Field Research: Beauty in Society

1265 Words6 Pages
Beauty in Society Introduction As a society overall, observable beauty is very important to us. We are extremely visual and have been conditioned to respond positively to only those things that are aesthetically pleasing. American consumers spend millions of dollars a year on clothes, shoes and accessories so they can present themselves in a certain way. Fashion becomes even more cutthroat and daring every year as more and more designers struggle to make it to the big leagues and more and more models strive to be the thinnest and the most desired. Those that gain international status are called “supermodels” and are esteemed by people everywhere as representatives of perfection. Cosmetic surgery and gym memberships have increased steadily in popularity as people strive toward the ideal and glorified body image portrayed by the media. This has a negative effect in the way we view other people, specifically women. “Over the years the media and society has been advertising its perception of what beauty is and as what is expected of women….” (Cite: Gibbs, Views on Beauty). I was shocked to discover that only 1 in 40,000 women have a supermodel-like body and that “Most runway models meet the body mass index criteria for anorexia.” (Lovett, Criteria for Anorexia) I decided to see what people really thought about how society views beauty so I electronically conducted a nine question survey and interviewed a professor of Sociology here on Anderson University’s campus. The results were interesting and when combined with the outside sources I found on this topic convinced me that the way society perceives beauty is, in a word, disturbing. Methods To gather information as to how people actually felt about society’s view of beauty, I created a survey consisting of nine questions that I felt could provide insight but at the same time, wouldn’t cause the respondents

More about Field Research: Beauty in Society

Open Document