Temps de lecture ~ 3min 30
« Who’s the prettiest women on earth? »
Excellent question! (with changing answers from a person to another). However magazine people have the ultimate answer to it! Even a ranking… with same looking women? Small waist and thighs, big chest and butt, almond eyes, trumpet nose… in other words : the perfect Kardashian is the perfect women. But is it true? Has it been always like that? And why? Why those special and very unnatural criteria? And why do we keep seeing them everywhere? That’s what we are going to analyse in this article; The lie of beauty or why you’ll NEVER be pretty.
First of all, beauty standards have never been the same past the decades or from a country to another. For example Kim Kardashian would have been the epitome of ugliness during middle ages or in current China were a size S is the equivalent of a XL and bronzed skin is the first sign of ugliness. However it is and has always been a global pressure especially with the coming of TV and (later) social medias, in other words: when we passed from a society of words to a society of image. Since the arrival of TV in our home in the 50’s, we have never been so much exposed to images and most importantly « ideals ». In fact, according to a study 78% of magazines contain at least one message about appearance and 25% announce having a « super diet to lose weight » on its cover. The human brain is very sensitive to what he sees and for it something that is different from what he is used to (for example on social media) is abnormal and by consequence : wrong. That’s why people are ready to get skin cancer to make their skin darker when they are clear or clearer when they are « too dark », or are ready to burn their hair to make them curly when they are « too straight », or straighten their hair when they are « too curly ». And yet, they get criticized for doing so because it is « unnatural »… however the beauty standards expectations of the same people who criticize make up and surgery are completely unnatural and were openly related to money and racist « norms ».
This conditioning of the « perfect body » starts at a very young age, or more precisely: by the moment a person is constantly exposed to a certain type of images (or here of bodies). Two extremely sad but unfortunately edifying examples prove this point: Firstly, the number of ED (eating disorder) has tripled in the Fiji in the 90’s with the arrival of the first TV (as mentioned earlier). In fact, the « beauty standards » of the country before that was just a healthy and happy women. And if she was fat? Even better! The second one is actually an experience led on 162 little girls aged from 5 to 8 years old. They were divided into three groups: the first one had some Barbies to play with, the second one had « Mdolls » (fat Barbies) and finally the last group had nothing. Well, at the end of the experience the little girls of the first group (so the ones that played with Barbies) had an image of themselves way more negative than before and expressed a desire to lose weight (at only 5-8 years old!), feeling that wasn’t present in the two other groups. Add to this all the series, BD, and cartoon where all the important roles were incarnated by slim girls and you the perfect recipe to mentally destroy a generation.
But why? Why are they doing that? And who is doing it?
Well the answer to those last questions are easy : People and company/ medias, for survival and money.
Since the beginning of this article I’m talking about how does it affect women, but I’ve almost forgot to mention that it also affect men. However, throughout a thousand years historic culture, men were more glorified for their accomplishment than for their appearance. While for women: their body was their survival ticket in a world of men, to find a correct husband and guaranty a good life. They weren’t humans, but product on an extremely competitive market.
Speaking of markets, it’s actually how our modern capitalist societies sees beauty : as an opportunity to make money. Even though women in France can be financially independent since 60 years now, it represent nothing on the historic scale and we still can’t separate from this thousand year old culture of beauty. That’s why it represent a golden opportunity for companies and magazines. Because (even if their survival don’t depend on it anymore) women are still worried about their image yet this time, have more money to spend on it. So they can buy more magazines talking about miraculous diets and miraculous products promoted in those same magazines; profiting to both medias and companies.
Finally, with people who will always criticize you no matter what you do, and big entertainments who capitalize on your insecurities accentuated by medias, what should we do? Actually, a lot of things, but the first one and probably the most important: Be YOU! and LOVE YOURSELF! It’s useless nowadays to focus on what other people say! Because everyone is different but yet try to fit into the same boring square, and end up sad as hell. So wear what you like, and feel free to be fit, slim, athletic or any other possibility that YOU love.
And always remember, as Oscar Wilde famously said : « Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. »
Flora GUIDI.










