Beauty as a Concept
What do we mean by beauty?
Is beauty universal? Does it apply just to the people that inhabit Instagram squares? What about sunsets or the messiness of a rugged landscape?
Who decided what is and who is beautiful?
Our culture has created a pretty narrow definition of beauty - although beauty standards have changed hugely over time and still vary somewhat between cultures. Research has shown that “beauty” (understood here as being attractive or having an above-average appearance) and all the practices used to achieve such an appearance, have significant social and economic implications for women and increasingly all genders.
Naomi Wolf, the author of “The Beauty Myth”, says “‘beauty’ is a currency system like the gold standard…in assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy according to a culturally imposed physical standard, it is an expression of power relations.”
We are taught that pursuing these beauty standards is an accepted and expected part of being a woman. Research suggests that attractiveness, according to societal standards, is a realistic route to power for women. This is because women that are deemed attractive are more popular, more likely to marry, especially to men of high socioeconomic status, more often hired, more often promoted, and paid higher salaries.
Over time beauty standards have changed. In most pre-modern Western societies the “ideal” female form was fleshy and fat as thinness indicated impoverishment. However, beginning in the early 1900s, a thin body came to symbolise higher social status as it meant you had more choice in what you were eating. Having a larger body became a “character flaw and social impediment,” and indicated “a lack of control”. Although constantly changing, many of the current societal beauty ideals are attributed to these Western ideals, meaning that these ideals intersect with racist, ableist, and fat-phobic attitudes. In Sabrina String’s book “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia”, String’s examines how in the 1800s, thinness and fatness evolved as new means of separating superior from inferior, “free” from “slave”.
Beauty Ideals are inherently political and are rooted in systems of oppression. It’s interesting too that as women gained more power in the 1950s, the diet industry also gained momentum. If all our brain space is consumed with thoughts about food, it’s going to be difficult to focus on the bigger picture of global affairs.
In the book, More Than a Body, it says “too many of us not only feel awful about our looks since we can never achieve or maintain the aspirational beauty ideals presented to us, but also feel awful about our dynamic, adaptive, miraculous bodies overall because all we care about is how they look. This is truly the root of negative body image.”
Indeed, the current standards of beauty are genetically unattainable for virtually 98% of us and with the rise of filters, plastic surgery and other image manipulation, the image that we are subconsciously comparing ourselves too every time we look in the mirror doesn’t even exist. From a very young age, girls are raised to strive for and live up to the unrealistic beauty standards that society sets. Girls are told to mould themselves to look a certain way in order to be beautiful, often a euphemism to feel enough, worthy, accepted, successful and loved. These are often the messages sold through images on social media in which influencers self-objectify themselves to sell a “lifestyle”, diet plan or product.
With beauty advertising defining things such as acne, body hair, discolouration, stretch marks as “body concerns”, is it any wonder that 50% of girls believe they don’t look “good enough” without photo editing, according to the Dove Self-Esteem Project. They also found that 67% of girls try to change or hide at least one body part/feature before posting a photo of themselves on social media. Also, 80% have used an app to change their appearance before the age of 13. Watch their “Reverse Selfie” video. It’s heartbreaking to know that so many young girls are struggling with their body image and self-esteem because of the unrealistic beauty standards from society.
So, what can we do when it comes to actively resisting social constructs of beauty?
1) Actively seek out beauty (know as beauty seeking) in it's many various forms. Look to nature, city scapes, body diversity and non visible qualities.
This may take the form of diversifying your social media feed (you can check out some of our recommendations here), taking mindful walks in nature or considering what you find most beautiful about the people you value in your life. We invite our clients to look for beauty in the messy and mundane every day. Some of our favourite answers have been the sound of babies laughing and the wisdom in the wrinkles of a grandparent.
2) Re-define what beauty means to you! Challenge societies unrealistic beauty expectations and the potential ramifications of these.
We can get as philosophical as you like, but who gets to define beauty and who are the winners and losers of these terms. How does it impact you? Would you like to leave these beauty standards in place for future generations? You can start a campaign, sign a petition to expose the use of filters or simply challenge these in your own reflective practice.
3) Consider the ways in which current beauty standards are helpful or harmful to you.
According to the Be Real Campaign, by their early 20s, 12% girls have used diet pills, 8% girls have made themselves sick, and 5% girls have used laxatives to lose weight. Moreover, 47% of girls aged 11 to 14 opt out of everyday activities such as swimming and speaking up in class because they don’t like how they look. Young people who feel worse in their bodies are more likely to engage in risky harmful behaviours e.g. dieting, smoking, alcohol abuse and self–harm. Whether or not this applies to you, the research is clear that these beauty standards are harmful to our overall wellbeing.
4) There is no need to stop pursuing what makes you feel beautiful (inside and out) or able to express your authentic self and your individuality.
Of course, you can continue experimenting with clothes, makeup, tattoos, piercings, hairstyles, self-care, dancing and anything and everything that empowers you to be you and brings you joy. At the same time, we advise avoiding what is harmful (dieting!!!) or means denying yourself your needs (dieting!!!) or authenticity. We also hope you know you're enough with or without these things.
Liked this article?
You might also like our articles on weight stigma, positive body image, body diversity, diet culture, self-objectification and health at every size.