Do you ever look into the mirror and not like what you see? Do you wish you were prettier, skinnier, or better looking? A lot of women and men, both young and old think these things about themselves almost every day of their life. A lot of the reasoning for this is due to the way our culture portrays what “true beauty” is. To most girls, being beautiful means looking like the models they see in the magazines every week. They will go to extreme efforts such as starving themselves in order to look and potentially feel prettier and in turn it can degrade their self body image even worse. A lot of them may not realize that the media is lying to them. Our society’s definition of beauty has a negative effect on people every day.

For Americans, the media decides what perfection is and their goal is to achieve this even if it means hurting themselves in the process. People have ideas of what they believe models do in order to get the “perfect figure” and they think that if they do the same thing, they too can look like this. A lot of people desire this so they will feel loved and more attractive to the opposite sex. This results in a lot of eating disorders with unproductive results targeted towards an unrealistic and dangerous view of beauty. While it is true that models take high precautions of what exactly they consume (sometimes eating only a few grapes or pieces of lettuce), most of what we see online or in magazines is fake. Models have been airbrushed and photoshopped to perfection. They show a barbie like figure with a huge bust and a skinny waist, too skinny to be real. Most models on average weigh 23% less than an average women. If you add photoshop onto this it creates such a fake image and this is what young girls and boys are basing their social standards of beauty on.

Because of this the diet industry now attains about $33 billion each year as more people use diet pills and other “treatments” to try and lose weight. Problems with eating disorders have increased 400% since 1970. The media is placing a lot of pressure on people by basically sending the message that they aren’t good enough physically and companies exploit people very easily with this. They also send the message that without using their product you can’t have the perfect white teeth, the long flowing hair, or the rock hard abs like the models have. It is completely unrealistic and this lie is causing a lot of self harm to our population. Girls especially become overwhelmed with the idea of not being beautiful or fitting in because they maybe weigh too much and they often place this blame on themselves. When in fact, although they may not reach the unreal, completely fake model standards, they are perfectly fine. But the media teaches them not to believe this.

The definition of beauty created by the media is detrimental because it pressures people to take part in self harming actions such as bulimia, anorexia, or extreme dieting in order to “achieve results”. It also forces people to not love themselves and see their true beauty, causing them to want to change themselves. This could lead to suicide, transgender operations, or abnormal plastic surgery to gain the results our society demands. Although this advertising makes a lot of money for companies all over the world, it is not worth destroying millions of people’s body image and lives over. It needs to stop in order for both men and women to see their true beauty. Everyone was created special. You shouldn’t have to live up to standards that almost no one can meet. You should be able to have a sense of individuality and love yourself the way you were intended to. The media needs to become positive and teach people the true definition of beauty, being pleased and confident with yourself, and the world would be a lot happier place. After all, it’s not all about the outside! No matter how cliche it is, it’s the inside that counts.