Miss Representation

Miss Representation

She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon.- Groucho Marx I do not think that looks are what make you beautiful. While there are many people that disagree, I think true beauty is within the person. There are many young girls and women who are being misled by the images portrayed in media. The media in the Unites States represents young women as objectified sex symbols.  These misleading messages, lead to social, health, and mental problems. The most dangerous tools of this misleading propaganda to these girls, are the television and the internet.

 I believe when young ladies are distracted by the essence of beauty, they become so involved in spending money on material accessories like hair extensions, eyelashes, and makeup products.  The danger arises as young girls become subsequently fixated with physical beauty. This can lead to neglecting time to build relationships, a self imposed fear that they are inadequate, or too conscious of appearance to associate with a certain group of people. This drastically affects a girl’s self-esteem, their body image and aspirations they may have set for themselves. 

 The list of health problems that are associated with being a transformed beauty goes on and on. The risk of plastic surgery includes bleeding, infections, scarring, and nerve damage. The danger of Botox injections is death. Botox is made from the same set of poison that carries the bacteria from which we get from food poisoning. Given these points, a number of young women and girls of the age 20 and under, have been hospitalized because they are anorexic have eating disorders.  These women and young ladies are tricked to believe that the only way to be accepted in society is if they are 110 lbs or less.

In addition, cat-fighting reality TV shows enforce the negative images, stereotypes, and behavior that make the Miss Representation case clear.  Furthermore, there is an immense gap between women in media and women in real life. Today, young girls spend many hours using social media, watching television, or indulging in the latest gossip or fashion magazines. To emphasize, girls as young as 11 years old are being bombarded by these advertisements each day. Truth is, this generation is being raised on scripted reality TV. They watch bodies being transformed, faces taken apart and pieced back together, while simultaneously having those who do not fit media norm are on famous for neglecting their real beauty to fit the criteria for televisions false glamour.

Life as a teenage girl has always been difficult in the transition from a child to a young lady. Unfortunately, in today’s society media bombards every aspect of our culture and livelihood and often times purposely influences the way we think. Scruton states, “the continued cultural and communal conditioning we receive every day of our lives that physical beauty does have a standard…it is in our newspapers, on our television, in our motion picture houses, on our advertising billboards…[and] in our daily interaction with our fellow human beings”(Beauty 2).

 In my opinion, parents of young girls are disturbed about the regular pressure their daughters are subject to in a society. In today’s perception of adolescent women, media displays anorexic actresses, and models and uncontrollable television stars.    We as women are now more than ever conditioned to think that this is what attractive women should look or act like.  Reality TV has damaged the confidence of some young women to believe that their value is based on looks and it’s better to be recognized for superficial beauty than true beauty. When young women look to media for role models, they are immediately at a disadvantage that neglects intellect and positive values that ensure a positive and healthy life. Unfortunately, the source of “role models” are media controlled and are walking advertisements for the most current looks and fashion trends. Therefore, when they see the reality TV shows, the message portrayed clearly states the only way to success, respect, or path to achievement is through beauty. What other choices do they think they have available to them?  This continuation of rewarding false values is the reason why young girls are bullied. They are simply not pretty enough; it goes to the extent where some have committed suicide because of it. 

In conclusion, women should to learn to respect and embrace themselves and teach the young ladies following them how to achieve self love in a society that forces one to believe what is and isn’t beautiful. All things considered, I sincerely hope the women of society will awaken to there beauty from within and not their outward appearance. All women have the potential of being a leader, a world influence, or a financial success and beauty will donate nothing to ones achievement. Examples throughout history will prove it’s all about how hard you work, your dedication, and how you apply yourself to achieve personal goals. I think this problem of media and its influence is worldwide but as the worlds leader in entertainment we suffer from the consequences the most. I think we should fight for the girl that is being bullied for being overweight, or has a birthmark on her face, or is beautiful but doesn’t have the confidence. It does not matter what you see on the outside, it’s the person’s real beauty that resides on the inside.  Beauty has no standard or concrete definition; however, due to commercial influence there are certain qualities people unfairly associate with beauty. There is no definition of beauty, but when you can see someone's spirit coming through, something unexplainable, that's beautiful to me.- Liv Tyler 

Works Cited:

Bay-Cheng, Laina Y., and Nicole M. Fava. "Young women's experiences and perceptions of          cunnilingus during adolescence." The Journal of Sex Research Nov.-Dec. 2011: 531+.   Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

Bush, Vanessa. "Some Like It Hot." Essence (Essence) 32.2 (2001): 25. MasterFILE Complete.       Web. 29 Mar. 2013.

Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood Press, 2010. Print.

Scruton, Roger. Beauty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.