to copy their looks to feel attractive (Zhang, 2012: 437-454). One Chinese woman even mentioned that if one of her friends told her that she looks like a celebrity it is a huge compliment and then she feels prettier herself (Zhang, 2012: 437-454). Retailing, advertising and entertainment institutions produce vivid notions of beauty, changing year to year that puts women under more pressure to conform to the beauty and body image currently in vogue (Mazur, 1986: 281-303).

Lastly, our bodies become cultural creations rather than unique individuals. Sault (1994: 1-29) asked a very good question: What if we had no mirrors, photographs or videos to show us how we look? How would we see ourselves? She mentioned that we are social mirrors to each other and we rely on the reactions of others to know how we look (Sault, 1994:1). Our bodies can be described as cultural creations because we rely on others opinion about ourselves and those others look through culturally constructed eyes.

Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist, described culture as follows: Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action and that culture is an ordered system of meaning and of symbols in terms of which social interaction takes place (Tharp, 2009: 1-5). Sault said: There is no concrete body that is decorated by culture. The body itself is a cultural creation. Although the human body has a physical existence, we can perceive it only in terms of body image, for the act of perception is itself a culturally constructed process, (Sault, 1994: 14).

A tanned and bronzed skin tone is linked to health, status and beauty in Western societies, but a fair and light complexion of skin is preferred by Asian cultures like Japanese, Chinese and Indian (Zhang, 2012: 437-454). So does this mean when I have a darker skin tone I would not be classified under the term “beautiful” according to Japanese? Instead of embracing my individualism I am immediately an outsider because I do not look like culture wants to create me.

I watched a video (TEDxSanFrancisco, 2015) by Michelle Serna, a seventeen-year-old who claimed the title of Miss California High school rodeo queen. I grew up dreaming about being a rodeo queen, Michelle said. She explained that this pageant wasn’t empowering young females; it was degrading females that didn’t fit within the standard of beauty that was necessary to be a rodeo queen (TEDxSanFrancisco, 2015). She also said that she was told once that she is beautiful but not queen pretty. (TEDxSanFrancisco, 2015) Michelles uniqueness was degraded because her physical appearance was different from other beauty queens.

Society wants people to give up their individualism and transform their bodies according to culturally accepted standards of beauty. 67% of the women participating in a survey across 10 countries admitted that they withdraw from life-engaging, life-sustaining activities due to feeling bad about their looks (Calogero, Boroughs & Thompson, 2010: 259-298). When females cannot conform to cultural beauty standards they feel inferior to other and are afraid to embrace their individualism.

To conclude on can see that females are photoshopped into globalised beauty standards through media, by looking at the arguments: all females are in some way a victim of globalised beauty standards, media sets beauty standards for females and our bodies become cultural creations rather than unique individuals

Why, should you care, what they think of you? When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you, Colbie Caillat sings in the song Try. This made me realise I am who I am. I am unique and perfect with all my imperfections. Society needs to stop looking through the lenses of media at peoples physical appearance and start viewing other that are different from the norm as beautiful. How can you make a difference in the world when you become what the world wants you to become?