Beauty is not caused. It is. – Emily Dickinson
Throughout history, women have always been subjected to being an icon of beauty and nothing more. Women were limited to being a pretty picture with certain purposes. As society develops and evolves, women are now looked as a strong independent soul (more or less). Our beauty is determined by how we choose to present it, either with confidence or dismay. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I also believe beauty is what is reflected from our hearts. (Excuse the cliche) But beauty is defined differently between everyone. A good portion of us (both women and men) have high insecurities and low-self esteem, thus making it harder for them to form a comfortable grasp on self-encouragement. Their mind is swayed by overly digital altered images of actors and actresses and starved processed models. This leads to their self-confidence to plummet and for them to look for “quick fixes” to their natural born body.
This is a huge problem with most women (even men) in Asia. It has become a huge trend among the wealthy or famous in Asia to have surgical transformations. These “transformations” are not what we see in America where women are given face lifts, bolder cheek bones, or fuller lips; the transformations completely take the clients face and transforms it drastically. Ranging from common touch ups such as check bones, lips, and lifts, to eye lids, jawlines, nose (full bridge and cavity), and ears; the transformation makes you look like a completely different person, almost unrecognizable.
The previous link is of photos of people who have had plastic surgical transformations, these are the ones I found that had drastic changes:
Both men AND women are receiving these drastic changes for what cause? To fit in and to look beautiful. Women have stated that plastic surgery in South Korea is looked at with a positive manner. It’s become a norm for friends to go away for a while and come back with new faces. Because of the high remarks of society, people feel obligated to try and be beautiful. Those in South Korea state that because they don’t look as pretty as (insert famous K-Pop singers name here) that they should change how they look to feel and be accepted.
Why is it that process and unnatural beauty has become the icon of today’s society? Is it because of the artificial enriched feeling that allows us to become what we want? But even then, what caused us to think “I want to look like this.”?
Along with the world of beauty, the media has developed a new way to create higher standards of body image. To help fit the image, the media has begun to digital alter photos of women and men so that they look like something that not everyone can achieve. This helps not only create an unrealistic goal for the average day person, but to give an imaginary pedestal to those who are famous but look nothing like they do in media.
Buzzfeed’s Video on Photoshopping Normal Women:
If you can’t see said video for whatever reason, here are GIF’s of the changes:
Here Are Their Reactions and Thoughts:
Once others grasp that real beauty, is being comfortable with yourself, then maybe the views of society won’t matter to most.
Here is a Video of a Women Photoshopped to Look Like a Real Life Barbie Doll:
If Video is Unwatchable:
The Model Being Used
The Makeup and Hair Touchup
Lighting Change, Body Modifications and Skin Tone Change
Finished Product
Why is this so significant to us? The question is, why would it not? Humans are naturally insecure, it’s something we can’t help to be for our brain is wired to discriminate among everyone else. It’s what we use to categorize us into groups that we feel best benefits us for survival. So why do we set an icon that is unrealistic and almost impossible if we are all insecure about how we look from the beginning? If society could stop being persuaded and brainwashed by the media, maybe our problems would lessen. Don’t think this is a problem? Try saying that too yourself the next time your daughter comes to you crying because “her nose is too flat” or “her cheeks are saggy” or that she’s too skinny or too fat and that she is being teased for it. Society’s views have created this invisible problem in which it drives others to try and inflict pain on someone who doesn’t meet what they feel is the “standard”. In this case the “standard” for women is to be petite, small body frame, considerably large breasts and buttocks, long hair, and either fair skin or have a smooth subtle tan. As for men, it’s too be largely built, have broad distinctive features, tall, chiseled facial features, facial hair, and dark hair. Why should this “standard” be the illustration of beauty? The thing is, it shouldn’t.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference. – Aristotle
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