Persuasive Speech

Unrealistic Beauty Standard of the Society

In the past generations, people have their own beauty standards for women.
Well, there is a video that I watched, Nas Daily’s video about beauty standards. It said
there that in China they forced women to foot bind so that they become beautiful to the
society. In Britain, they make the waist small and in the United States, they make their
breast big. While in the Philippines, they considered women as beautiful when they
have lighter skin. Many Pilipina today inject glutathione just to have lighter and brighter
skin. They consider as poor if people have darker skin. Vicky Belo said that many
women risk their lives just to be beautiful and accepted by society. We don’t need to be
perfect just to be accepted in the way we want. We are beautiful! I don’t promote this
kind of standard. I know to myself that being perfect for others is not necessary. You
should know it too. All of us have our own beauty that can be seen in different ways and
aspects then why do we need to stop declaring beauty standards? Women have their
own uniqueness and beauty. They don’t need to hear or accept judgment from other
people’s points of view. Society must stop expecting too much from a woman.

According to Vanessa Van Edwards’ website that I read, out of 44% of American
women don’t want to go outside their houses without makeup. They believe that they
cannot accomplish things when they are not wearing them. I don’t understand why. Do
we need to look perfect? For me, it’s a no. We don’t need to put heavy makeup just to
accomplish things. I prefer working on something with my natural face because it is very
irritating when I wear makeup and I will get sweaty or such. I know that wearing makeup
boosts our confidence, but every time wearing it just to accomplish something? Is it
necessary? We don’t need to buy expensive makeup. It is a waste of money. If we have
the confidence to finish the work, we can accomplish it without wearing it. Also,
according to the same website, women believed from a young age that they can be
successful in everything even in a job interview if they are pretty and the Association for
Psychological Science agreed to that because, for them, attractive women are treated
differently than to those who are not. What is the matter to our society today? We don’t
need to look perfect every time. Also, we don’t need to reach society’s expectations. We
are also people; we have emotions and imperfections. In this generation, we use social
media all the time. We can’t avoid seeing things like beauty standards on social media.
Seeing this kind of content can cause low self-esteem and disordered eating to us.
There is a possibility that we will compare our bodies to what we saw in the media.
According to American College Health Association, out of 30% of college women rated
their personal appearance as hard to handle and traumatic. Having beauty standard
cause too much to a woman. We must stop this before it’s too late.

Girls are growing up being ashamed of their bodies. Well, I don’t deny it since I
was being ashamed of my body before. According to Jaclyn Krizanic's article, we are
not Barbie dolls that can be changed anytime. Many other women today undergo plastic
surgery to achieve a body that society will accept and consider as beautiful. These
celebrities are role models to us since they can be seen in every part of the world. They
will become the example that having a perfect body is considered beautiful than the
normal shape of the body. There is no judgment to the woman who undergoes surgery.
However, they don’t need to deny that they change their body and faces and call it
natural. People who saw that it is a natural body will become confused, and they will try
to imitate it. Undergoing plastic surgery isn’t necessary. It is also a waste of money.
Having a different shape than others is more attractive. We need to stop expecting that
women are perfect. We don’t need to change a thing to our body. God made us be with
this look. So, we must accept it and take that as a blessing.

People have different shades of skin color. We are not coloring books that can
choose what kind of color of our skin was to be. According to Valens Munyaneza, social
media made beauty standards worst. We can notice that there are many applications
that can change the shape of our nose, face, body, and even our skin color. People
nowadays cannot post a picture without filters. According to her article, No perfect body!
We need to stop stereotyping beauty. For Neerja Birla, a psychologist, we don’t need to
have the insecurity of having dark skin. Having brighter skin does not define beauty. All
skin colors and tones are beautiful and attractive. We don’t need to feel ashamed of our
beauty. Beauty can notice by other people if you are confident in yourself.
 When we look in the betta fish (fighting fish). It is beautiful that he has a color for
example is blue. But when we add another blue betta fish, it is boring to watch them
swim with the same color. Just like in a woman, it is boring to see them look alike. We
can define beauty in different ways. But changing and risking our life to be attractive is
not an applicable way. Wearing makeup does not define the beauty of a woman. We
cannot say that women have a sexy body if she undergoes surgery. We can’t even say
that a woman is beautiful if she has brighter skin. We can’t expect women to look
perfect anytime. They are also humans who have a bad day, emotions, and
imperfections. A woman is a very powerful creature. We don’t need society to accept
us. If we accept and are proud of our imperfections and natural beauty, we can show
the world that being imperfect makes us perfect. We must stop them to expect too much
and put pressure on our sisters out there to achieve society’s beauty standards.

Having a beauty standard is okay but forcing them to reach those standards is
not okay. Let them decide if they want to change themselves for their satisfaction, not
for the satisfaction of others. Women have their own personalities and unique beauty.
They don’t need to change just to be fit in society. We must respect them and stop
judging them for whatever they look like. All of us are beautiful. God created us with
uniqueness. For the women out there, be proud of yourself and don’t even change a
thing. Have confidence and courage to face people who bring you down. Ignore people
who judge you and don’t let them enter your life. The right person will accept and call
you beautiful without changing yourself. We need to accept who we are. We must stop
people to expect too much from us. Let’s go and spread the confidence to others!
Embrace yourself, embrace your imperfection!

References
Davis, B. (2021, May 1). Why beauty standards are the way they are today? Retrieved from
https://www.mvorganizing.org: https://www.mvorganizing.org/why-beauty-standards-are-the-
way-they-are-today/

Krizanic, J. (2020, July 22). Plastic Surgery and its Effect on Beauty Standards. Retrieved from
https://thecurrentmsu.com: https://thecurrentmsu.com/2020/07/22/plastic-surgery-and-its-
effect-on-beauty-standards/

Mbabazi, D. (2019, November 1). Society and unrealistic beauty standards. Retrieved from
https://www.newtimes.co.rw: https://www.newtimes.co.rw/lifestyle/society-and-unrealistic-
beauty-standards

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/: https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/beauty

Montmorency, R. (2020, April 10). Beauty Standards in the Ancient World. Retrieved from
https://www.nspirement.com: https://www.nspirement.com/2020/04/10/beauty-standards-in-
the-ancient-world2.html

Vocabulary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.vocabulary.com/:

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/beholder#:~:text=If%20beauty%20is%20in%20the,but
%20is%20created%20by%20observers.&text=To%20be%20a%20beholder%2C%20you%20have
%20to%20pay%20attention.

Edwards, V. V. (n.d.). Why Do Women Wear Makeup? The Science Behind Makeup Obsession. Retrieved
from https://www.scienceofpeople.com/: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/makeup/

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