How beauty and cosmetic advertisements contribute to unrealistic beauty standards

Beauty advertising has become an omnipresent force in in modern society, shaping

perceptions of beauty and influencing individual self-esteem. While advertising is a powerful
tool for promoting products, the portrayal of an idealized and often unattainable standard of
beauty advertising can have detrimental effects on women’s minds. This essay explores the
negative impact of beauty advertising on women’s mental well-being, focusing on unrealistic
beauty standards, body image concerns, and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes. Several
studies have demonstrated that beauty advertisements have negative effects on female self-
esteem and self-image, such as the investigation of Savannah Greenfield “When beauty is the
beast”.
The current standards of beauty are dangerously unattainable, especially in terms of
thinness, because the gap between realistic expectations and the ideal continues to grow larger .
Since this ideal is portrayed in so many forms of media, many women accept it as their own and
internalize the disappointment they feel with their own body because of it. While the ideal of
thinness is not a new concept (traditionally encouraged by family members and peer groups), the
pervasive reach of mass media means that this ideal is transmitted on a far larger scale than ever
before. Advertisements often feature models and celebrities who embody a particular aesthetic
that is often airbrushed and digitally altered. The constant exposure to these flawless and
idealized images creates an unattainable standard of beauty that can lead women to feel
inadequate or dissatisfied with their own appeareance. These unrealistic standards contribute to
the development of body dysmorphic tendencies, where individuals obsessively focus on
perceived flaws.
When it comes to perpetuating harmful stereotypes, beauty advertising often reinforces
traditional gender standards by emphasizing physical appearance over other qualities. Women are
frequently portrayed as objects of desire rather than individuals with diverse talents, skills, and
aspirations. This reduction of women to mere physical attributes reinforces harmful gender
norms, limiting the scope of women's potential and perpetuating societal expectations regarding
their roles and worth.
Another negative effect of these beauty stereotypes that women have been continuously
exposed to is the raised number in surgical interventions for aesthetic purposes. There is a genre
of pornography that centers on hurting and cutting women’s breasts. It is frightening that what
seems to be considered erotic about breast surgery is not that it makes women appear to have
bigger or better natural breasts, not even that it makes the breasts more “perfect.” What frightens
is that the surgery itself is being eroticized. A Hungarian magazine features local beauties’
breasts alongside the surgeons who constructed them; Playboy has featured the surgery of Mariel
Hemingway and Jessica Hahn—not so much the breasts; the surgery. It is frightening to see that
now, in a woman-fearing era, the thought of scientists cutting open, invading, and artificially
reconstructing the breasts of women appears to be emerging as the ultimate erotic triumph.
“Soon, not even a loving partner will be able to save many women’s sexuality from the knife.
Today a woman must ignore her reflection in the eyes of her lover, since he might admire her,
and seek it in the gaze of the God of Beauty, in whose perception she is never complete.” (N.
Wolf. 2002). This sexual mutilation is not about relations between real men and women. It is
about women’s sexuality trapped in the beauty backlash, in spite of men who may love them.
Depo-Provera, a drug that lowers the libido of male criminals, is controversial because it is
barbaric to intervene in male sexuality. But female sexuality is still treated by institutions as if it
were hypothetical. Not only do factory-produced breasts endanger women’s sensual response;
many other procedures harm it too. (The Pill, for example, which was supposed to make women
“sexier,” actually lowers their libido, a side effect of which they are rarely informed.) A risk of
eyelid surgery is blindness; a nose job risks damage to the sense of smell; numbness
accompanies face-lifts. “If the surgical ideal is sensual, there must be other senses than the usual
five” (N. Wolf. 2022).
In conclusion, beauty advertisements, unrealistic ideals portrayed by the media, the
sexualizing and ecnouragement of plastic surgeries have absolutely dismantled women’s
perception of beauty, of self identity and self esteem. Many of the societal expectations regarding
women’s bodies ca be linked to historical practices that throughout the time had affected women
tremendously.
Sources:
M. Henriques, D. Patnaik, Social Media and Its Effects on Beauty. (2020)
Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth. (2002)
Savannah Greenfield, WHEN BEAUTY IS THE BEAST: The Effects of Beauty Propaganda on
Female Consumers. (2018)
Frances Cha, If I had your face. (2020)