Everyday society faces the struggle of determining what’s real and what has been enhanced in our daily media. People of all ages are influenced by idealized media images and models on television leading society to believe that these unrealistic visuals are what we should look like as individuals. These images of influenced beauty are leading society towards low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. By allowing the media to pick the skinniest models, and enhance their pictures, America has been led to believe in a new standard of beauty that everyone must meet.
Self-esteem is one of the most important traits we have as humans to keep us going everyday. Self-esteem is difficult to keep and difficult to rebuild, but very easy to have taken away. The most common pastime in America is to watch television and movies, and naturally we compare other people to ourselves. “People commonly believe physically attractive people are more privileged in their social lives, romantic relations and careers” (The Effects of Cosmetic Surgery Realty Shows on Women’s Beliefs of Beauty Privileges, Perceptions of Cosmetic Surgery, and Desires for Cosmetic EnhancementsShu-Yueh Lee). When we are constantly exposed to plastered people with additional digital enhancement feel inferior to more beautiful people. “In times of threat or uncertainty, self-enhancement comparisons protect self-esteem and self-worth and allow the individual to maintain positive views about the self” (Health Education Research by A. Krayer, D. Ingledew, and R. Iphofen). Without the security of our personal image, we do not fully have ourselves.
Constant exposure to unrealistic images of others wears down on the human spirit. “It has been found that overall the beauty industry has a negative effect on a woman’s self-esteem, body image and perception of beauty. By using upward comparisons, women are constantly comparing themselves to standards of beauty that society shows to them” (The Beauty Industry's Influence on Women in Society by Ann Britton). Victoria’s Secret models are the epitome of beauty, but have to meet rigorous standards to be considered. For men, Hollister models serve the same purpose of raising the standards for attractiveness in our culture. Both companies only pick models that meet specific requirements for weight, skin clarity and color, height, and other body part specifics. One body type should not set a standard of beautiful among a whole society.
The more our society praises these unrealistic images, the more the media will continue to pump out artificial beauty. If media instead used everyday people and published them as they are in everyday society, we could conquer self-esteem issues, depression and help decrease eating disorders. By displaying the everyday beauty instead of hand crafted beauty, we will create a positive foundation of realistic beauty. If the beauty crisis is not resolved, teenagers will grow up towards a common, but unreachable standard and adults will fixate themselves to look like the media’s ideal image of perfection.
Media has demonstrated its ability to influence our culture, but should not damage minds of people who feel inferior to beautiful people. The people of America deserve to feel proud of their own image and not let the media dictate what the humans want to look like. I propose an awareness campaign that media begins the New Year by only presenting us without editing and stop broadcasting enhanced human beings. By doing this we can fix society’s views on what beauty is, and mold beauty to be in all shapes and sizes. This will show the public that it does not matter what size, skin color, hair color, height etc. you are, beauty comes in all forms and there is no ‘ideal’ image to live up to.
