Sarah+M.+-POSITION+PAPER

Research Question: What is beauty? Thesis Statement:  In today's society the media defines beauty by the people used in advertisements and the celebrities we look up to. Women and men alike should feel more comfortable and welcome no matter their shape or size. We are all familiar with Barbie, and what little girl didn’t want to look like her when we were kids? But in reality Barbie would be six feet tall, have a 39 inch bust, 18 inch waist, 33 inch hips, wear a size three shoe, and be forced to walk on all fours due to the awkward proportions. From a young age we are influenced to look a certain way. The media defines beauty by the people they put on their advertisement. The problem, however, is that the advertisers are using false and unrealistic images and standards that we are now trying to reach, which may lead to the many eating disorders we have today. Many people have tried to solve this problem in the past. Dove, for example, tries to stop these problems with their campaign for real beauty. Dove uses real people in their commercials, and reveals secrets the media hides behind photo shop. This campaign hasn’t drastically changed anything, because it’s only one company. In order to see a difference, more companies need to advertise like Dove. Furthermore we need to start ignoring the medias definition of beauty and make our own.

Celebrities. We follow their every move. Look up to them as idols. Want to be them in every shape and form. We are drawn to their exciting lives. Why? The media plays a large role in our lives, advertisements are everywhere, there are thousands of television shows played every day, thousands of movies made every year. The actors that star in the commercials, television shows, movies and the models whose pictures are in our magazines and on our billboards define what people should look like. These celebrities create the definition of beautiful, but why is that? Since when are we told what is and is not beautiful? We are pressured to look like these beautiful people everyday of our lives whether we realize it or not. They are the ones deciding the fashion trends, the hairstyles, the fashion, and everything we use to create our appearance. We are pressured to look a certain way from the day we are born. Starting with Barbie, the ever so popular doll we all played with as a child. As a child I remember looking up to her, wanting to be a doctor just like my doctor Barbie, wanting long blonde hair, wanting all of Barbie’s clothes and high heals. In reality, however, Barbie is just as imperfect, if not more, than all of us. Galia Slayen, a Chinese and government major at Hamilton College did a project on how Barbie influences eating disorders and pressures the young to look a certain way from a young age. In an article from Huffington Post Galia explained her project and her outstanding results. She created a life-size Barbie out of wood, chicken wire, and paper maché. Barbie’s real life measurements turned out to be very disproportional. “She stands about six feet tall with a 39 inch bust, 18 inch waist, and 33 inch hips” says Galia of her life size Barbie doll. Barbie would also weigh 110 pounds, have a size three show, and be forced to walk on all fours due to her proportions(Galia). There are at least seven known eating disorders along with many minor disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa being the most common (ANAD). What is beauty ?

Beauty is constantly being redefined with each generation, and with each generation come more advances in technology. These advancements make gaining and giving information much easier. Today, for example, it is much easier for us to monitor our celebrities and their magnificent lives than it was, say, in the 1920s. Each definition of beauty is defined by the people we look up to, who in this day and age are usually celebrities. Women and men have different definitions of beauty, women look for high levels of testosterone in men such as “strong jaws, broad shoulders, tall stature, and other masculine features,”(DeMello). Men look for women with the hourglass body because they believe it to be an indicator of fertility. There are, however, certain “features that both men and women are programmed to find beautiful, including smooth skin, thick shiny hair, and symmetrical faces and bodies,” (DeMello) which show good health and genes. Beauty also has a lot to do with social class, for example “in Renaissance Europe, the wealthy could not only afford sugar – which was known to rot the teeth – but intentionally blackened their teeth to stimulate tooth decay,” (DeMello). With time the beauty was redefined and will constantly be redefined as technology changes.

Women undergo a much greater pressure than men to look a certain way. It is believed that less attractive women who do not meet the standards of beauty get paid less, hired less, and are promoted less than women who meet the almost impossible standards (DeMello). With advancements in technology there are now many more images and videos of beautiful men and women that everyday people feel the pressure to look up to and look like. Beauty expresses your wealth, thus, we created cosmetic surgery. With new technology many of today's advertisements are photoshopped making the people in them fit the beauty standards. An advertisement by JCrew created a lot of controversy and many upset people because it featured a model whose waist was much thinner than any other part of her body and was very clearly photoshopped to look like that. This advertisement was creating a new look that women were trying to achieve and since it was created by photoshop in the first place it was not real, making it impossible to achieve. Beauty is a very important aspect in today's society, new advancements that make unrealistic expectations trigger eating disorders and depressions that are eating people today apart.

Makeup in the 1800s was not as it is today. If women wore makeup at all they made it themselves at home, wealthy women however traveled abroad, mostly to France, and brought home cosmetics (Sherrow). In the mid 1800s people started to realize the money they could make by making and selling their own cosmetics, and hair products. "In Cincinnati, Ohio Salon Palmer developed powder, cologne, perfume, and [[@ [] oil|hair oil]], then hired people to sell them,"(Sherrow) some manufacturers even produced catalogs filled with their products. The development of makeup and other beauty products contributed greatly to the pressure than women still feel today to look and feel beautiful.

The media has been influencing our belief of what is perceived to be beautiful in our society. But not just beauty is being used as an appeal to buy products, now a days sex appeal is used very often. Sex first started to be used in advertising since 1871 when it was first used on a tobacco label. Calvin Klein used the phrase "innocence is sexy" in one of his advertisement of young people in provocative poses. Women are used in advertisements like, Budweiser Beer, in ways that say that the beautiful and sexy women come with the product. Sex is still being used in many advertisements today and that is one of the ways the media pressures us to look and now act a certain way.

"//Fact:// Nine out of ten North American women feel bad about some aspect of their bodies, and men are not far behind," (Lasn, 75). In 1992 a survey was conducted in Canada taken by girls ages 13 to 15 years old, 50% of these girls thought that they should be thinner. The key thing to note from this survey is that "they didn't wish they //were// thinner, they thought they //should// be thinner," ( Lasn, 75). The media is destroying what girls as young as five and placing the idea into their minds that they must look, act, and feel a certain way.

The media influences us to look like the skinny models and actors we are surrounded by in our society. We are pressured to believe that "food is sin. It's guilt. It's joy. We overeat, then we undereat," (Lasn). Many companies have tried to change the way we look at advertisements and celebrities. The company Dove started what they called the "The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty". They made numerous commercials using real people. One that stood out particularly was called "Evolution of Beauty" in which they showed a woman who was not particularly pretty and showed what the model industry does to their models to make them look the way they do on advertisements. The woman underwent a long makeover process and then, her picture was edited using photo shop to elongate her neck, raise her cheek bones, and too much more to name. In the end the woman looked like an entirely new person who fell under the medias definition of beauty. The purpose of this commercial was to show, to females in particular, that these models we look up to and compare ourselves to are being altered, and their beauty is not real. The goal of Dove's campaign is to create a wider definition of beauty (Dove). This goal has not yet been met, considering our views have not changed. In order to change this the media needs to include people of all shapes, and colors, and use real people in their advertisements, movies, and TV shows in order to make everyone feel acceptable in our society. Doves technique was targeting the people general and a new method would target the media overall therefore, reaching a larger audience.

Beyond Beauty for Girls is a website that reaches out to young girls in an attempt to make them realize their uniqueness and empowerment. Lindsay Staniszewski, runner up for Miss Maryland beauty contest and the founder of Beyond Beauty for Girls hopes her company shows,"the truth behind the 'perfect beauty' advertised by the media... [and] motivates and inspires girls and teens to stop obsessing and start living–living for the dreams and goals that each young woman has set for herself,"(Staniszewski). This company is giving a larger message and focussing on a broader topic, helping girls get over their insecurities and helping them focus on their life's goals and dreams. However, not many people have heard of Beyond Beauty, so in order for their message to be heard a larger organization needs to be made with a strong message about the importance of beauty. Also Beyond Beauty is focussed solely on females, and body image is an issue in men and women alike.

Everywhere you look there are images of ultra-thin, beautiful models. With today's technology it is not hard to believe these so called "beauty's" are photoshopped. Since that is so easily accomplished and believable, why is there a debate whether our advertising is effecting the young? A study done by Dr. Eric Stice, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and his colleagues performed an experiment with 219 girls between the ages of 13 and 17. These girls were randomly divided in half and one half given a 15-month subscription to [[@ [] magazine|Seventeen magazine]], a popular magazine with teenagers, and the other half was not given a subscription to any magazine. The study showed that the images of happy, skinny girls had no effect on the half that read it. The girls that were effected, however, already had non-supportive family and friends. "Those who already are dissatisfied with their bodies, who have little support from family and friends, or who feel pressure from peers or parents to be thin [absorb the medias message],"(Goode). It's not the media that is making young children obsess and worry about their appearances, it's the people they are surrounded by everyday.

We may be surrounded by our family everyday, but in today's era we look up to the actors and models that we can so easily monitor. We have easy access to the tabloids, making it easier to know everything about all celebrities. In these popular tabloids there are often articles and magazines dedicated to the mistakes of celebrities like "who wore it best?" and "the best and worst beach body's", giving us the impression that they are regular people, and showing us these mistakes makes us want to be perfect. Acne commercials often use celebrities to advertise their products, they get the celebs to say they have acne problems and convince us to buy their products. We are star-struck. We realize the success of these celebrities and strive to be just like them, making decisions based on their actions.

This influences appearance, because the celebrities fall under the definition of beauty, defined by the media. Our obsession with celebrities is often referred to as, cult of celebrity. Tabloids also make us closer to the famous, than we are to our own family's, substituting our supposed role models for those we feel we better know.

We look at ourselves in a mirror everyday. What we see depends on our mental image of ourself. "A healthy state of mind fosters a positive self-image, which then encourages balanced relationships and sound decision making skills," (Conger). It's not what the media is telling us to look like that pressures us, it's the way our minds operate and tell us. An article written by Cristen Conger on TLC.com, says that girls who consider themselves unpopular are 69% more likely to gain weight than those who consider themselves popular. The way you consider yourself socially is a factor in how we feel about our body image. If we feel popular, then we feel fine the way we are, but if we feel unpopular we aren't happy and may take this out on binging. Another study in the same article suggests that "people with a positive self-image are less likely to engage in unprotected sex," (Conger). When we feel comfortable with our body, we want to stay that way, therefore, avoiding the risk of an unwanted pregnancy and change to our bodies. The media isn't what is influencing us to change the way we are born, it's the idea's we put into our heads.

It's the media that is planting these images that our minds believe we should look like. The media puts these ideas in our head at young ages, in today's society children are around advertising often with smart phones, the internet, and television. "According to studies cited by the national Eating Disorders Association, 42 percent of girls in first through third grade want to be thinner, 81 percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat, and 51 percent of 9- and 10-year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet," (Kelley). As technology evolves (making it easier for the media to advertise) we feel this pressure from earlier ages, and the age keeps dropping. This is not good because as a child you need fat in order to grow and "' tat slight weight gain at the beginning of puberty is money in the bank,"(Kelley).

Peer pressure is very common in all grades and schools. You may feel pressured to play a sport, receive good grades, or look a certain way. It doesn't matter what you're being pressured to doing, you are still being pressured. In an article written by Tina Kelley in The New York Times, it tells a story of girls who attend an all girls school and the pressure they feel to look a certain way. The girls recite what they hear on a typical day at school, "'I think I'm going to get a bag of chips,' 'I'm so fat,' 'You're fat? Look at me!' and so on,"(Kelley). One of the girls interviewed in the article, Catherine Gray, 14, says she feels the pressure when people are comparing themselves and calling themselves fat, you automatically think you're fat too. "'I get scared a lot with my friends,' One of them is pressure by her parents and throws up after meals,"(Kelley). The article explains that many of the girls who attend this school are sent to the hospital because of eating disorders. But it is not only this school that has a problem with eating disorders, all school have problems with physical appearance. Classmates, and friends influence individuals to feel the need to look a certain way more than the media.

The media has a lasting impact. You see the media more often than you may hear foul comments on weight or appearance. You see foul images in magazines, and on television commercials. We see advertisements for body-wash, perfumes, face-wash, and other products everyday. These advertisements pressure us to smell a certain way. In an article written by Jan Hoffman in The New York Times, it tells of two teenage boys, 13 and 14, who feel this particular pressure from the media(Hoffman). In their shared bathroom there are a total of 18 containers of smelly products that they use on a regular bases. Although you hear those nasty comments on appearance from classmates and friends, in society today, we are more often surrounded by the media with our new technology.

We are reminded every day that models and actors are skinnier than the average person, they are everywhere. On television, billboards, magazines, and even boxes of cereal. With our amazing technology today it is easy to follow celebrities, we see them and pay closer attention to them more than we do our own family members. We all look at the same thing when we see an advertisement, an outrageously tall and thin model that we can't help but compare ourselves to, seeing as they are described as beautiful and perfect. I've heard the saying "We are our own biggest critic", and this saying may be true for other things other than appearance because it is the media's definition of beauty that is planted in our minds, and this is the image our minds tells us we should look like. We are peer pressured no matter our age, and although it may seem like it's your peers who are the ones nagging at you to look a certain way, it's the media that makes them believe you are not perfect the way you are. The media defines fat, skinny, right, wrong, cool, lame, fascinating, boring, and beauty, and ugly. These things should not be defined. They should be an open definition, for any one person to fill in and decide what they think is beauty. "Is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me," - J.K. Rowling.


 * ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY **

Conger, Cristen. "How Accurate is Our Mental Image of Ourselves?" // TLC //. Discovery, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. < [|http://tlc.howstuffworks.com] >. Cristen Conger is a writer for HowStuffWorks.com, a website dedicated to informing the reader on (obviously) how stuff works. Cristen also writes for the Huffington Post, a website cited, ABC Science, and MSNBC. TLC is a trusted website because it is constantly sought after for tips on taking care of yourself and your surroundings. The article I read was about how our body, not the media, influences what we think about our body image. This citation was used in one of my argument memos.

DeMello, Margo. "Beauty." //Daily Life Through History//. ABC-CLIO, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.dailylife.abc-clio.com] >. Is a writer who has written several books, one being about the beauty of the tattoo and the history behind it. This article explains the importance behind our beauty and gives some historical information. This reference source was recommended by the learning center librarians at Upper Arlington High School on their credible references gold sheet.

Galia, Slayen. "The Scary Reality of a Real-Life Barbie Doll." //Huffington Post//. N.p., 8 Apr. 20 11. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.huffingtonpost.com] > Galia Slayen is a young women who did a project on Barbie and has been on many news shows about it such as, The Today Show. The article is about her project and her experience with an eating disorder that Barbie may not have caused but was definitely a factor that carried over from when she was young. Huffington Post is used as a blog and a news website that is used around the country.

Goode, Erica. "Girls' Self Image Survives Press Of Glossy Ads." //The New York// //Times//. The New York Times Company, 24 Aug. 1999. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.nytimes.com] >. The New York Times is a very famous newspaper that is available around the country and is a heavily trusted resource. NYT is trusted because it has been around for a long time and it gained their trust that way. This article is about high school girls and the troubles with body image and eating disorders at their California high school.

Hoffman, Jan. "Masculinity in a Spray Can." //The New York Times//. The New York Times Company, 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. < [|http://nytimes.com] >. The New York times as stated many times in this work cited, is a widely credible website due to it's common name and history. The article I read was about two teenage boys who have been influenced by the medias advertisements to smell a certain way, hence their 18 different products. Jan Hoffman is a styles reporter for the NYTimes who writes about teens, tweens, and modern family dynamics.

Kelley, Tina. "'Am I Too Fat?.'" //The New York Times//. The New York Times Company, 4 Apr. 2004. Web. 30 Apr. 2012 < [|http://nytimes.com] >. The New York Times is a strongly trusted website/newspaper because it has been around for many years and is published and sold around the country. Tina Kelley is a writer on staff for the New York Times. This article is about girls from California and their struggle at their school with their body image.

Lasn, Kalle. //Culture Jam. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. Print//. Kalle Lasn is the author of many books, a film maker, and is very involved in the media. He is a strong activist and participated in Occupy Wall Street. This book, //Culture Jam//, was a reading assigned in a mass media class and is about the media industry and it's effect on life today. The particular chapter I looked at in the book was about eating disorders, and body image and how advertisements influence the way we feel about our appearance. In the chapter it told a story from different people in different situations and the problem they faced.

Lorand, Ruth. "Beauty and Ugliness." //New Dictionary of the History of Ideas//. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 198-205. //Gale Virtual Reference Library//. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Ruth Lorand is the author of "Aesthetic Order: A Philosophy of Order, Beauty and Art". The article i read, called "Beauty and Ugliness" was about the importance of your appearance and the differences between being considered beautiful and ugly. The article also provided some history on beauty. Gale Virtual Reference Library is one of the resources on our librarian’s credible resource list, therefore it can be trusted.

"Nation Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders." //ANAD//. N.p., 2012. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.anad.org] >. The ANAD is an association that works with many different eating disorders and is a direct source for any concerning eating disorders. For my paper I used their eating disorder definitions which did not have an author named. This website provides information about all kinds of eating disorders and rehabilitation services that can help the needy.

Prah, Pamela M. "Eating Disorders." //CQ Researcher Online//. CQ Press, 28 Nov. 20011. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. < [|http://library.cqpress.com] >. Pamela Prah is a former reporter from Stateline.org, Kiplingers Washington Letter, and the Bureau of National Affairs. CQ Researcher is a database that provides information in the news, and is known for not being biased. CQ Researcher also is a recommended database on the Homework Helpers Databases that Upper Arlington High School librarians recommend to receive credible websites to use for research papers and projects.

Sherrow, Victoria. "Beauty Industry in the United States." //Daily Life Through History.// ABC-CLIO, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. < [|http://dailylife.abc-clio.com] >. Victoria Sherrow is an author who has written several books. The article I used written by her was about hair and beauty products in the 1800s up until present day (used in the history part of my paper). This source is credible because it along with most sources used on this paper, are on our school librarians list of credible and trusted websites paper.

Staniszewski, Lindsay. "About." //Beyond Beauty//. Beyond Beauty for Girls, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. < [|http://beyondbeautyforgirls.com] >. Lindsay Staniszewski is a runner up for Miss Maryland, and therefore has experience being judged on her looks. In my paper I used the "about us" section of the website to obtain some facts and information on her website. Lindsay possesses a strong feeling for girls confidence with their body and expresses this on her page. I find this source credible because Lindsay has first hand exper//ience with being unsatisfied and literally judged on her body image.//

"The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty." // Dove //. Unilever, 2004. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. < [|http://dove.us] >. Dove is common household soap that is using its company to redefine beauty and make everyone feel acceptable in today's society. This website is credible because it is the products website. I used their goal and about us page to gain information. Dove is a strong beauty activist that shows people that they are beautiful the way they are and shouldn't listen to the messages the media tries to portray to us.

Worsnop, Richard L. "Eating Disorders." //CQ Researcher Online//. CQ Press, 18 Dec. 1992. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. < [|http://library.cqpress.com] >. Richard L. Worsnop is an associate editor for the CQ Researcher and has written for BookRags.com and wrote a book about the abortion law reform. CQ Researcher is a website that was recommended by our UAHS librarians, as explained above. This article was about eating disorders, what causes them, and gave some history as well.