How do You Define Beauty?

A current topic of debate in relation to the media and behavior is sexual behavior. Sex is everywhere. The popular saying “sex sells” has been proven and confirmed on numerous occasions. However, it is becoming more and more accepting as the norm, and raunchier, racier images are being shown even more frequently. How does this affect our society, or more importantly, our youth?

The issue I have with the current media and its depictions of sexuality, and beauty in general, is that they are a skewed version of reality. with the use of photo editing software like Photoshop, almost all of the images we see in today’s media are not real; they are altered versions of reality. Sure everyone likes to look at pretty people and attractive things, but what are the real effects on our society?

Women compare themselves to fake images. They set unreachable goals for physical perfection. Men see these images of bodies and faces that aren’t even real, and yet that is the standard of beauty today. Even the most attractive women in media have been subject to editing, making them even more attractive, if that is even imaginable.

Check out some of these examples:

This leads to problems for women in our society—and not just the physical (and life threatening!) disorders like anorexia and bulimia, which are on the rise, but even deeper issues, like self-esteem. These are pressures that men face as well; the popular use of illegal steroids and other enhancing drugs are a serious problem.

So what is the media doing to combat this issue?

One of my favorite campaigns of our times is the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. They use media to spread their message that all girls are beautiful. They have an interactive website, commercials, articles, blogs, and more that try and correct what the media has made us believe is reality, and competes with how the media has typically defined beauty.  (http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx#/cfrb/)

I think this campaign is important because the images we see subconsciously affect us all. As the cultivation media theory describes, what we see presented in the media becomes incorporated into our worldview; we unknowingly accept it as reality. Impossible standards and their effects on women of all ages is detrimental to our society, but campaigns and movements like this one by Dove help to offset this distortion and encourage positive habits, behaviors, and feelings by educating people through the same use of the media vehicles that contribute to the problem. One of the best ways to stop the negative behavioral and psychological effects of altered images is to make people aware of their prevalence.