I glanced through an issue of Victoria’s Secret magazine and became a little depressed about my own body. Jokingly, I asked a friend, “Do the bodies come with the underwear?” Beautiful models with amazing bodies can make anyone feel completely ugly. Attractive people are used excessively to advertise almost anything on television or on the Internet, in magazines, on billboards, and virtually everywhere else. The problem is that the wrong message is being transmitted, especially to young girls. The old fashioned notion that “beauty is only skin deep” has been manipulated and is detrimental to impressionable minds.
Americans tend to follow trends that are expressed in Francis L. K. Hsu’s
Blueprint of the United States Culture. Hsu’s Corollary 4 states, “the good life and happiness primarily consist of bodily comforts, food, and sexual enjoyment…Heal and sexual attractiveness must be defended at all costs.” Does one have to look good in order to enjoy life? Many teenage girls are buying into the idea that beauty produces self-esteem and success. What most Americans don’t see is how this desire is inflicting harm and taking lives away.
Recently, the Oprah Winfrey Show made an effort to make Americans aware of dangerous issue – “pro-ana” websites. These are websites that are dedicated to teaching one how to be anorexic. There are actually steps to take in order to become successful (at ultimately killing yourself). One can also see “thinspirational” pictures, photographs of waif-like teenage boys and girls whom are supposed to be the ideal weight on websites such as www.anorexicnation.com. The creators are actually in favor of eating disorders. I’ve never heard of something so absurd.
In this same episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show a little girl, about five years old was also featured. Her own mother unintentionally fueled her eating disorder. The mother would always say, “I’m fat, I need to go on a diet,” and the little girl began to think that she was also fat. She stopped eating food and instead only ate the corners of paper and Q-tip heads. When the doctors asked her why she recovered from this illness, but she could have died if this sort of behavior continued. Parents need to be more careful about examples that the set, and the also need to help their children pick role models.
Although this may be a difficult task, I believe that parents need to regulate their children’s media exposure. Brittany Spears, Carmen Electra, and even Barbie dolls are subliminally making a superficial statement – one must be thin, wear a pound of make-up, and have enormous breasts in order to be accepted. Parents need to instill in their children’s minds that there is more to life. Americans need to enforce inner-beauty. Many morals, values, and beliefs have been distorted by this harmful iconic image of beauty. We need to show the younger generation how to improve self-esteem without beauty tips and plastic surgery.
A little bit of beauty is acceptable, but vanity seems to have taken over the advertisement industry. I wish that Americans would take the time to re-evaluate real beauty and all of its importance. Beauty really is only skin deep, our culture needs to stop putting it up on a pedestal.