American Beauty Standards

Having an ideal body to fit the mold that society has placed on young women. Slender bodies represent beauty, intelligence and confidence while other body shapes exclude you from that title. It is well known that in American culture the beauty standard is set to a ridiculously high expectation. One that most women will never be able to accomplish without some sort of unnatural modification. And what is it that society continues to do? Social media, advertisements even the television programs we watch continue to push these expectations on young women rather than prevent the escalation of these standards. While our culture takes these messages and overwhelms individuals who are uncomfortable with their appearance and weight and pushes them to …show more content…
As I see it, young women are the ones that continue to be targeted by these unrealistic expectations. To avoid being ostracized by society, most women will push themselves to conform to the ideal image of perfection through whatever means. Some taking unhealthy alternatives in order to lose weight, such as extreme diets which can result in development of Anorexia or Bulimia. What some fail to understand is that a majority of these images we see are not real, but altered in order to seem more appealing to consumers so when you think about it the body this person has in an advertisement or magazine may not even be realistic. Therefore, restricting your caloric intake or excessively exercising will not help you achieve that ideal instead you are only hurting your body and …show more content…
Even with the ability to advocate for change, old beauty standards continue to be used in our social media and advertisements, grasping the attention of young women out. I do want to believe that one day we will be able to get rid of the idea of conforming to a certain mold, in the meantime I believe that it is crucial that we continue to educate individuals about the reality of our beauty standards. I believe this will help us to stray away from those images and realize that those examples of beauty are not realistic.
Perhaps in future generations the issues of body image and eating disorders will not be so prevalent. Instead, they will focus more on how staying active and maintaining a healthy lifestyle will do you more good than finding easier ways to stay thin. Eating disorders are not to be taken lightly, they can lead to very serious health complications, therefore we need to take the initiative now in order to prevent their growth in the future. For the well-being of others and even ourselves we must strive towards change. As a start we can begin by ridding our culture of these unrealistic beauty