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Beauty and the Beast: Representations of women in today's beauty industries

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It's an everyday occurrence; walking into a shopping mall to see the crowd of huddled teens skirting around the bright lights of the local cosmetics retailer, 
eyes gleaming dully against the vivid hues of the glossy new editions of Vogue.

Down the aisle an old lady bustles along, one wrinkled arm braced against her stout, weathered walking stick as she idly flips an anti-aging cream magazine featuring a middle-aged woman with supple, baby-clear skin and crow's feet 
smoothed down in a victorious, wrinkle-less smile. Don't let the wrinkles get you down! 

We live in the wake of an era of media out-pour from beauty industries. With the rise of tools such as Photoshop, the bar on modern perception of beauty continues to slip from the grip of reality. Thanks to television, the internet and advertisements, perceptions of beauty and standards of perfection have sent the world hurtling in a desperate attempt to attain beauty. 
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Though not limited to just women, the spotlight of Photoshop and similar beautification tools have, much like many other unrealistic expectations, fallen on women in recent years. By presenting idealized images, beauty advertisers brandish creams that wipe out cellulite, pills that restore youth, injections for firmer thighs.

‘The All-In-One Beauty Kit’ by Anna Hill targets the unrealistic nature of Photoshop and the extreme lengths taken to reach the contrived standards of beauty created by Photoshop. Hill conveys the main flaw of advertisements in beauty industries today and the detrimental impact it has on women.

“The advertising surrounds us to the point where we as consumers begin to lose the distinction between the real view of beauty and the idealized image we have created for ourselves,” says Lisa Amans, from The Art Institute of Washington.


I can’t help but agree on this, continuing to survey the throngs of huddled teens filing out of the retailer, plastic bags heavy with make-up and diet pills, eyes bright with hope. Above them posters of hourglass women loom, all lean and cut flesh, flawless tans and golden proportions, Photo-shopped faces and empty eyes.

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Comments

  1. cait dowley6 February 2018 at 03:06

    This is amazing Nivya!
    As well as having a great writing tone in general - one that's actually interesting to read - this is definitely a relevant, and troublesome, topic.
    I know that I for one always end up comparing myself to the images of women that pop up everywhere, no matter the fact that I know that I really shouldn't, or that the 'beauty' that they have is possibly, and even probably, artificial. So I definitely agree with the idea that the representations of women have given us unrealistic beauty standards, and am looking forward to working with you in class on other topics that I would also love to rant about :)

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