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Shelby Johnson
Rebecca A. Miner
English 1010
July 22, 2016
What is Beauty?
A young girl stands before a full length mirror in scrutiny of her body. She finds her face
shape too round and her eyes the wrong color. As her gaze travels down her figure, she has
picked out a million different flaws before reaching her toes. Next door, the neighbor boy glares
at his reflection in attempt to look masculine. He hates that his shoulders are not as broad as they
should be and finds that his attempt at facial hair is nothing compared to what he thinks it ought
to look like. Both individuals have found themselves caught in the trap of physical appearances.
We live in a world of vanity where body image, appearance and shape are all that matters. With
advertisements, social media and the world we live in shouting for our attention, everyone has
asked themselves the question, What is beauty?
Most everyone has heard the expression, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. With
todays standards, beauty is seen not only in the bathroom mirror, but on our cell phones,
magazines and televisions. Nearly every advertisement, song or movie describes their definition
of what real beauty is. Beauty has become a billion- dollar industry with crippling side effects.
Eating disorders, depression and bullying have increased drastically as the need for a perfect
appearance has taken hold on a beauty obsessed world. The obsession with appearance is not
limited by age, gender or race. While standards of beauty have changed over the years, the
human desire to be seen as beautiful, handsome or accepting has not. In this paper, beauty will

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be broken down into three portions: beauty in advertising, beauty in social media and beauty in a
working and academic world.
Beauty in Advertising
While the campaign for beauty is geared for both genders, women bear the overall assault
in the crusade for superficial perfection.
Women today are constantly being reminded of what is considered beautiful. There are
thousands of advertisements that promote this elusive beautiful image to women of all ages,
shapes, and sizes. By placing photo-shopped and computer-enhanced models in advertisements,
society has built up impossible standards of beauty, which has led to feelings of inadequacy
among women. (Britton 4)
When one really gives it thought, most advertisements seen on everyday television are
selling one thing: looks. There are ads for soaps, shampoos and wrinkle removing creams. Every
product sold, while not selling beauty itself, uses beauty as way to sell their product. From
makeup to cheeseburgers, models and actors portray a certain level of attractiveness as incentive
to buy the product being offered. It makes one wonder, if advertising companies used average or
even unattractive people in their ads, would they sell as well? The feelings of inadequacy
following this constant promotion of the impossible has caused one beauty company, Dove, to
take to a new marketing campaign. Their ad series, Campaign for Real Beauty reached its tenyear anniversary in 2014. With this decade long devotion to setting aside social media
expectations, the beauty company saw an increase of sales upwards of $2.5 billion dollars the
first year of its inaugural launch. (Neff, 1) The companys goal in their campaign was to alter the
mindset many women have of what beauty should be. While their voice was well heard among
consumers, advertising still holds a strong grip on the perceived image of perfection. Celebrities

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and fashion magazines often go hand in hand with beauty advertisements. They are looked at as
the first source for new trends and styles and are seen as trusted, idolized sources of information.
Their photo-shopped, surgically altered and impossible standards have driven the world at large
into a frenzy for the impossible. There is a plethora of celebrity endorsed make up lines or
exercise equipment all sold with the subliminal or not so subliminal message that by using this
product, you will finally achieve your standard of attractiveness.
Magazines and advertisements are marketed to help women "better themselves" by
providing information and products that are supposed to make them look and feel better. Women
read these magazines with the hope that if they follow the advice given, they will be more
acceptable and attractive. Marketing strategies lure women into purchasing these forms of media,
and most have the potential to be a powerful influence on women's sense of self and satisfaction
with their appearance.
Beauty in Social Media
Selfies have become such a popular trend, that in 2013, Oxford Dictionary named it the
Word of the Year. With apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, the ability to upload a
picture of oneself has become second nature to many people. With the apps above mentioned, the
ability to like, comment and share drives people to great lengths to achieve a like for their
appearance. While the age old adage, Dont judge a book by its cover is still great advice,
people now have the option to like or dislike their approval of peoples appearances on apps or
dating tools like Tinder.

Unrealistic media images of women are so prevalent that it seems that

females who fulfill such a standard are more the norm than the exception. Cultivation theory
argues that images that portray women who match the sociocultural ideal of beauty are extremely
prevalent in popular media, and that repetitive exposure to such images influences women's

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abilities to understand that such standards are unrealistic. As females constantly view images of
tall, thin women that are shown in different forms of mass media, there is a cumulative effect
over time in that many women adopt this unrealistic standard of beauty as "reality." Many
women come to view ultra-thin females to be "normal," and thus determine that any woman who
does not live up to this ideal is "abnormal. (Sedar 1)
With the pressure to be fit, thin and anything else that media is currently promoting, selfesteem can be lowered. As human beings, we constantly seek approval from others and rejection
can be crippling or even life threatening. However, not all social media pushes for the impossible
standard of beauty. Many people use the internet or other devices to share stories of their own
stance on beauty. Local blogger, Stephanie Nielson was horrifically scarred in a plane crash in
2008. The scars covering most of her body were difficult for even her to look at and her selfesteem reached an all-time low. After much struggle, she decided to take her story and embrace
her new body and created a blog detailing her journey in accepting her new standard of beauty.
(Mormon Message YouTube) Her heartwarming story has reached millions and reminded all
those it has touched, that appearance isnt everything. While her story is one of the many
exceptions, the overall of push of social media is still on the physical.
Beauty in an Academic and Working World:
Disney theme parks around the world are known as the happiest place on earth. Their
movies, amusement park rides and characters are global icons. Many girls aspire to become
Disney princesses when they grow up. As amusing or childish as that may seem, there is a real
market for actors and actresses to play the role of a Disney characters. Obtaining the role,
however, comes with very strict requirements. According to Disney Fanatic.com, height and size
requirements are mandatory for application. A princess must be between the heights of 54 and

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57 and the largest dress size available is a 10. (Jessica, 1) To some people, this can come across
as discrimination, but to the Disney Company, it is simply a standard of beauty.
While not everyone wants to be a Disney princess, the desire to dress to impress still
stays with us. There are guides on how to dress for interviews, dates and events. In the
workplace, people are expected to dress the part of their profession. Anything outside of the
norm is seen as sloppy or uneducated. Society has even gone so far as to create jobs based on
appearance. Models, professional cheerleaders and show girls have a standard of beauty they are
expected to be held to while celebrities are constantly fighting for titles that vote them Hottest
Person of the Year. But physical appearance is not limited to just the famous or the movie screen.
One study showed that teachers who rated the children in their classroom as attractive expected
them to be more social, popular, confident and academically able than their less attractive peers.
(Talams, Mavor, Perrett 2)
Conclusion
In the world in which we live in, it is no surprise that as the pressure of attractiveness
builds, the question of what is beauty increases. There are so many different voices and opinions
claiming to know whats best, that the expression of beauty being in the eye of the beholder
seems nearly forgotten. Parents comfort crying children who arent as thin or muscular as their
celebrity idol as the very idol they adore questions their own physical acceptance. Adults
compare themselves to coworkers, friends and people on TV as the self-depreciating
advertisements before them push more products and more ideas to help them reach their perfect
image. With all the pressure to find beauty in the world, one has to ask themselves, have we
found the answer to that age old question? Is beauty really something we can work for, buy or
mold ourselves into- or is beauty something that comes from the inside.

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Works Cited
Britton, Ann Marie, "The Beauty Industry's Influence on Women in Society" (2012). Honors
Theses and Capstones. Paper 86.
http://scholars.unh.edu/honors/86
Neff, Jack. "Ten Years In, Dove's 'Real Beauty' Seems to Be Aging Well."Advertising Age News
RSS. N.p., 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 July 2016.
Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women
Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." (2005) The Myriad: Westminster's Interactive
Academic Journal. Westminister The Myriad, n.d. Web. 21 July 2016.
"The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 Is 'selfie' | OxfordWords Blog." OxfordWords
Blog. OxfordWords, 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 July 2016.
MormonMessages. "My New Life." YouTube. YouTube, 03 May 2010. Web. 21 July 2016.
Serdar, Kasey L. Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women
Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." (2005) The Myriad: Westminster's Interactive
Academic Journal. Westminister The Myriad, n.d. Web. 21 July 2016.
Jessica. "13 Inscrutable Requirements to Be A Princess In Disney Parks."DisneyFanaticcom.
Disney Fanatic, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 July 2016.
Talamas, Sean L., Kenneth I. Mavor, and David I. Perrett. "Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness
Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic Performance."PLOS ONE:. Plosone, 17 Feb.
2016. Web. 21 July 2016.