The idea of beauty is something that is changeable. What is beautiful today is not something that was necessarily beautiful 100 years ago. Today women concentrate on having the perfect body. They diet and exercise to get that perfect size, they shave and wax and they tan and dye their hair. All these practices are in an effort to get that idea image. Where exactly does that idea image come from? The media is one of the main outlets. The media often shows women being attractive when they are thin and fit. Shows like Nip/Tuck and Dr. 90210 encourage plastic surgery to fix those aspects of you body that aren’t consider perfect. Americas Next Top Model encourages the idea of being thin; a plus sized model on the show is 140 pounds. These ideas of being able to make the perfect body have created million and billion dollar industries. As the text points out the dieting industry is one of the most productive. Beauty products, exercise machines and cosmetic surgery account for other money makers. Women want to be beautiful by society standards and are willing to do anything to get. They will buy every product that claims to make them loose weight faster or get the perfect tan.
Today’s ideal body in the US is one that is thin, toned and often the women have large breasts. As the text points out most of these bodies are white and when women of color are shown they often have white features. Like many other aspects of our society the standards of beauty are often set by those in power. They set the trends and enforce the standards of what is “expected” to be beautiful. Most of these power players are white males. Women are more likely to adhere to these “beauty norms”. They are more likely to be the ones that but the products and buy into what they are supposed to be like. You very rarely see a man on TV getting lipo and men never have to worry about the size of their breasts or butt. These ideas of what is considered right make it increasingly hard to accept you own body. You have an idea of what you should be and when you don’t reach it you feel like you body isn’t up to par.
These idea’s of what are considered beautiful varies among cultures. Latinas and black women are more accepted to be “thicker”. White women are still expected to be thin. However, some aspects are universal among all races. For example hair is always better if it’s straight. The politics of beauty is something that you see everyday, whether it’s on TV or in a magazine. It is something in our society that we can’t escape and something that will always be present. It is simply another way that society defines us and tells us what we are supposed to be.