Final Essay Submission

Katie Wade

Beauty and the Beast: What are the social consequences of physical appearance for women in modern society and can we challenge how they affect them?

“The quality called beauty objectively and universally exists” – Naomi Wolf (1991).

Tale as old as time, physical appearance has always had some affect on the course of an individuals life but with the dawn of a new technological age many things are beginning to change including the weight of physical appearance and how it affects our day-to-day lives and our futures. The introduction of social media into society has given us the power to adjust the way we are perceived by others; people now have the ability to adjust the way they look using various filters, Photoshop and much more. Photos that were once personal items are being subject to likes and comments as a rating system for attractiveness and popularity “The UK population collectively spends 62 million hours a day on Facebook, which equates to around an hour for every child and adult” (Hurst, P.2013).  It shows that as a nation we are now far more in control of our own self-image than we have ever been and from a much younger age than before, it is leading to a change in attitude and growing obsession with mentally and physically trying to achieve perfection and to be desired by others. The question I will be asking is whether modern society is becoming compromised by our lust for physical appearance and can we challenge how appearance affects us? Ultimately can you, in modern society, be happy just being the beast rather than the beauty?

 The vast majority of celebrities and a-listers in today’s society are considered more physically attractive than the rest of the population and as a result are idolized by the general public. This is nothing new; attractive people have always been idolized by others. However today physical appearance is taking on a more commercial edge as celebrities often use their good looks to endorse products, flaunt weight loss journeys and to do interviews in magazines about their skin care routine. Celebrities support the beauty industry, as they often have natural beauty the products they use only enhance this, leaving the rest of the nation eager to buy said product to improve their looks and often not achieving the same results. The proof of this is in the beauty industry; the UK beauty industry alone is now worth £17 billion and has been branded “recession proof” (Aidin, B. 2013) as its projected growth rises every year. It is the numerous magazine articles and online adverts that are beginning to compromise society, as Susie Orbach addresses in her book “every women’s magazine has a diet column” (Orbach, S. 1998) there is strong truth behind this that jeopardizes female society, magazines now regularly enforce the idea that you need to be beautiful in order to achieve things and often have a column dedicated to down putting those who’s appearance aren’t up to scratch. Although we live in a post modernism society, the statement “physical fitness and beauty are every woman’s goals” (Orbach, S. 1998) still applies to the feminine society as such goals are presented in the media repeatedly. This enforces the idea that only beautiful people can achieve things and that you need to improve your looks in order to be a successful individual. Even those who possess talent are judged first and foremost on their appearance “Studies of film, television and print media repeatedly find that older women are grossly underrepresented and rarely unreconstructed” (Rhode, DL. 2010)  this  can be  proved best when used next to the example of 47 year old Susan Boyle, a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. She was aired stepping onto the stage with some 3000 of the audience giggling and the judges all smirking behind the panel at her appearance and a crude wolf whistle before she even had the chance to tell them her name. Audience members were filmed eye rolling and giggling at her as she told the panel her modest ambitions, “Not only do you have to be physically appealing to deserve fame; it seems you now have to be good-looking to merit everyday common respect” (Douglas Home, C.  2009) this showed the general publics reaction to the middle aged singer. Then she sang and immediately there is a change in the audience as they realize there is something behind her appearance. Bosses of BGT had perfect story arc for the series, the transformation of Susan Boyle, a modern underdog.

Fig 1 (Left)

Fig 2 (Right)

Society’s hunger for beauty can be shown in the much publicized transformation Susan underwent over the course of her time on the programme.  As you can see in Figure 2 (BBC, Dec 2009) they effectively pimped her out,  dying and styling her frumpy hairstyle, bleaching her crooked teeth and assigning her a personal stylist, all whilst she was at the eye of a media storm. When she finally reached the final of the show she looked nothing like her former self  seen in figure 1 (BBC, Apr 2009) reinforcing the idea that you have to change appearance wise if you want to be realized as someone important “If, like Susan (and like millions more), you are plump, middle-aged and too poor or too unworldly to follow fashion or have a good hairdresser, you are a non-person” (Douglas Home, C. 2009). It raises the question that if Susan Boyle had been younger or had looked better would she have had wasted so many valuable career years being overlooked?

 When in placed in comparison to Paul Potts, another contestant on BGT their representations couldn’t be more different. In his introduction Paul has a nice pleasant song running as he talks about his ambitions whereas Susan is given a comedic song running in the background as she talks about hers. When he walks on stage, the audience is quiet and there is no judgment until he sings despite Paul having similar physical flaws to Susan (crooked teeth, larger body) Whereas when Susan steps from behind the curtain the audience members are giggling and rolling their eyes. This just further proves the point that physical appearance has a real cause and affect on peoples lives and that women have to fight hard that they are worthy humans  prove if they are not beautiful “As women demanded access to power the power structure used the beauty myth materially to undermine women’s advancement”(Wolf, N. 1991).

The beauty myth affects not only the less attractive of the population but the famous and “beautiful” also. Harry Potter stars Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe pose as examples for this. When the films were finished both actors went on to separate projects, Radcliffe went on to star in Horns as a love lead but was penalized by the media and viewers “why am I an unconventional love lead?”  (Mcrady, R. 2014) Radcliffe asked. The reporter responded that he was associated with little boy harry potter which Radcliffe then challenged the reporter with the statement “The Male population has had no problem sexualizing Emma Watson immediately” (Mcrady, R. 2014). This demonstrated the point that men are not as quickly sexualized by the media as women and that it is just as hard for males to change a media-appointed appearance as it is for women to gain an appearance without sexualisation hindering their progress. Emma Watson is now a UN women’s Goodwill ambassador but she is too is plagued by the beauty myth by being over sexualized. In her recent speech for the HeforShe she highlighted the differences for her growing up “When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear muscle-y.”(Cole, NL. 2014). This shows how females today feel pressure to look and act a certain way and also how Watson herself has been undermined by the media who value her looks over her intelligence.

It is not only the clothes, hair and face that contribute to a physical appearance but the human bodies proportions as well. “Once upon a time men and woman both admired dimply fat; it took twentieth century marketing to render it disgusting” (Greer, G. 1999) It could be said that the media does not often celebrate weight and often scrutinizes those who are heavier than average “fat is a social disease and fat is a feminist issue” (Orbach, S. 1998). Weight loss stories dominate the press with pictures of before and after celebrity body shots alongside magazine articles claiming to help achieve the perfect summer body. With many of today’s youth being able to access these articles through their mobile phone or tablet, the pressure to have a good body is building up fast with girls being taught that skinny is the only way to attract a man and be successful “a girl learns that stories happen to beautiful women whether they are interesting or not”. (Wolf, N. 1991). New dangerous fad diets and thinspiration blogs are being promoted across the internet as a response to this attitude and are resulting in diseases such as bulimia, anorexia and Body Dismorphic Disease (BDD) statistically getting worse, “an estimated 1 in every 100 people in the UK may have BDD” (NHS, 2014). This obsession with thin being perfect is getting worse but how is it affecting people mentally? Dr Christina C Wee, an intern at Harvard Medical School carried out 2 studies ‘Assessing the value of weight loss among primary care patients’ (Wee, CC. 2004) and ‘expectations for weight loss and willingness to accept risk among patients seeking weight loss surgery’ (Wee, CC. 2013).  In the 2004 study it showed that of 366 patients “19% of overweight and 33% of obese people would risk death for even a modest 10% weight loss”. (Kolata, G. 2005) compared to the statistic that 4% of average weight people who would risk death for the same amount of weight loss, shows just how physical appearance affects people’s rationality especially those who are outside the normal weight bracket. In the second study done in 2013, 654 patients were trialed and the results were very similar if not slightly more shocking “when asked about their willingness to assume some risk of death to lose different levels of weight or to achieve perfect health slightly more than half were willing to accept any risk of dying to lose twenty percent of their weight” (Wee, CC. 2013).This showed that the mindset of those who are overweight or obese is irrational and the reason for this irrationality is that of the social media shunning them for weighing more. The consequences of this mindset are very rarely advertised in the media, anorexia and bulimia are often taboo subjects in the media and so we are showing the future generation no real consequences for their actions. This needs to change if we are to change the mindset of a generation.

                        The question still remains, is there a way we can challenge how appearance affects the population? Beauty organization Dove is making a stand against beauty standards and in 2004 announced the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. According to the vice president for Dove Skin the campaigns mission is “to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety.” (Vega, T. 2013).It has been a successful campaign that releases a series of videos, live workshops and billboards every year in a bid to engage women to embrace their beauty. It is a different advertising technique for a beauty brand to make, and one that seems to work. Many of their videos, particularly their 2013 advert entitled “you’re more beautiful than you think” (where women are shown to undervalue how beautiful they are) are shared and celebrated across a wide variety of media platforms. This kind of publicity is the kind that might be able to battle the global beauty epidemic that is upon us, if a giant beauty brand can teach you to appreciate your beauty as it is, perhaps it might be possible for girls to appreciate their appearance for what it is. Body positivity is something that has been slow to start but is slowly gaining speed as more celebrities are coming to light and celebrating their bodies. Although not the obvious choice for this, Kim Kardashian presents a prime example for body acceptance and promoting positive body image. Kim Kardashian was once a victim in of the media, they belittled her for her curvy figure and published various articles on her weight however to battle this negativity, Kim had cosmetic surgery to enhance her curves rather than to belittle them– promoting the idea that she was pleased with her body and wanted to exaggerate the parts that people often critiqued her for. This set a change in motion and she is partly to celebrate for a change in body glamorization. Once upon a time models such as Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell were the idols of the younger generation, promoting ideals such as “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels “ (Selby, J. 2014) and promoting various dangerous fad diets but with the rise of Kim Kardashian

Fig 3 (left)

Fig 4 (right)

and other stars such as Nicki Minaj and Beyonce  who not only embrace but openly celebrate their bodies, the younger generation finally have the opportunity to look up to more than one body image. Kim kardashian frequently celebrates both her race and her body, her cover for Paper Magazine’s winter issue “Break The Internet”  as seen in Figure 3 (Goude J-P 2014 )  was one which did as the title suggests. Among other nude shots within the magazine, the cover featured Kardashian posed dressed in a ball gown and balancing a champagne flute on her rear. It had a marked resemblance to the photographer Jean—Paul Goude’s earlier 1976 photograph nicknamed “the champagne incident” as seen in Figure 4 (Goude J-P, 1976) featuring Carolina Beaumont which had multitudes of racist implications, mostly concerning the degradation of women of colour when it appeared in society. On one hand there were criticisms of Kim blatant ignorance of the racial implications that she imposed as she decided to recreate the famous photograph. However it could be argued that Kim’s version contradicts its predecessor. Carolina’s version is one that shows the model bare naked and in a degrading primitive pose which hints strongly at the view on black culture as uncivilized at the time. As well as this Carolina’s body is exceptionally skinny as were many models of the time. There is a strong contrast between hers and Kim’s. Kim is fully dressed and draped in pearls signifying wealth and prosperity and speaks loudly of how far women of colour have come in both media representation and in life. She also celebrates her curves, her well oiled appearance is highly sexualized, this could be seen as a negative but I think that it shows how comfortable Kim is in her body and shows the world that curvier women can be desirable. When questioned about it Jean-Paul Goude admits that very little was photo shopped. Kim Kardashian is known for being materialistic and vain but her defiance against normal beauty standards is one that is both admirable and has affected the way we view bodies.  Despite the photograph being critiqued and mocked on the internet, it was well publicized and as a result Kim has set the beauty standards in motion as now people do generally consider her more desirable.

In conclusion, the answer is Yes. Yes, the social consequences for physical appearances are high in today’s society. They have caused many reasonably sane people to have breakdowns caused by the pressure set upon people by the media to be perfection and to be considered “beautiful”. What I’ve learnt is physical appearance does impact on life but only as far as you let it. Social media adds to this pressure to be perfect but by spending less time on the internet and less time comparing yourself to others on it, you can significantly lower how it affects your life. You can make the choice to lower your chances of developing a body dismorphic disease. This pressure is a real thing, it isn’t a fairytale and it is affecting real lives. Researching for this essay has shown me that the current social consequences are at a medium but more reports and statistics roll in day by day of teenagers damaging themselves to be beautiful and there are beginning to be reports of suicide. We are quite literally dying to be beautiful, dying to be noticed. However there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the answer is yes to my other question also. Yes we can challenge how it affects us. We can choose not to take notice of beauty magazines; we can spend an hour less on social media and start to feel more satisfied with our lives. We can take a page out of Kim Kardashian’s book and reset the standards of beauty. Yes, we can choose not to conform to what the media teaches us is beautiful, but we can do one better than this; we can teach others around us the worth of self beauty. We have and are using the power we have as a generation to place importance on ad campaigns such as Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign, with high social media platforms such as youtube and instagram at our disposal, each and every female has the power to contradict the beauty myth by choosing not to believe in it. To believe that we are more than what is one the outside, to believe in our own merit and that beauty and the beast is just a story and beasts only exist in fairytales. The future, as Naomi Wolfe puts it  ”Depends now on what we see when we look in the mirror. What will we see?” (Wolf, N. 1991). We have the power to change perception, but will we use it?

Word count, 3018.

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