It has been famously quoted that ‘beauty is only skin deep’. If this was the case, why would women break their bones in the pursuit of looking beautiful? In modern society, it seems that women are showing more concern for beauty than for their own health. This concept has possibly been triggered by a number of different factors, such as social status, advertisement, media, fashion trends, the adoption of foreign cultural practices and more. Over the coming months we will be discovering the compulsive obsession to look beautiful, and if this pressure was thrust upon us by the male population. We will also be looking in to the psychological and physical consequences women’s actions bring when attempting to achieve the beautiful look they desire.
The English dictionary defines beauty as ‘excelling in grace or form, charm of colouring, qualities which delight the eye and call forth that admiration of the human face in figure or other objects’. In reality, beauty can be recognised but not practiced, as suggested in the famous quote ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. But is this the case? Or has beauty become an international standard for women to achieve?
The constant obsession of looking how you are supposed to is affecting people all over the world every day. This pressure had taken over the whole perspective of vanity, and the modern society we live in today has become artificial, and that of high naivety. However, a recent study at the University at Buffalo showed that being physically unattractive or at least feeling like that can lead to health and well-being problems. Dr. Lora Park (shown below), assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, UB College of Arts and Sciences, made an appearance-based rejection sensitivity scale (ARS scale) with 242 college students, to assess how people anxiously expected rejection from others due to their physical attractiveness.
These people develop an anxiety that they will be rejected by others because of their physical appearance, which can lead to mental and physical issues. Those more worried about their appearance-based rejection were more prone to have low self-esteem, high levels of neuroticism, insecure attachment styles, and to regard themselves as unattractive. The same people displayed higher symptoms of disordered eating. Park said that “Both men and women who reported being sensitive to appearance-based rejection were preoccupied with their body and weight in unhealthy ways. They avoided eating when they were hungry, exercised compulsively and engaged in binging and purging”. They also had a higher tendency compared to people exhibiting low appearance-based rejection anxiety to make appearance-based comparisons which worsened their feelings. “Some people engage in such behaviours because they are ultimately worried about being rejected by others if they don’t measure up to looking a certain way,” said Park. “For others, the underlying motivation for such behaviours may be less about interpersonal anxieties and more about maintaining and enhancing personal self-esteem.”
But the opposite was also valid. Individuals with low appearance-based sensitivity were largely indifferent to listings of aspects of their appearance with which they were dissatisfied. Park also said: “Simply having people list what they didn’t like about their appearance, whether it was their weight, their height, having acne or some other facial or body feature, was sufficient for people high in appearance-based rejection sensitivity to feel lonely, rejected, unwanted and isolated”. Some psychologists also point out that life become simpler when we conform to expectations which ties up the threads of the vanity-gone-mad society we live in today. It shows that people are willing to change their appearance in order to gain the acceptance society desires so much, which is killing the theme of uniqueness, individuality and freedom. The pressures of the modern world from sources such as the media cause both men and women to go to catastrophic lengths to achieve the look the media say they “should have”. This crazy artificial world we live all comes down to acceptance, but unfortunately there are only a few selected people that don’t conform to this madness, and it’s saddening to think that women are still degraded and mocked for not conforming to the standard look. Those who don’t follow the acceptance guidelines tend to be isolated and alone.
Next time I will be looking in to the crazy world that is dieting, and the extreme impact it has on women. As the average body mass index rises, so does the desire to diet, be that in any way possible.
Image Sources:
1) http://www.beutifulmagazine.com
Emma Blaken