These stories assist the reader in understanding the serious widespread nature of the issue. Producing these magazines could not only improve the health of many young women, but also mounts pressure onto big name fashion industries to change their ways on body image. Equally alarming are the opinions of Kristy Greenwood from the Eating Disorders Foundation of Victoria. Greenwood, as a well-known figure with a great deal of authority, argues against the major magazine companies. She claims that “if consumers change their
Compare and Contrast: Natural Beauty vs. Cosmetic Beauty Beauty is an object which is respected and admired by tons of women in the United States. People’s perception of beauty and their fondness between natural or cosmetic beauty has been the subject of numerous debates. While there's no agreement as to which kind of beauty is more attractive, both sides of this dispute has its own supporters. Many would say “if something isn't broken there is no need to fix it,” while on the other hand in today’s society countless models and celebrities in the public eye are displaying more cosmetic beauty than natural beauty.
Magazines are a large part of our society, whether it is when they are featured in commercials, seen in stores, or on social media including the magazine's website. This means that people, especially women, are exposed to images of women who are seen as perfect, women who are often photo shopped beyond recognition and realistic possibility. These magazines often offer beauty and fashion advice, and discuss celebrity gossip. However, magazines often depict unrealistic beauty standards and perpetuate double-standards between women and men, particularly regarding age. One magazine cover in particular, a People Magazine with Julia Roberts on the cover, discusses the concept of "staying forever young."
In today’s society women are always worrying about their appearance. Their perspectives on how they should present themselves are imposed by everything around them. Friends, celebrities and the media are the main reasons why women fee the need to live their lifestyle a specific way. Sometimes, celebrities don’t even need to say anything to have an effect on one; women in today’s society are already provoked on changing just by feeling intimidated by them. In Nina Power’s text, ‘One- Dimensional Woman’ the author also argues that you don’t need superficial things to feel good about yourself, or to even look like perfectly thin stick figure to be a feminist.
During their teenage years, girls start to question their identity. Modeling teaches young girls to center their identity only on their looks (Machoian). Girls look at magazines and see a beautiful model on the cover wishing that they looked the same. They forget that the model they see on the cover has make-up on, and, most likely the picture was edited using some type of photo shop. Modeling along with social media give girls the impression that they have to fit this idealized image to look thin and be beautiful, dress up nicely, and wear makeup or they will not be happy with themselves.
In my opinion, Americans tend to think that their appearance is everything and go to great measures to get their desired looks. I also believe that people in society are always trying too hard to make them self look like their ideal celebrity. I feel that men and women have different standards when it comes to appearance and how they view it. I also agree with Nancy Hellmich in her article, “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” as she says that girls are becoming skinnier and skinnier as the years go by. I think as society tends to focus on their appearance more, it also becomes more dangerous.
Who decides what is beautiful and what is not. I feel that the media has a lot to do with how women, in the United States anyway. With all the magazines showing thin, almost anorexic women on magazine covers young women feel that that is what they should look like. So then these young women starve themselves and/or binge and purge themselves. Some even die because of trying to fix a certain mold of what is beautiful.
It seems as if models nowadays or becoming even thinner, while many women are getting heavier, so there is a wide range between the "ideal" body shape and the reality. There needs to be more realistic body types shown across television and fashion magazines. Being big-boned is not fat. The media has brainwashed females-
‘The Beauty Myth’ is an obsession with physically looking ‘perfect’ and traps the modern woman in an endless cycle of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to achieve what society has deemed "the flawless beauty" regardless of whether it is realistic or not. Naomi Wolf censures the exploitation of women by the fashion, beauty and advertising industries, particularly in women’s magazines as we delve deeper in to the chapter on ‘Culture’. She claims that as a result of being sequestered from the world and isolated from one another, the only real women’s space in modern mass culture where women can seek solidarity is through women’s magazines. Ironically, it is through the same myth that women are brought together and driven apart. These women may not share any particularly close relationship, but develop a sense of solidarity through sharing similar interests, agenda, or worldview.
Young women want to look like the models they see in the media, but most images are modified with special computer effects, so they have no chance of looking like them. Some young women are willing to go to dangerous extremes to achieve the unrealistic beauty ideal