Beauty is pain. This phrase has been used to approach the extreme efforts people, specifically women light-heartedly, endure to enhance their appearance. Beauty and pain are deemed polar aspects of the human experience, but for many women today, they are often related to one another. To understand the significance of beauty, you must understand what it means to be beautiful and, possibly more importantly, what it means not to be. Â
Beauty is an object, person, or place with an aesthetic appeal. There is no rigidity to the definition; it is subjective, and something being categorized as aesthetically appealing depends on the person who is looking. To be beautiful as a woman is to have value, at least that is what has been generationally implanted in society. For men to be of value their intellect, career, and social status mattered most, which are all at least factors that can be altered and achieved. Women, including myself, often feel immense pressure to fit the standard of beauty and feel valued. In America aging for women can correlate to being devalued, while for men it’s a symbol of maturity and is often romanticized. This becomes obvious when looking at Hollywood actors and actresses. According to “Motion Picture Magazine the average age of female Hollywood stars in 1917 was 24.6, while males were on average 33.9 years of age.” This notable age gap between the women’s and men’s average age is reflective of how the beauty in women is intertwined with their youth. This has led to many anti-aging corporations to push their wrinkle-smoothing creams and lifting effects.Â
Beauty has been so important in one’s status in society that women subject themselves to painful medical procedures to fit. In China, there is a practice called foot-binding. The tradition of women binding feet to make them smaller was due to smaller feet symbolizing high status This practice often caused medical problems furthering the point that women would go to great extents to fit the societal and cultural standard. This exemplifies how society and culture have a huge effect on what’s considered beautiful. In America, there’s a moving goalpost to achieve the epitome of beauty. Comparing the beauty standards in different periods can be jarringly different. One decade it is thin eyebrows and very thin bodies the next is thicker eyebrows and curvier bodies. This makes it nearly impossible for women to ever truly achieve the beauty standard. Social media has added another layer to this. Â
According to the Boys and Girls Club of America, “Plastic surgeons have noted a disturbing increase in the number of patients seeking changes to their appearance specifically to look more like their filtered selfies.” Filters and editing have made the beauty standard even more challenging for women to reach. Most teens and people today find themselves doom scrolling on social media and this allows more exposure to an unrealistic edited version of people. This has greatly affected teens and their perception of what it means to be beautiful. To make matters worse, “80% of girls say they’ve downloaded a filter or used an app to change the way they look in photos by the time they’re 13 years old. From a young age women and girls specifically are influenced to be pretty and are taught to believe that is where their value lies.Â
 Although many movements are diversifying the scope of what is beautiful, it is difficult to gain the confidence to accept beauty in oneself. It is important to understand that however cliché the idea that beauty is within everyone, is very true. No matter what you