In today's society ones outward appearance is held at a higher importance than ones character. Individuals feel as if they must live up to certain standards that are conveyed by various sources such as the media and those around them. A strong emphasis is placed on how one should look and people are lead to believe that if they are somehow able to attain this physical appearance they will be not only accepted but respected by others and will therefore live a more satisfying life. This causes a vicious cycle because the goal that is trying to be met is one that is so unrealistic that the intention to self-improve inevitably leads to self-destruction.The "perfect" body image that is portrayed by the media is not only unattainable but it is unhealthy. Superficiality is very evident in our society, people being judged and criticized based sheerly on something that is out of our control. Media's representations of the ideal looking woman is an unattainable look for the majority of women. Researchers have generated a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain all proportionate vital organs. One of the reasons the media portrays women and body images in such a way is for promotion, if they can make you feel insecure about yourself then they believe it will lead to sales of their products and it does. Women who feel insecure about their bodies will be more susceptible to buying beauty products, and new clothes and diet supplements. The diet industry is a 100 billion industry. These companies succeed at making people feel inferior and less as people. It is proven that constant exposure in the media of thin and young female bodies is linked to depression and low self esteem levels which sometimes escalates into an eating disorder. A man may feel insecure about himself when he sees an add for an exercising product with bulky men and women around them, that man might then go out and buy exercising equipment or the dangerous alternative of steroids, simply because he feels the need to look that way to be accepted and liked by those around him. The media portrays the ideal woman to be young, large chested and thin, it is seen that anything different is seen to be less and inferior to this ideal image. Men might feel inferior to others if they don't have that hulking body or that athletic build, and this might lead to depression if they think they will never find someone because they are sub-par and not good enough for anyone else. Media's portrayal of the ideal image is very wrong, it does not show diversity, it just shows that one "cookie-cutter" image of people and how they "should" look like.People will seek out temporary fixes to make them feel more appealing such as plastic surgery or steroids. These temporary fixes lead to more self-confidence, if a person is completely contented with the way they look and their relationship with others then they will be happier people, but I believe we should be accepting of whom we are and what we look like. Whom are we trying to impress? Does it make a difference to have fewer wrinkles or to be built or large chested? The fact is some people can see past the physical and see true beauty within people. We are trying to impress others and look attractive for our own self benefit, for self confidence. Why do people find the need to impress? People constantly need to feel accepted, to feel liked, appreciated and respected by those around them. People are very susceptible to advertisements and even the viral media of hearing about a product from someone else that's tried it. If the advertisements make one person feel insecure, even that one person might go off and promote the product and they get the answer to the problems they have for themselves and the negative views they have about their own body.Is there such thing as perfection? What is normal? What is perfection and the perfect body image in today's society and who sets that standard? The world is very diverse, different cultures and people have their own take on what they find is attractive. Here in north America, we get the impression that the perfect body image is thin and young, that is the typical criterion. Other places in the world something that would be considered unattractive here that might be attractive there would be obesity, and that would be the "perfect" body image. Why is theirs a standard and who decides what looks good and what doesn't? The "perfect" lifestyle, for example, would include being healthy with a lot of money and a big house with a nice car. Look at the alternative, people can be arrogant and closed-minded when it comes to diversity, in our society we can't accept certain groups of people, such as poor people, or those with disabilities. It would be seen as ideal to have a healthy child, one without down syndrome for example. With today's medical technologies a mother could take a test to see if her child will be born with down syndrome or not, and she would then decide whether or not she would give birth to her child or if she would abort it. It is seen that a baby with down syndrome is not actually ill, they are just in a different mind set and slower learners, why would a mother want to abort her healthy child? I believe part of the reason would be that they would want to have the "ideal" child, one that is on par with the rest of the children. I think it is wrong to constantly strive to be the false images we see on the television and want to look "perfect," I think that we should accept who we are as people and value mind over physical. Everyone ages and eventually we will all look different anyway, no amount of formulas or lotions will reverse the process of aging (well at least not currently), there is nothing wrong with looking the way that we are and the false images conveyed by the media need to be stopped.People should feel happy about themselves, and feel confident and not to be insecure with whom we are on the outside and look beyond the physical and see the people that we are on the inside.Works Citedhttp://theblog.philosophytalk.org/2005/03/beauty_and_subj.html
