Beauty and the Media

Television is a rising source of entertainment and information. Many people use it as a fashion guide- a way to determine what is "cool" to do, or how one should look. Even seemingly innocent shows such as America's Top Model, Family Guy or One Tree Hill reflect a certain image of how a gendered individual should look or act. Yet media would not have such a huge impact on society if the people did not support it. Peers have a lot of influence over the people they come in contact with. The desire to be loved and accepted often outweighs one's sense of respect for themselves. In order to fit it, many people go to extreme lengths to make themselves fit the ideal image society places on a gendered individual. Media's influence on American society has lead to a generation ruled by peer pressure and a never-ending desire to be more beautiful by society's standards. This feeling of never being good enough leads to many problems emotionally and physically with a rising number of individuals. American society needs to recognize that uniqueness should be treasured, and stop pressuring everyone to conform to a very rigid and unrealistic body and gender image. American Media has had a rising say in the ideal image of a gendered individual for the past fifty years. Now it has developed into the only real place that American's look for their sense of the ideal image for a male/female. Fifty years ago, the ideal woman was slightly plump, big-breasted, and rosy. In fact, "the dominant ideal of female beauty was exemplified by Marilyn Monroe- hardly your androgynous, athletic, adolescent type. At the peak of her popularity, Monroe was often described as ‘femininity incarnate', ‘femaleness embodied'" (Susan Bordo 127). Marilyn Monroe was the 1950's ideal woman. She did not feel the need to maintain a child-like appearance or be overly athletic like we feel the need to be today. When she was most popular people took her to be their ideal image, not because she was the original