The Global Perception of Beauty

Their faces are scattered across our billboards, their flawless figures mesmerize us at halftime of the Superbowl; but at what cost? To the naked eye, the impact of cosmetic advertisement cannot be seen, but magnified under the weight of social scrutiny and the self esteem of millions of women, the significance is undeniable. The depiction of women through popular mass media outlets has a tremendous influence upon global beauty culture, social construction and the personal self-esteem of individual women, worldwide. Society’s dependence upon media constructs our perception of reality on a daily basis, transforming the beauty culture on an international level, while the cosmetic industry profits. On a global scale, only 2% of women believe they are beautiful, excluding almost three billion around the world from the feeling of self-beauty; a figure that steadily increases interchangeably with the profits of advertising empires. The media portrayal of the perfect female body has a direct correlation with a negative physical and mental response from women of all ages, while the unattainable standards lay claim to an unhealthy worldwide epidemic. The expansion of media conglomerates has allowed for an explosion of advertisement on every inch of marketable territory. The average American wakes up to commercials on TV, eats breakfast over an article in the daily post, drives to work past flashy billboards, listening to FM radio, arriving in front of their PC with the entire web at their fingertips. Every avenue of the aforementioned media outlets recites the same poem: look younger, taller and thinner; at any expense. Society’s concepts in relation to the nature of reality, based on shared perceptions or assumptions outlines the basic theory of Social Construction (Scweingruber). Mass media, our background, education, religion, family and friends all make-up how we: think, act and make decisions on a daily basis; but let’s focus on how advertisements impact our