Since the beginning of my freshman year of college, I have gotten to know a lot of women from various backgrounds, who all have different appearances. I have noticed a trend amongst many of them: despite what their personal aspirations are, what they believe in the back of their minds, it is their beauty that defines them.
Of course, I have always known that society emphasizes the importance of beauty for women, but I never knew the extent to which it affects women. In short, the insistence that looks are the most valuable asset a woman has is one of the most damaging aspects of our culture and should be done away with.
The Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology states the feminine beauty ideal creates “a schema that integrates three fundamental components: idealization of slenderness and leanness, an irrational fear of fat, and a conviction that weight and shape are central determinants of one’s identity.”
The extent to which this is enforced among women is entirely ridiculous, because it is virtually impossible to attain the “perfect body.” Striving for it encourages women to develop eating disorders, fall into depression, and begin to self-deprecate. All of this fosters incredibly low self-esteem.
This is not surprising to me. If the first, and many times only, comment anyone made about me concerned my appearance, I would personally emphasize my appearance to a much larger degree. Judgement of a woman’s appearance goes beyond mere comments, also; a woman’s appearance affects job prospects, romantic interests, and even familial relationships.
It seems there are not many arenas in life where a woman can be sheltered from this standard and this is not acceptable. How can we, as a society, place the kind of psychological pressure the feminine beauty ideal causes on half of our population?
This pressure does not stop where one might think. It is not just that women are ridiculed for being “fat” or “ugly.” Whether it is someone who weighs 100 pounds insisting they need to lose weight or a model thinking she needs more makeup, women with all types of appearances are victim to the scrutiny of everyone else. The advent of the internet has created an avenue for everyone, regardless of who they are, to be judged.
According to CNN, Northwestern University Professor Renee Engeln, “There have never been so many forums in which you can gaze at different images of women, evaluate them, comment on them and share them with your friends.”
Social media and other internet platforms ensure everyone works to take a selfie at the perfect angle, with the perfect filter. It constantly brings awareness to the existence of body shaming and while there are many movements centered around the inclusion of traditionally unfavored body types, many of the models associated with them are still chosen based on their exceptional physical characteristics.
We are getting it all wrong. Beauty is nice and deserves to be recognized. However, it needs to stop being the only thing we care about when it comes to women. No matter how beautiful a woman actually is, the feminine beauty ideal will almost certainly affect them negatively in life, whether it impacts their psyche or the opportunities they are presented with.
As more generations that pass by, the greaterthis problem will become. We are allowing a plethora of women to grow up with issues that will hamper them in every facet of their lives and we do not even acknowledge it.
To me, this is not a matter of everyone being beautiful in their own way. It is about beauty not being the thing that matters the most, or even be a major factor at all. As a man, I am not bound by the same standards, so why should any woman be? This equality is the real standard we should enforce, because it is the only one that is fair.
