Beauty and Advertising

Beauty can be found all around us. In nature, it’s a sunset on the horizon, the sight of a full moon on a clear night, and the sight of the mountains on a clear Sunday morning. It’s an undeniable natural occurrence. We see beauty every day in humanity, but does beauty have to be painful in order to be admired or accepted?
It happens every moment of every day, somewhere around the world.   A young girl gets upset because her young boyfriend called her fat. The young girl is now depressed on a number of different levels (her boyfriend, her weight, etc.), and has come to a conclusion that she needs to diet in order to be (according to societies standards) normal. “On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90 to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight). On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls” (Media Awareness Network). Because social acceptance is a necessity for women of all ages, I believe that some women are subjecting themselves to self-destructive behaviors due to the pressure of the media and beauty advertisements. Eating disorders are linked in several different areas of advertising where beauty plays a major role such as models, actresses and beauty pageant contestants. The victims of these diseases are not just the consumers who read the magazines, view the ads, and watch the pageants, they also affect the women modeling.
Advertisements in many women’s lifestyle magazines have a countless number of weight loss supplement ads as well as diet plans and exercise routines. Subconsciously, it is forcing women to reflect on their exercise or eating habits. It pushes ideals of...