Psychology of Beauty
Many people would argue that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it must not be the clear definition of a person. However, sadly in today’s materialistic world ‘beauty’ brings about divide and unwanted effect in a person’s self-esteem and self-image. The media today seemingly has stereotyped the beauty into standards that appear pleasing to the eyes. Media has created an ideal beauty that unconsciously affected a person’s self-image due to the constant desire to achieve that ‘ideal’ beauty. In the workforce, for instance, physical appearance has created both a disadvantage and advantage to people. Physically attractive people tend to get hired faster because of the connotation that they will bring more income to the company. Women, most specifically, are observed because of their appearance. This divide in applicants creates an impact on the self-esteem on both the part of the physically attractive women and the ones who were not hired despite being equally competent. However, women are again looked as objects because they are hired merely because of their appearance. Physically attractive women are prone to sexual harassment in the workforce; they attract unwanted attention from the people surrounding them. Their self-esteem is as affected as those who deem themselves as not attractive, because they are reduce to commodities in their company. People look at them as display and not see how they perform in work. They are not evaluated based on their performance but base on their attractiveness.
In an article entitled Worries Arise over rise in eating disorder in the UAE, mentioned that in the UAE region, there is a significant increase over the past several years of recorded incidence of eating disorder such as bulimia and anorexia especially in teenage girls. Swan (2013) added that social pressure is one of the main contributing factors in the alarming development. The sociocultural transition experienced by the region brings uncertainty resulting to eating disorders rapidly increasing (Swan, 2013). The problem is even more gravitated because of the late detection of the problem. Swan (2013) mentioned that the family plays a vital role in detecting the disorder because there are symptoms present and can be detected. The problem is that due to the changing dynamics of the family system, the parents rarely sits down and discuss matters with their daughters. In the article it was mentioned that some family even pressure their daughters to be thin because of the belief that it will increase their marriage prospect. Girls fear becoming fat because of the negative image this will give them, to the point that they are too pre-occupied with their figure and refuse to eat all together (Swan, 2013).
Clay et al. (2005) mentioned that in the Western Culture, girl’s self-esteem declines drastically during the middle adolescent age, with the alteration in body image proposed as one of the possible reason behind the decline. The concept of body image develops with the aid sociocultural factors including the unrealistic media portrayals of female beauty (Clay et al. 2005). Rosenberg (1965) gave self-esteem the definition of the positive and negative attitude towards the self and was used as one of the key indicators towards the determination of psychological well-being. Psychological well-being is affected by many factors including the perception of the self, because it negative self-image may lead to the development of a number of psychological problems and disorders. Clay et al. (2005) added that self-esteem levels vary depending on gender, studies would show that women’s self-esteem is moderately, but significantly lower compared to their male counterparts.
The decline in self-esteem is explained by many factors including the changes in body image that one of the primary reason for the crucial decline. Body image is important for adolescent girls because it serves as the core for their definition as a woman. Girls, due to socialization believe that the appearance is an important basis for self-evaluation and self-worth. The media outlets such as magazines, films, advertisements and other media mean constantly bombard females with images that self-worth is based on beauty that creates a cultural idea of female beauty that is becoming unattainable (Clay et al. 2005).
Media and Beauty
There are growing literatures that support the claim that the idealized portrayal of women in the media creates a negative impact on how adolescent girls and women see themselves. In a survey conducted by Gortmaker & Colditz (1999) in American girls of over 500 adolescent girls with ages ranging from 9-16, roughly around 70% believed magazine pictures impacts their idea of ideal body shape, while 47% desire to lose weight as a result. The constant exposure to unrealistic media portrayal is among the many contextual factors that negatively impacts body image. Harrison (2001) added that the exposure to thin-ideal TV encourages the development of eating disorder symptoms. Girls become too conscious of their body shape that they develop a wrong connotation of food and eating. Women continue to strive for the body figure advertised by most media. Studies would show that there is a decrease in girl’s perspective of their own attractiveness is influenced by the constant comparison with models. A study by Martin & Kennedy (1993) shared that social comparison with models continuously increases between the ages of 8 and 12. Cultural variables are also added in the issue of perception of self-images; both women from non-western and western cultures have as much pressure to improve their physical appearance (Jung & Lee, 2006).
Clay et al (2005) mentioned that in an ideal world, the media must vary the body size and attractiveness of the models they showcase to the public in order to represent diversity of shapes and sizes among girls and women. The continuous stereotyping of beauty has led many women to live an unhealthy life and a negative image of their own attractiveness. Many girls and women develop eating disorder because they believe that thin is always in. The unhealthy attitude towards eating is a result of constant proliferation of thin models in the media that is expected to represent the ideal beauty. Many groups and countries have begun attempting to resolve this growing problem by introducing programs that mentions appearance diversity that hopes to aid people to be more comfortable in their own skin.
References:
Clay et al. (2005). Body Image and Self-Esteem Among Adolescent Girls: Testing the Influence
of Sociocultural Factors. Journal of research on adolescence, 15(4), 451–477 Society for Research on Adolescence
Harrison, K. (2001). Ourselves, our bodies: Thin-ideal media, self-discrepancies, and eating
disorder symptomatology in adolescents. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20,
289–323.
Jung & Lee (2006). Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Appearance Self-Schema, Body Image, Self-
Esteem, and Dieting Behavior Between Korean and U.S. Women. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, Vol. 34, No. 4, June 2006 350-365, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Swan (2013). Worries over rise in eating disorders in the UAE
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