By: Olivia Reich
Is there really a definition of the word beauty? Well, technically yes. The exact definition found in the Oxford dictionary defines beauty as a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. The funny thing is, nowhere in the definition does it say that beauty is a specific combination of qualities. It is simply just a combination of qualities. Theoretically, that should mean that any combination of qualities can make beauty.
So if that’s the case, why are there specific beauty standards for women in today’s world? If everyone’s definition of what is and isn’t beautiful is different — because in the end, we're all different, unique individuals — how can one say that only specific features, qualities, or body types are beautiful? It should be impossible. Yet, somehow, we have created a society that has managed to do this. The media has managed to create beauty standards for women today that have taken over the minds of many young, impressionable teens. It makes them believe that, in order to be beautiful, one must check off a list of specific features. Sadly, when they are unable to do that, often they turn to destructive methods in order to become what others consider beautiful.
Most teenagers underestimate the influence the media can have on the thoughts and opinions they form about their body. Studies have shown that social media is the number one influence over body image. The celebrities and influencers that teens follow on social media platforms often are able to sell themselves through perfect pictures that are achieved through filters, retouching, and photo editing. Their job is to look perfect, so they often strive to have all the perfect features that are considered beautiful in today’s society. Then, as teenagers mindlessly scroll content, subconsciously these edited
pictures of perfectly formed bodies become a beauty standard that is impossible to achieve and completely fake. Furthermore, posting pictures of themselves on social media also has a huge impact on body image. Many teenagers look for validation from others when posting images of themselves on different social media platforms. This leads many teens to the belief that they must spend hours trying to capture flawless selfies of themselves, which they can then edit in order to look even more perfect. Subsequently, validation comes from how many likes the post gets or the types of comments the post receives. Unfortunately, it is not rare for teenagers to fall victim to cyberbullying in the form of criticism and cruel comments through social media platforms. Consequently, the effects of this cyberbullying can be detrimental to a teen’s body image.
What is not talked about enough is the fact that when teenagers develop body image issues due to not being able to meet certain beauty standards, this can potentially lead to severe physical and psychological damage. For example, in one study, 44% of adolescent girls believed they were overweight, and 60% were actively trying to lose weight even though the majority of these young girls were within normal weight ranges. This is the reality of the society we’ve created. By trying to reach these impossible beauty standards portrayed in the media, it can lead to harmful, unhealthy and unsustainable eating habits in teenage girls, including the development of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder. Certain studies have even suggested that the incidence of eating disorders among adolescent girls has increased over the last 50 years. The reported prevalence rate for anorexia nervosa is 0.48% among girls 15 to 19 years old, while approximately 1% to 5% of adolescent girls meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa. As if that’s not bad enough, poor body images can increase anxiety and depression, especially when posting unedited pictures online, while at the same time decreasing confidence and self-esteem.
As the statistics continue to increase at alarming rates, it is clear that something needs to be done to change the way teenage girls view their body. It needs to be taught to every young teenage girl that the images of women that seem too beautiful to be true, are just that. They simply aren’t true. Instead of putting people down for not fitting into the beauty standards, we should lift people up for creating beauty in their own unique way. One must always focus on what they love about themselves, rather than all the things they hate. Accept all the things that create a unique beauty that cannot be replicated rather than trying to imitate the features found in others. When each person is able to accept every flaw that helps create them, only then will someone be able to realize that they truly were beautiful the entire time. Those false beauty standards lose all their power, which is the end goal our society must strive for.
We, as a society, must change the idea that only certain things are beautiful because in the end, there is beauty in everything and everyone. Beauty is not a box that someone must fit into. It is not a list of standards that must be met. It is not the perfect body seen on social media, and it is certainly not something a person should destroy their body trying to create. Each person creates beauty in their own way, and one must always remember that as Sophia Loren once said “Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.”
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