The Beauty Ideal...Not So Beautiful

According to the superficial society that we live in today, beauty is completely the woman's responsibility. A woman's worth is based primarily on how close or how far she comes to embodying the ideal. As a result, women are supposed to conform to the extremely narrow and well-defined standards of beauty. It is her ultimate duty, above all else, to be beautiful ALL the time. However, beauty is something that can be lost as quickly as it is gained. The beauty ideal constantly changes with time. Any woman that is rewarded the title of being beautiful only temporarily escapes into the eternal ideal. She has to constantly adapt to beauty standards. This can be attributed to the prevalent sexist attitudes that are present in our society today.

Currently, in Western civilization, the ideal beautiful woman is a woman that is narrow-hipped, high-breasted, and that has flawless skin. "Age-denying" methods such as scientific skin care products, cosmetic surgery, along with weight loss programs and supplements, make it possible to disguise aging and give women the opportunity to be "youthful" and beautiful all of their lives. The concept of graying, wrinkling, and gaining weight can be extinct to those women that take drastic measures to remain "beautiful."

There are countless personal and political ramifications of the pressure on women to conform to a beauty standard. To be beautiful is to look a constant twenty, whether in actuality the individual is twelve or forty-five years old. The pressure on women to conform to a beauty standard causes women to feel an intensely private shame for their "personal failure" especially when they do not fit in with what is perceived as beautiful. Consequently, as women come to accept their "personal failure," which is a result of natural differences, they begin to hold steadfastly to the idea that they deserve the hostility that is directed toward them by society. Women can even tend to gain a sense of self-hate because they just cannot be "beautiful" despite their endless efforts. It is no surprise that this can make women more susceptible to low self-esteem. A woman's inability to conform to a beauty standard can ultimately lead her to believe that she is ugly, unattractive, unintelligent, unwomanly, and unconfident, everything that is not beautiful. It is evident that the beauty ideal is not so beautiful after all! It can have ugly consequences, especially on individuals that internalize and accept unrealistic beauty standards.