Distorted Beauty
Entering high school is a point in life when most teenagers begin to spend extra time looking in the mirror and noticing the little things about themselves. Everyday beginning my freshman year, I would walk the overcrowded halls of William Chrisman and as I would look around I’d see all these pretty, skinny girls and I became suddenly aware of my size and looks. I have always played sports and I am constantly gaining weight because of muscle mass and I always sport my athletic wear which is not quite flattering. One day my sophomore year, I was standing in line at Target, a couple days after the Victoria’s Secret Angels fashion show, and as I began to shut out the loud chatter of other customers I became intrigued by the models on the cover of a magazine. I felt my heart sink as I thought about how much I wished I had their sweet feminine look instead of my more simple and plain athletic looks. There was no sign of blemishes on the models, they were curvy enough in the places where people tend to think women …show more content…
She explains that the edited photographs of the models create unrealistic standards for women that do not offend them, but make them want to do anything possible be like these models: “The average woman sees 5000 digitally manipulated photographs of models a week, an alienating experience that normalises unnatural beauty standards and insinuates these images into the public consciousness as right beauty. Often, women do not feel victimised by the images – they strongly aspire to them, determined to reach them through modifications and branded items.”(46) These supermodels have a direct effect on our culture’s definition of beauty. They set a standard that is highly unlikely for anyone to achieve through natural means and also set a foundation for women who do not fit these standards to be
Entering high school is a point in life when most teenagers begin to spend extra time looking in the mirror and noticing the little things about themselves. Everyday beginning my freshman year, I would walk the overcrowded halls of William Chrisman and as I would look around I’d see all these pretty, skinny girls and I became suddenly aware of my size and looks. I have always played sports and I am constantly gaining weight because of muscle mass and I always sport my athletic wear which is not quite flattering. One day my sophomore year, I was standing in line at Target, a couple days after the Victoria’s Secret Angels fashion show, and as I began to shut out the loud chatter of other customers I became intrigued by the models on the cover of a magazine. I felt my heart sink as I thought about how much I wished I had their sweet feminine look instead of my more simple and plain athletic looks. There was no sign of blemishes on the models, they were curvy enough in the places where people tend to think women …show more content…
She explains that the edited photographs of the models create unrealistic standards for women that do not offend them, but make them want to do anything possible be like these models: “The average woman sees 5000 digitally manipulated photographs of models a week, an alienating experience that normalises unnatural beauty standards and insinuates these images into the public consciousness as right beauty. Often, women do not feel victimised by the images – they strongly aspire to them, determined to reach them through modifications and branded items.”(46) These supermodels have a direct effect on our culture’s definition of beauty. They set a standard that is highly unlikely for anyone to achieve through natural means and also set a foundation for women who do not fit these standards to be