The Gold Standard of Beauty: Targetting Insecurities

The Gold Standard of Beauty: Targetting Insecurities

I recently received a comment from Amanda on my post "In Response to Impossible Beauty Standards," in which my husband explained that there was no conspiracy among advertisers. An advertiser's job was to sell products, and if s/he found something that worked, the technique would be used again and again.

Amanda left me this message: "Advertisements are telling us, often straight out, that we are ugly if we do not look a certain way." I went to her blog and saw that she had posted several not-so-subtle advertisements about beauty standards, one of which deemed Angelina Jolie the "gold standard" of beauty. Another was about Jolie's lips and how thin lips were ugly. (Click here to see the post.)

We often forget that the media, particularly advertising, is something of a super peer. It doesn't matter what compliments and encouragement your partner, friends or family give you about your accomplishments and appearance. Advertisements can quickly undo all that and undermine how you feel about yourself. That's their purpose.

If I were to try to emulate the "gold standard" Angelina Jolie, look what I would have to do:
1. Be younger: I can't turn back the clock, so I'll get some cosmetic surgery and a chemical peel, and spend some money on anti-wrinkle cream. Hit the treadmill. (Exercise staves off the ageing process.)
2. Get a better body: Breast augmentation surgery. Some liposuction here and there. Hit the gym some more. Buy a treadmill so I can exercise while I watch TV. Buy some more beauty products to make my skin smoother.
3. Need the lips: See a professional for some Botox injections.
4. Style: Change my wardrobe to get the Jolie "look."
5. Be taller: I've heard there is a very painful surgery to make you legs longer, but I'm not ready for that. I'll just invest in some expensive new high-heeled shoes and boots.
6. Be thinner, Angelina is super skinny: Still not satisfied with my body. Try diets and diet aids. Go to the gym even more often. Stop eating. Stop accepting invitations to dinner parties. Take up smoking. Drink more coffee.
7. Fix the hair: I'll have to grow it, but in the meantime, I'll get hair extensions and dye it so our hair's the same colour.

Did you hear a deafening Ka Ching! I spent a lot of time and money, and for what?

I will never look like Angelina Jolie, and the standard will soon change, leaving me with big lips, some dated, ill-fitting clothes, an eating disorder and a treadmill in my living room. Whose the big winner here? Obviously, the people exploiting my insecurities.

Not only do we waste our money trying to meet unattainable beauty standards, but we also waste our time and energy. If we led a simple life and didn't give a damn about our appearances, we would probably look similar to Susan Boyle. But maybe we would have developed a talent like the one she has too.

Isn't she a wake-up call for all of us? Susan Boyle is a middle-aged woman who has not bought into the beauty scam, and she's the first unadulterated image of a woman  we have seen in the media in a long time.

Wouldn't our lives be different if we could stop obsessing about our appearances and spending all our money on unattainable beauty standards?  What if we channeled all our time, energy and money into developing our interests, sustaining meaningful relationships, and discovering who we really are?

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More Impossible Beauty Standards

More Impossible Beauty Standards

Today on Twitter, Bitch Magazine asked the following question:

What do you think about the surgery many Asian women get to make their eyes appear rounder? Hmm... great question!

I recently blogged about impossible beauty standards, but since there are so many, I'm going to choose my favorite, being thin, to illustrate my point.

On a daily basis, we are bombarded with images of skinny women. We are exposed to marketing every day that tells us in order to be beautiful, we must be thin. However, Mother Nature has different plans for us. As we grow older, our metabolism slows down until it grinds to a near halt at menopause. In addition, as we get older, we become less active. Slower metabolism, less muscle mass and less activity...This is a no brainer. We're going to gain weight as we age, and this is true for almost everyone. There is one upside to getting older, which big business is well aware of: as we age our disposable income also increases.

Wow! Great money making opportunity here. I know! Tell women they're not thin enough... by repeatedly bombarding them with images of thinness and then sell them something that doesn't work, so they keep buying more. Isn't this called the "diet industry?" Or you could have a medical professional drain the fat out of you or staple your stomach in exchange for a big wad of cash...

Enter Asian women who want to make their eyes rounder. Wow, sounds like another impossible beauty standard cooked up to make women spend a small fortune on being more "beautiful." I mean they are your eyes, not much you can do about them. Right? Wrong. Start with a popular actress who appears to have had this surgery done and then overexpose her. Presto, an iconic round-eyed Asian beauty. Once a few more highly visible women get it done, you have a trend. And plastic surgeons can walk outside with their pockets open, as it rains down money.

There is also the more disturbing aspect of elective surgery for rounder eyes. It reeks of ethnic self-loathing, like some women are ashamed of their Asian eyes. It's a little bit like someone with dark skin using skin lightener, except this is a lot more costly, and once it's done, it's done. Or maybe, plastic surgeons can charge another small fortune to have the operation reversed.

But should we really be surprised by this trend? China, once the world's largest untapped market, is now open for business. There are potentially billions of dollars to be made by telling women that there is something wrong with them. Not outright of course, but subliminally, by hiring only models who have surgically altered round eyes to sell everything from cars to toothpaste.

That is how thinness has been sold to us in North America. Today, even female opera singers are expected to be thin. How did we get here? By being constantly exposed to images of the impossibly thin. These images slowly eat away at our own idea of beauty until one day, we relent and buy into theirs. Big business is banking on it.

For further information on this topic go to:
http://www.asian-central.com/stuffasianpeoplelike/2008/03/20/41-eye-enlargement/


The following is a video of a beautiful Asian girl gluing...yes, gluing her eyelids back to make her eyes appear rounder. Young women who do not have the money actually glue or tape their eyelids back. I had to see it to believe it.

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