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Nadine Sales
Professor Rusty
English 100
30 October 2012
Definition of Beauty
What defines a beautiful individual? Can one be defined as beautiful with the inner
qualities they possess or by their physical appearance? The media today has placed a crucial
role in shaping the conception of beauty. The essential foundation of the article, Beauty Myth, is
that beauty, in a physical appearance form, has become the primary factor that people perceive.
Naomi Wolf explains how much society has altered the definition of beauty. Society only makes
it seem like appearance overpowers character. Living in a generation where media
is crucial aspect of our daily lives, it has helped shaped that perception of this so-called
"beauty".
With advertisements displaying women with good bone structure, perfect skin, tone
bodies, and full breasts, it would be hard to live up to that ideal beauty that America portrays.
Women these days are constantly comparing themselves to these Photoshop models. The rate of
eating disorders and cosmetic surgery have sky rocketed through the years due to the perfect
image the media depicts to society. People easily get sucked into the idea that you have to have
that perfect body in order to be beautiful. They are so focused on their flaws that they tend to
lose focus on what truly matters. Today, the media has put such emphasis that in order to be
content with yourself, one must have that flawless appearance.
Wolfe argues that the beauty myth is not about women and their insecurities; rather, it is
about men and their power. Why do women care so much about how they look physically? The
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answer is simply men. Due to the fact that the media created this ideal beauty, it simply
increased the standards of what men distinguished as beautiful. With advertisements of
gorgeous women with perfect bodies, it just further reinforced their definition of beauty.
“Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men’s eyes when deciding what
provokes it.” (Wolfe) Occurring in this generation, men are more aroused by how a women
looks like on the outside and stop taking into account of their personalities. That idea creates an
asymmetrical conception, exploiting a women’s appearance.
When you take a look at Victoria’s Secret advertisements, what do you see? You
envision 6 foot, 110 lb models with a gorgeous face and perfect bodies. On account of these
models, “the weight of fashion models plummeted to 23 percent below that of ordinary women.”
(Wolfe) In addition, Wolfe mentions that eating disorders have rose exponentially and we have
advertisements like Victoria’s Secret to thank for that. The modeling industry has put much
emphasis on how a sexy individual should look like. In commercials and advertisements,
Victoria’s Secret portrays an idea that in order to be sexy, one must purchase their product.
These advertisements show tall, slender, gorgeous women wearing their provocative lingerie.
Back in 2010, Victoria’s Secret launched a campaign called “Love My Body Campaign” to
promote their new bombshells. However, this led on to consumers to think otherwise. Instead of
promoting their product, it was as if Victoria’s Secret was advertising to women what a sexy
body really was from a man’s point of view. “They’ve been criticized for advertising that seems
to be made for men instead of their female customers, stealing, and something going overboard
with photoshop.” (Rachael O)
In comparison, Dove launched a similar campaign called “Real Beauty Campaign”,
which showcased thick, curvy women of all sizes. When compared to the Victoria’s Secret
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models, these women were more normal, in terms of their physical appearance. Their mission
was to create an environment where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. Beginning in
2004, Dove wanted to widen the definition of beauty. According to their website, statistic say
that only 2% of women would consider themselves beautiful. Since then, Dove was committed
into changing that concept. With so many young girls developing low self-esteem, Dove wanted
to create campaign that allowed teenage girls to reach their full potential, despite the way media
perceived beauty. Their goal was to step outside the stereotypical norm of what people
considered beauty was. By 2011, the statistic of women who described themselves beautiful
rose to 11%.
Nonetheless, Brenna McCaffrey sough to believe that “The Real Beauty Campaign” was
simply attacking Victoria’s Secret. Rebecca Traister claimed that Dove used smart marketing.
“Clearly the idea behind the campaign is a smart, worthwhile and rational one…but it is also a
business proposition and an advertising campaign. And doing something radically different-like
presenting female consumers with models who actually resemble human beings they’ve met-is
getting these products a lot of coveted attention.” (Traister) With the controversy of “Love My
Body Campaign” and “The Real Beauty Campaign”, she believes that it is simply media
attention convincing you to purchase their product. With the media industry constantly growing,
advertisements have created a big impact in our daily lives. “These pathetic marketing
campaigns continue to profit off our insecurities when the truth is that self-esteem cannot be
bought.” (McCaffrey) She also argues that these advertisements are manipulating you for your
money. Men and women in this generation need to know how to appreciate their own bodies.
We are different sizes and instead of trying to alter that, we should embrace it. Instead of
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spending money on products that try to improve our physical appearance, we should embrace
the true beauty we obtain. We can’t let the insecurities get in the way of what matters the most.
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Works Cited
"Victoria’s Secret vs. Dove: Or, How Companies Appropriate Body-positivity to Sell You More
stuff." The Feminist Anthropologist. Web. 2012.
<http://thefeministanthropologist.com/2012/08/01/victorias-secret-vs-dove/>.
"Breaking: Victoria's Secret Models Love Their Bodies." Feminist Fatale. Web. 2012.
<http://www.feministfatale.com/2010/03/breaking-victorias-secret-models-love-theirbodies/>.
"Real Beauty-or really smart marketing?" Salon. Web. 2012.
<http://www.salon.com/2005/07/22/dove_2/>.
“The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.” Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Web. 2012.
<http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx>.
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Word List
1. Beautiful
2. Inner qualities
3. Media
4. Physical appearance
5. Society
6. Character
7. Generation
8. Advertisements
9. Comparing
10. Cosmetic surgery
11. Perfect
12. Flaws
13. Emphasis
14. Insecurities
15. Care
16. Men
17. Standards
18. Definition of beauty
19. Provokes harassment
20. Aroused
21. Asymmetrical conception
22. Victoria’s Secret
23. Gorgeous
24. Weight
25. Eating disorders
26. Emphasis
27. Sexy
28. Provocative lingerie
29. Bombshells
30. Promoting
31. Photoshop
32. Dove
33. Real beauty campaign
34. Thick, curvy women
35. Normal
36. Confidence
37. Widen
38. Statistic
39. Committed
40. Low self-esteem
41. Stereotypical norm
42. Beautiful
43. Attacking
44. Smart marketing
45. Business proposition
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46. Attention
47. Controversy
48. Impact
49. Pathetic marketing campaigns
50. Manipulating
51. Appreciate
52. Embrace
53. Physical appearance
54. True beauty
55. Insecurities