Introduction

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, meaning that the observer is the person who
decides what they consider to be beautiful. However, I think nowadays we look up to the media
to decide what is beautiful and not our personal perspective. Society, as a whole, creates
standards and ideals without understanding what true beauty is. True beauty does not solely
depend on external appearance. However, for centuries, people focused on physical attributes
such as size and shape when they define beauty. People will measure beauty by body
measurements, facial features, clothing, etc. Beauty seems to be entirely focused on what is on
the outside rather than what is on the inside even when people profess the opposite, they don’t
necessarily believe it, which is why plastic surgery has become a booming industry as people
seek to obtain ideal features and feel pressured to fit into the beauty standards dictated by
society during their time. This leads me to wonder, where do these beauty standards come from
and do they negatively impact our society?

Evolution of beauty standards

Standards of beauty have always existed for centuries but what physical attributes define
beauty have changed drastically through time. In earlier eras, people who appeared more
prosperous were seen as more desirable. For example, in early China, people who were plump
and pale were considered beautiful because they looked like they were rich enough to be well
fed and did not have to labour in the fields working under the sun. In the 90s, when the grunge
look was in, supermodels, who exemplify society beauty standards, were all gaunt looking and
stick-thin. The “heroine chic” look all resembling “drug addicts” wearing androgynous designer
clothing was in. Thankfully, our beauty standards have since evolved. Or perhaps not. Marilyn
Monroe would probably have been considered fat in the era of the heroine chic models.
Nowadays, people have a much broader view of what typifies beauty. Different countries also
have different standards of beauty. For example, the majority of women living in North America
favour being tan and athletic because they see that as being healthy, whereas in the majority of
Asian countries still favour pale, fair skin although they no longer prize plumpness as the ideal
body shape.

I find it odd and troubling that so many people have this mindset to constantly remain thin, to the
point that anorexia and bulimia has become a social norm. The skinny trend seems to have
developed during the 60’s when people adored the thin, willowy and adolescent physique in
women typified by the model Twiggy. Studies show that during the “exercise-crazed
phenomenon” of the 1980’s, also caused an upswing of women who dieted to the extreme to
achieve a thin figure that eating disorders became more prevalent, particularly anorexia
nervosa, where women did not eat for fear of weight gain, as well as bulimia, where women
purposely induced vomiting after eating to avoid weight gain. One such celebrity who suffered
anorexia nervosa, was the famous singer popular in the 70’s, Karen Carpenter, who wasted
away and died in 1983 because she perceived herself as being fat. Some people during this
skinny trend era strived to be skinny that they went as far to take “Ipecac”, a drug used to purge
the stomach of poisoned victims to induce them to vomit out their food. This comes to show how
far people will go to achieve a “perfect” thin figure. As time went by the crazy ideal slowly
developed over time where women are expected to be slim in order to adhere to the more
fragile and feminine ideal. In the early 2000s, in terms of ideal body standards, women are
expected to have more curves compared to the 90’s, which has also led to a large generation of
young women undergoing breast and butt augmentation to achieve both a slim and curvaceous
figure. Plastic surgery to achieve the beauty standard is a whole other issue that attracts a lot of
controversy on its own.

Why it is important to change the way we think about beauty?

Women are pressured to look attractive by societal standards all the time that some even do
harm to themselves in order to achieve the beauty standards prized in their country. In the
Philippines, people are so obsessed with being pale that they will go out and buy whitening
cream which contains a heavy amount of mercury in hopes that it will lighten their skin. Some
people who have the money will even go to the extent of injecting the “Cinderella drip”, a mix of
glutathione and vitamin C, into their body in order to lighten their skin, when the research is still
at infancy and successful results are dubious, at best.

One cannot change beauty standards in society when it is often narrowly defined and dictated
by media representation which has a monopoly over what is considered beautiful. Magazine
pictures and instagram posts show images of ideal beautiful women - however, most of these
images are not true portrayals and have often been photoshopped so that the viewer cannot
perceive the difference between what is real and what has been altered. Models in
advertisements have their waists, arms and thighs digitally slimmed and skin imperfections
digitally erased to comply with the current beauty standards of the day.

Popular media set the beauty standards in its attempts to convince people which physical traits
are desirable. However, the unachievable high standard of beauty, which is unattainable for the
mass majority, will never change; at least, not until society changes its views on perceived
beauty to include a more broad range of physiques and features. For example, pale skin as well
as tanned skin can both be regarded as beautiful; and a slim, athletic build as well as a plump,
curvaceous figure can be equally deemed as attractive.

Soo Min Kim, Miss Korea 2018, was famously trolled by netizens as being too fat to represent
Korean beauty standards to the point that she had to delete her instagram account. She was
fat-shamed for being 130 pounds - in a society like South Korea, where any weight above 110
pounds is considered overweight, regardless of height. Ms. Kim instead proclaimed that she
was a healthy weight for her 5 ft 6 inch frame and that she will use her platform to ​motivate
other young girls to be confident in their bodies and accept the way they look. She stated that it
is her desire to set a healthy standard on stage for better body confidence and be an inspiration
to other girls to be healthy as well.
Conclusion
So far, my research has shown me that to be perceived as beautiful requires a lot of work for
most women and creates a lot of unnecessary stress in their lives. So, as women, why do we do
it? Why do we put ourselves through so much trouble just to be considered even slightly more
attractive to others? Do we subconsciously believe that being beautiful means you get a ticket to
a better life, which correlates to being wealthier, having more prestige and offered more
opportunities? When you receive more advantage just by being perceived as more attractive, it
makes sense that you would want to achieve and maintain those standards of beauty. However,
I believe this mindset is slowly brainwashing our society into thinking that being beautiful
equates to being happy, which is not necessarily a good thing; simply, because it could lead to
people doing harm to themselves in their desperate desire to achieve happiness. As previously
stated, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, which to me, means we do not have the power to
change other people’s views on what they consider beautiful. We only have the power to
change how we view beauty in itself and I believe that it is time for us to get rid of the limited
definition of beauty set by the media. Instead, we should embrace a new standard of beauty
which is defined by accepting others for who they are, as long as they are healthy and positive.
Achieving society’s superficial standard of beauty will not make you happy as beauty standards
are constantly changing and evolving through time, making it impossible for you to feel happy
with yourself. The only way you will ever lead a happy and fulfilling life is to be confident of the
beauty that you already have. Being beautiful will not necessarily lead to happiness, but being
happy will let your inner beauty shine through.

Websites used:
https://filipiknow.net/filipino-obsession-white-skin/
https://nextshark.com/miss-korea-trolls-criticizing/
https://www.scienceofpeople.com/ideal-body-types-throughout-history/
https://www.2knowmyself.com/where_do_beauty_standards_come_from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hunger-artist/201708/is-thin-beautiful
http://time.com/3685894/karen-carpenter-anorexia-death/
https://www.healthline.com/health/anorexia