women and gender studies

Media and Beauty Conformity Women have and will always be hard on themselves; not just with day to day life but body images. Present day technology is making this situation 10 times more problematic than in previous years. Now with the new advances in photo shop and forever changing standard for “thin”; women around the country are struggling with their body image and self confidence. As stated by Germane Greer; “thirty years ago it was enough to look beautiful; now a woman has to have a tight, toned body, including her buttocks and thighs, so that she is good to touch all over” (25). The pressure to be thin, sexy, and beautiful is expanding with each day. Little girls do not look at Barbie now as a pretty doll; they look at Barbie as an icon and visible goal to where they want to be in 5 years. Media is putting words and images into people’s lives that are not realistic or healthy. The problem with media is they list all these standards where men and women “should” be to be classified as pretty but no one seems to answer the question on who develops these standards. For women the standards seem to be a little more higher than that of men. Women not only need to be skinny but they need to be; well dressed, sexy, flawless, and confident. The women pictured in magazines that seem to hold all these standards in fact do not hold the standards. No one woman is going to be completely flawless, skinny, sexy, and confident. What makes us human is our flaws, and the information and guides we receive from these magazines insinuates that no woman should have any flaws. Because every product shown in media can fix your “flaws” and make you that beautiful woman you have always wanted to be. Women spend their life relating themselves to other women. It is a constant battle with the woman in the mirror and the woman featured on the front page of the magazine. There is never going to be one definition of beautiful because it changes with every eye. Present day media will