SOCIOLOGY

10 February 2021
A Struggle for Beauty and Self Appreciation

Beauty products are seen to multiply through time because there is always a new brand

sprouting, promising to enhance the beauty of every woman. This is where the problem starts,

beauty products tell the people that they need to use it in order to become beautiful. Beauty

products are the main reason why women, at a very young age, develop insecurities.

Beauty products use advertising to instill to the young minds that without their help, a

woman cannot be beautiful. In Mrs. Kilbourne’s talk entitled Killing Us Softly, she said that

advertising creates a “toxic cultural environment” (00:04:43) that forces women to follow

society's standard of beauty. These advertisements are programmed to make women think less of

themselves and beauty products are the solution to become beautiful.

People treat women differently when they see women without using beauty products. In

social media, a picture of a bare-faced woman is most likely to be bashed. This is because a bare-

faced woman showcasing her natural face is not in line with the social norm of beauty. The norm

of beauty is mostly inclined to the western concept that dictates women to be flawless, white, and

body shaped like a coca cola bottle. In the countries once ruled by the western culture, this idea

is very popular. Products for skin whitening are very in demand because of the norm that the

country’s natural skin color is not accepted as beautiful.

Advertisements create an environment that pushes women not to be content with what

they are and how they are built. Thus, making them insecure and wanting to be molded into the

perfect concept of beauty the society dictates. Therefore, beauty products, through

advertisement, are the main reason that women at a young age, develop insecurities.

Works Cited
Killing Us Softly 4. Web. 10 Feb. 2021

Frith, Katherine T. “Globalizing Beauty: A Cultural History of the Global Beauty Industry.”

Proc. of International Communication Association, Seattle. Print