Beauty Standards According to Society

From: Kateryn

Nowadays you walk to a toy store and you will notice that there is an aisle for girl toys and an aisle for boy toys.  The girl aisle has more of the “soft and smooth” toys while the boy’s aisle has more of the “hard and sharp” toys. In this picture, I am portraying my little nice Melanie (1 yr.) which she has two options; her baby toys or her mother’s make-up. On one side, she has her baby toys while on the other side she had her mother’s make-up and of course she chose the make-up. Since at a very young age little girls are taught that by playing dress-up or using make-up will make them look more beautiful. As Rudman and Glick state “physical attractiveness is important for both sexes, but it is particularly emphasized for women as requisite for attracting a mate” (240). That is the thought that society has placed in women’s heads that by using beauty products a man will view them as more beautiful. As little girls, they only view make-up as a toy and think that is doing something that “mommy does” since they see their mother’s do it or see it on any other type of media. As this little girl grows to be a teenager or a young adult they will no longer view it as just something “mommy does.” As some adolescent girls believe they must put on make-up to look prettier or to hide who they are. Every morning as a girl wakes up she looks in the mirror and feels as though she is not enough for society. They must go through a long amount of time daily to make themselves “look prettier” by applying large amounts of make to make their lips look “fuller” or just even to change their face structure by “contouring.” When they could just walk out with no make-up and still look beautiful by just showing who she naturally is. The media always tries to persuade people to buy these beauty products to make your skin look and feel flawless. After seeing all the adds women tend to buy them because they believe these products will have the same effect on them. Once they try the products they notice that it didn’t have the same effect on them and that is when they feel insecure about themselves and turn to make-up to hide their imperfections. My little niece, Melanie, since she was younger she likes to do things on her own. When I visit her I always notice that she has a small purse with her where she keeps her “things.” She sees what her mother does and tries to imitate her. She is always wanting her mother to change her and likes to play dress-up. As you can see in the picture she did not even pay any attention to her baby toys. While taking the picture, I tried so that she could see her baby toys but instead she would go straight to the make-up and would start playing with the brushes. Why has the media set that standard that us women must use beauty products to look “prettier” when we already are beautiful without the need of any product. When will our natural looks be “enough” for society?