Karyna Rodriguez

Novermber 7, 2010

UNIV1301

American Beauty: Questioning and Challenging the Standards

Final Project

A Teenage Stand Against the Media-Standardized Ideal Body

 A Teenage Stand Against the Media-Standardized Ideal Body

In today’s busy, fast-paced society, women and men have an excruciating amount of struggles, but women

seem to take the cake in this inevitable aspect of life. A few decades ago, it was usually the woman’s only job to

provide food and a clean home for the working man to come home to. After a span of months to years, the

woman typically bore the child of the man, adding yet another priority to her already demanding agenda.

During World War II, this all began to noticeably change. Women, in place of men, began to take charge of the

workforce when their husbands were off on deployment. It is a fact that women have made it far, that is, until

media reared its ugly head. Aside from these responsibilities, it seems that beauty is alarmingly becoming a

necessity that women must obtain. Everyday, we are exposed to thousands of advertisements, many of which

include the “perfect” woman. In the media, women are represented in many negative ways, but I will narrow it

down to four. While it may not apply to every single of the everyday, average woman, most are presently

struggling substantially more so than before to look like these plastic images that are portrayed. The importance

of optimum physical health, which includes a healthy body weight, is undeniable, but it becomes detrimental

when one tries, if not obsesses, too hard to achieve this “ideal” body. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize

the media’s portrayal of women, stress that importance of the negative impact it has and to give rise to breaking

social standards.

The first and most obvious representation of females is their physique. As mentioned in “Women’s Bodies

and Beauty Ideals”, “…women and girls in the United States are bombarded with images showing what we

should look like and how to achieve this look.” Most advertisements, movies, television programs, magazines

and billboards contain pictures of women who are young, tall, thin, long-legged, well-groomed, and toned

beauties with flawless skin (Kirk, & Ozakawa-Ray, 2007). Take a look at any Victoria’s Secret advertisement.

You will usually see a tall, lean, and sexy female model with perfect hair and perfect skin. Her body is flawless

and of the perfect proportion. Women and girls drool with envy over these models, but many fail to recognize

that these models look the way they do for three reasons: First, genetics play a huge role on how our bodies

develop. These women are only a small percentage of the female population who have the genes that create
such long limbs. Secondly, models have this physique because it is a crucial requirement to maintain their job,

whether they do so by exercising and eating healthy or by under-eating to maintain or lose weight. Thirdly, all

of these images are edited to remove anything that deems to be an imperfection. These advertisements are

meant to be flawless in order to appeal to the consumer.

However, it does not stop there. Not only must these women be in perfect shape, they must also have the

perfect skin tone. A majority of these ads are of fair-skinned women; Only a few of them are of color. As

noticed in the reading “Women’s Bodies and Beauty Ideals”, in regards to advertisement, “…women of color

are used, they are often light-skinned and conform to the same body type” (Kirk, & Ozakawa-Ray, 2007). Stop

and think for a minute and try to remember the advertisements you have seen lately that includes the image of a

woman. How many of them were white? How many of them were of different ethnicities with a different color

but still had a light complexion? How many of them were dark? Every now and then you will see an

advertisement with a dark pigmented African American, Puerto Rican or any other ethnic model, but more often

than not, the models in the advertisements you see will have a light complexion. America is a vastly diverse

country; People from different ethnicities reside here, so why is America usually represented by a blonde, blue-

eyed, and fair-skinned beauty? It is a stereotypical concept, given the notion that we are one of the most, if not

the only, ethnically diverse country in the world.

Included in the representation of the perfect skin is the lack of body hair. In “Memoirs of a (Sorta) Ex-

shaver,” Carolyn Mackler notes that women’s legs and underarms had to be free of body hair as early as the

1920s. She made a huge step in resisting that conformity by not shaving any part of her body, but she eventually

gave in, claiming that she felt strange. This was mostly because of the pressure of being exposed to a society

that is expected to be hairless (Mackler, 2003). Body hair on a woman is socially unacceptable; It may even be

seen as primitive or an example of how a woman has let herself go. It is almost as if it has become natural in our

society when women do not have body hair and unnatural when they do, even if the contrary is actually true.

This constant, almost undivided attention to the female physique has reduced women to mere bodies. They

become valued as sex objects. This is evident in numerous, if not countless, advertisements. It is especially a
dominant feature in advertisements geared towards men. For many alcohol ads and even vehicle ads, you not

only see the alcohol and vehicle being promoted; There is usually a female involved, exposing her body in a

seductive and submissive posture. It is as if she is seen as nothing more than what she physically is. Along with

the vehicle and alcohol, she is there for the taking, and she is there to be attractive; Nothing more.

If these are the majority of the images females are exposed to, what does that imply? Although it may not be

the purpose of the media to impose such implications, they are sending messages that women interpret as

something they must have, something that will make them feel better about themselves, and something that

people will respect, honor and praise if they do have. I really do believe it is a harmful yet indirect message that

is being sent out to females everywhere, not just in the U.S. It sets a standard that women feel they have to

conform to in order to be accepted. Sometimes, many times, they can lose track of things that should really

matter like health, family, friends, happiness, responsibilities, et cetera. When these standards are not met, these

women begin to suffer mentally, emotional and, with time, will suffer physically by use of unhealthy methods

to achieve what they think is a desirable body.

This is not an issue that should be taken lightly. It is easy for some people to say not to give in to this

message, and they are right; Unfortunately, most things are easier said than they are done. When people want

something enough, they set a goal to achieve it. In this case, females pursue what they think is the perfect look,

but women (and men for that matter) all come in different shapes and sizes; Some people are big boned and

some are small boned. The body is said to have a set weight that it is comfortable with and functions better than

at any other weight. We hear this often from people who advocate a healthy body image. The importance of

exercise and healthy diet is well known, but if you do not have a rock hard body, it is no big deal as long as you

are healthy and feel great. I think this has been fogged in the minds of women. For those prone to the standards,

the perfect body becomes a top priority. They suffer mentally for not looking a certain way, and in response,

they may begin to physically suffer from an eating disorder or something relative to it. It is a downward spiral.

If women do not accept themselves for who and what they are, no matter what their weight or appearance is,
they will most likely not accept themselves when they do achieve that weight or appearance; They will find yet

another imperfection that must be fixed.

The Barbie model that I designed breaks these standards in unconventional ways. To start off, she changed

her name to Yvette. She was quite tired of being called the same name as millions upon millions of other pieces

of plastic. To put it shortly, she quit modeling because of the pressures and monotony she began to feel and

pursued an ordinary office job as a secretary, which, ironically, was also monotonous, but she did not seem to

mind. Over the years, she gained about fifty pounds due to less dietary restrictions and a sedentary lifestyle. She

did not feel very happy with the way she looked, so she dedicated herself to a life of health and fitness. With

time and patience, she achieved the body she wanted to achieve. One day, she went mountain climbing and fell

off a ledge. Her left leg got caught in a groove of the mountain, and while she was assisted in freeing herself, a

boulder was triggered to fall and completely smashed her leg. Unfortunately, her leg had to be amputated. Like

anyone would, Yvette missed her leg, but she did not let her loss stop her from continuing her lifestyle. She

played tennis, ran marathons and even won awards for them. After having experience in both the model

industry and losing her leg, Yvette realized that she does not have to be perfect and symmetrical to be beautiful.

What truly makes someone beautiful is the way they perceive and treat the world and themselves. Life is not

about looking good, it is about being good to yourself and others.

That was just her way of resisting media standards, and there are many more ways to do so. The most

common and obvious way to challenge and resist media standards is to be yourself. Be who you want to be and

do not let anyone influence you otherwise. However, that might not be enough. What if who you are consists of

wanting to be thin and wanting to be beautiful? In such cases, the best way to challenge any kind of standard,

not just the media standard, is by accepting and loving yourself for who you are now, even if there are things

about you that you would like to change. Change is an okay thing to pursue and is an inevitable aspect of life all

on its own, but it is important that you seek change as a means to better your overall health and well being and

not just because you think your body is flawed. Once you can accept yourself, you will begin to accept others

more easily. Remember that people come in different shapes and sizes and do not conform to just one body
type. You will recognize and respect that nothing in this physical world is perfect, nor was it meant to be. You

will see the beauty in that which you could not see it before.

This, however, does not have to be a lonesome battle. Many other people are also challenging media

standards, and there is a way to compile such challenges to achieve something much greater. Change doesn’t

have to start out big, so consider creating a website with a group of people, dedicating it to challenging media

standards. You can all post blogs about your experiences and thoughts about beauty. Maybe you can add a

gallery that includes models of all shapes, sizes and ages to show that beauty does not equal long, lean, sexy and

young. Most importantly, support each other. Support is the greatest thing a group can do for each other and for

the people around them. Spreading the word that you are challenging these media standards will hopefully and

eventually find the way to those individuals who are struggling to accept themselves. There would be nothing to

lose and a lot to gain.

With all the lectures, discussions and readings we have had throughout the semester, the class was able to

get a better understanding of the term feminism, how women are portrayed throughout the media and how that

portrayal consciously and subconsciously affects everyone it reaches. Undoubtedly, this class has further

opened my eyes to the present reality of Western society. With such information gathered about women and

beauty standards, I was able to concisely create a plan of action not just to evade conformity, but to rise beyond

such beauty standards and offer any means to do so for individuals struggling with their own body image. My

Barbie model, Yvette, was a chance of creativity for me to express said rise as she is just one of the many ways

people can resist society’s beauty standards. It seems as though the class had been unknowingly prepared for

this assignment. For it, we were to compile and refresh our knowledge from previous work and further establish

our own opinions and decisions towards beauty standards. What we are left with is the ability to better

scrutinize and question American beauty standards and to truly comprehend and respect that beauty does not

have one solid, set criteria but is, as a famous quote states, “in the eye of the beholder.”
 REFERENCES:

Kirk, G, & Ozakawa-Ray, M. (2007). Women's bodies and beauty ideals. Women's Lives: Multicultural

Perspectives (pp. 121-132). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Mackler, C. (2003). Memoirs of a (sort of) ex-shaver. In O. Edut (Ed.), Body outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of

Beauty and Body Image (pp. 55-61). Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.