Beauty and health around the world

Beauty and health around the world Beauty and health around the world

11/28/2021

Reconstructing the new self in diet products

Another advertisement hinges on the importance of body image and describes the ease and miraculous transformation that can occur by consuming a slimming product or joining a weight loss programme. Among other things, it proclaimed “…this product shows results in just 8 days!” “…it involves no starvation, no drugs, no injections…” By using the principles of semiology (the study of signs and symbols and their meanings), advertisers are telling readers that there is an answer to their dreams. The advertisement on weight reduction has these words “Lose fat – not water or muscle – PERMANENTLY” and the visuals that go with it attempt to convince women of how a miracle can be achieved.

Socialisation for womanhood

In our society, boys and girls are brought up differently. Norms and rules exist to ensure that females know their roles in comparison to those of males. Though there is new social role for females (such as women can now be the primary income earner), they are still being pressured to conform to prevailing societal expectations. Although bodily changes are expected and differential effects are experienced by females and males, females are more concerned with aging than males are. Physical appearance, especially for women is heavily subjected to social judgements. As stated by Abu Laban & McDaniel,5 beauty is held out as an intrinsic goal for both girls and women. In infancy, females are judged by standards of “cuteness” and “prettiness,” that shifts with age into standards of “beauty” and “glamour”. Hence, beauty and health are entwined in the women’s socialisation process. Early learning can predispose individuals to accept and enact traditional sex-typed behaviour and attitudes. These may later change with new experiences, which may dramatically alter their perceptions and values.

11/28/2021

THE INFLUENCING FACTORS

Whether physical beauty in the females is a biological reality or has evolutionary advantage is difficult to verify. What is obvious and disturbing is the current obsession on beauty by the general population. The factors that bring about this beauty craze are examined below.

11/28/2021

Abstract

This paper deals with the question of beauty and health in women. It discusses changing definitions of beauty as a result of influences from the entertainment, beauty and health product industries. Advertisements are seen to be major players in defining beauty through promotion of cosmetic, skin, hair and slimming products. Concerns relating to beauty become inculcated in girls through the process of socialisation as they mature into womanhood. The media plays a significant role in portraying the meaning of beauty through its representation of women. These influences largely influence and alter women’s perceptions of their body image and in trying to meet the goals of beauty as represented by the media. This may result in dissatisfaction with their body image. Advertisements can encourage women to indulge in smoking as a fashionable trend or opt for plastic surgery in attempts to acquire beauty. This paper concludes with implications of the issues relating to changing perceptions of beauty and suggests recommendations.

Keywords: beauty, health, impacts of advertisements, smoking, beauty enhancement, adolescent behaviour, health promotion, health education

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays women are showing more concern for beauty than for health. This tendency is possibly influenced by several factors – social processes, role of advertisements and mass media, local and global trends in the fashion industry, and adoption of foreign cultural practices. This article provides a critique of the obsession for beauty, argues for more research into this phenomenon and calls for the development of health promotion programmes to ameliorate this trend.

CONCEPTS AND MEANINGS OF BEAUTY

The Oxford English Dictionary 1 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 practice, beauty may be easier to recognise than to define, as exemplified by the remark of the Hollywood producer, Aaron Spelling, who said, “I can’t define it, but when it walks into the room, I know it”. There is continuing debate as to whether beauty is “in the eye of the beholder” or that there is a universal aesthetic standard in the human body shapes and faces.

There are claims that physical beauty has an evolutionary basis in that beautiful people are more likely to be healthier and able to reproduce.2 Averageness of features (i.e. neither too large or too small), bilateral symmetry and skin free of blemishes not only suggest the absence of inherited or acquired medical disorders, but are also commonly judged to be relatively beautiful. Female faces are judged to be more attractive if they have delicate jaws, full lips, small noses, high cheekbones, and large eyes.2

Feminist writers such as Naomi Wolf3 contended that beauty is but a male-dominated construct. They argue that beauty myths are created through images in magazines, films, and beauty contests; they work in tandem with highly effective marketing of the beauty products and fashion to transmit ideas about how women should look like.

11/28/2021

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