Running head: MODERN BEAUTY STANDARDS

Modern Beauty Standards are Out of Touch with Reality

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Modern Beauty Standards are Out of Touch with Reality

The concept of beauty has evolved significantly over the years. Due to this evolution,

beauty is no longer seen as a unique and natural concept. Instead, it is perceived as an artificial

ideology that must meet specific set standards. Currently, there are precise descriptions of what

beauty should entail. For instance, beauty in women is seen as being slender, light-skinned, and

possessing an attractive bodily appearance. These modern standards of beauty have forced some

people to undergo surgeries to alter their facial and physical appearance. Despite their

widespread acceptance, modern beauty standards are out of touch with reality since they fail to

capture the biological attributes of beauty and use the views of the majority to define beauty.

The modern standards of beauty make beauty more of an artificial thing than a natural

one. In the contemporary world, there is a dominant belief that beauty is acquired. This incorrect

belief is attributed to current beauty standards. According to Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2018),

modern beauty standards have made people question their natural looks, forcing them to seek

ways to alter their natural appearance. This view shows how current beauty standards are out of

touch with reality. These beauty standards are forcing individuals to reject their natural

appearance and embrace the unnatural ideology of beauty. Consequently, the modern standards

of beauty are out of touch with reality since they do not respect the natural aspects of beauty.

Moreover, these standards are out of touch with reality since they do not accept the fact

that each person is created uniquely. People are born with different appearances and body sizes.

Therefore, there can be no beauty standards that capture all the appearance variations in humans.

According to Clark (2016), modern standards have reduced beauty to an artifice of elective

characteristics that are not possessed by everyone. For instance, not everyone can be slender nor

light-skinned. In reality, skin color, hair texture, and height are attributed to a person’s genes.
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Therefore, it is impossible for everyone to possess all the attributes entailed in modern beauty

standards. In this respect, modern beauty standards are out of touch with reality since they fail to

appreciate the biological uniqueness present in humans.

Importantly, modern beauty standards are out of touch with reality since they are based

on the judgment of the majority. These standards rely on the opinion of the majority on

attractiveness to define beauty. Sadly, most of the features these standards use to define beauty

are derived from the appearance of models and celebrities. People believe that the image

depicted by the celebrities in the media is the true definition of beauty. However, in reality,

beauty is a private affair that should not be defined by the views of the majority.

Conclusively, modern beauty standards are out of touch with reality since they fail to

appreciate the biological diversity of humans and make beauty more of an artificial concept than

a natural one. As a result of these standards, people have embraced the belief that beauty is

acquired. But in reality, beauty cannot be acquired artificially, nor can it be defined by standards

advanced by humans. Therefore, it is high time people learn the true meaning of beauty since the

current standards are misleading.

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References

Clark, J. P. (2016). Buying beauty: Female beauty consumption in the modern British World.

History Compass, 14(5), 206-217.

Tiggemann, M., & Zaccardo, M. (2018). Strong is the new skinny: A content analysis of

fitspiration images on Instagram. Journal of Health Psychology, 23(8), 1003-1011.