Modern Beauty Standards

Modern beauty standards are unattainable, unrealistic and discourages men and women who don’t fit the criteria of an ideal body. In today’s society people look up to the models and celebrities and go to great lengths to look like them yet only 10% of women and men in the entire world were naturally born with these “perfect” physical attributes. Photoshop has also contributed to these fictitious views and has changed the perception of reality without people truly realizing it. Although men and women see these people as role models for body image, they should look to people who make them feel confident and look up to them for other mental or spiritual reasons. Photoshop is overused and needs to be reevaluated.

According to Sabrina Neille “You will never look like the girl in the magazine, the girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like the girl in the magazine”. Photoshops effects on young girls damages self confidence and presents them with unattainable goals . A young girl’s self confidence isn’t worth a celebrities waist looking a little smaller or her hips a little bigger. 7 year olds are becoming self conscious about their bodies and 42% of girls grade 1-3 want to be thinner. These unrealistic standards can lead to eating disorders and unhealthy diets, 30% of highschool girls and 16% of highschool boys have an eating disorder.

The fictitious image of women around the world has influenced men, women and children greatly and needs to end. Teens tend to be more comfortable with their bodies after photoshop because they are hiding their imperfections but imperfections are ok. According to Lorde “To conquer your flaws, you must first accept them”. Self confidence is a big problem in today’s society and is often brought on by the use of photoshop in unrealistic ways. The media is teaching young girls to fear cellulite, curves and stretch marks by producing these artificial illustrations of women. This issue does not only apply to women. Men often feel emasculated if they don't have abs or large muscles like men in unrealistic media.

According to Sofia Loren, “Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful”. Unrealistic standards in today's media have caused women to doubt their beauty leading to things like cosmetic surgeries. Many people now encourage plastic surgery despite the dangers because of self confidence. 1.7 million cosmetic surgeries were done in 2015 alone, most of which were women. Many of the surgeons have minimal to no training yet the women undergoing these surgeries are so incredibly affected by the unattainable beauty expectations they overlook the risks. Women pay millions of dollars and attempt to “fix” themselves but the thing that needs fixing is society.

This generation has the capability of ending these unrealistic beauty expectations through the very same outlet it started. Media has twisted the ideas of young men and women and affected mental health throughout the years. Eating disorders and unhealthy diets have spread throughout the world due to photoshop and unrealistic media. Women are undergoing dangerous procedures just to be a little slimmer or curvier. You don't have to photoshop an unrealistic image to be contributing to this, by standing aside letting people believe these are realistic is a crime all on its own. Whether it's photoshop, plastic surgery or “natural” physical attributes the media is unrealistic and is teaching this generation to hate their bodies.