Women & The Beauty Ideal

The Beauty Ideal

Just like fashion, beauty ideals and standards change over time. Although Coco Chanel allegedly said “beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself”, how do we account for the $500 billion beauty business which often dictates unattainable standards of beauty for most women? Chanel understood the deep need for women to be attractive. And it made her a fortune. Chanel was one of the first designers to understand the power of her brand to encompass all of a woman’s life including beauty products and perfume - some say this was the secret of her success.?

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, why is society obsessed with external beauty? Every culture has a 'beauty ideal' based on its sociocultural heritage, belief systems, public consensus, and most importantly media. Beauty ideals are ever-changing though slowly over time. In Western media, we can easily trace how what is considered beautiful has changed. From the voluptuous ideal of beauty in the 1880s, which came back into fashion almost 100 years later in the 80s, to the gamin boyish looks of the 1920s; repeated in a slightly different guise in the 90s. If beauty standards change over time should we even be concerned??

A new friend, who is a well-known photographer who takes portraits of women in natural light, asked me to be part of a new series she was working on. At first, I was flattered, but then I thought more about the consequences and declined. When she asked me why - I couldn't answer. Then I realized, working in fashion for over 15 years I told her I have high standards when it comes to beauty. It then dawned on me that my reply meant I didn’t feel I met those high standards.?

We’ve since become friends( (I hope) and the topic of how women respond to having their photos taken often comes up. We also invariably discuss our favourite fashion photographers and the power of the image, amongst many other things. But we somehow return to this topic - women, body image, self-criticism, and self-acceptance. We’ve been grappling with the reason why as women we’ve somehow been taught to judge ourselves so harshly. Which also raises the question: why does society judge women on their external appearance more often than men?

What Is The Beauty Ideal?

In her book Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal, Heather Widows explains “We further embrace the beauty ideal. Nobody is firm enough, thin enough, smooth enough, or buff enough—not without significant effort and cosmetic intervention. And as more demanding practices become the norm, more will be required of us, and the beauty ideal will be harder and harder to resist.”?

What is this unattainable beauty ideal?? A set of unspoken rules that are by definition value-laden. According to Professor Heather Widdows, John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics, Department of Philosophy , beauty ideals are based on the “assumption that a beautiful, more perfect self is a happier, more successful self? - is deeply ingrained in popular discourse, and the language used is exceptionally value-laden." Much research has been undertaken to understand society’s relationship to beauty. Including, but not limited to, that our idea of beauty is usually an attractive face that is usually symmetrical, and youthful to denote health. Height for men and slim or voluptuous bodies for women. However, these ideals may change significantly over time and vary between cultures.?

The Self & Self-Judgment

In psychology, the self is an important concept to help understand individual behaviour and account for social norms. The self is a person’s understanding of themselves as separate from others. Animals do not have a sense of self, as can be seen in many online videos to hilarious effect. Young children become aware of the image in the mirror as their reflection as early as 15 to 24 months.

Our self-concept can be affected by personal identity, personality but most importantly the opinions and judgment of others and social comparison. Psychologists have found that critical to our self-concept and body image is what everyone thinks of us.

Our judgments are affected by perceptions of ways in which we are similar and different from other people (whether these perceptions are true or not is another matter). Since we can never be like any other person but ourselves, however hard we try. In my opinion, we are actually judging ourselves based on an unfair litmus test based on those around us.

Also identified is the tendency for us to think about ourselves in different ways depending on the circumstance. We all have an ideal self we project to the world which is different from what our real or actual selves are truly like.

Products help us to reach what is known in psychology as our 'ideal self' - essentially how we'd like the world to see us. Usually based on our socio-cultural background since most societies expect some form of conformity. We may change our hair, appearance, or behaviour to fit into whichever mould society says is acceptable. For example, even today, in some cultures long hair is expected for women/girls and short hair for men and boys. Those who behave otherwise are considered unusual or rebellious.

Feminine Beauty As Social Control?

Naomi Wolf in her seminal book calls it social control. No sooner did women take to the streets to campaign for equal rights in the 1970s, then a new method of control emerged. Wolf wrote that “The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly, images of female beauty have come to weigh down upon us.” In the year she wrote the book, she cites eating disorders rose, cosmetic surgery became the number one area of medical specialty, consumer spending doubled and thirty-three thousand women told researchers they would rather lose 15 pounds than achieve their goals.”?

Researchers Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz made interesting findings that revealed when it comes to fairy tales, those that survive over time are the narratives that promote feminine beauty as the main theme. There’s a reason we all know Snow White, Cinderella, et al. Wait what? Are there other fairy tales that didn’t survive over time?

Much research has been done on the effects of a western beauty ideal on non-white women including a more recent worrying trend known as the pan-Asian ideal, identified by Yip, Ainsworth & Hugh, as ‘Asian white' skin tone with a characteristic blending of Asian and European facial features.?

Media & The Feminine Ideal

If our sense of self-concept is largely a reflection of the reactions & responses of others, with a strong bias towards being influenced by media and celebrities, how do we stand a chance as women? Especially in light of the ease and speed in which images in the media are heavily altered and air-brushed. As an industry stalwart I know how managed a celebrity's look can be, even influencers have teams of people to make them look as they do - from stylists, and photographers, to hair and makeup, yet I still judge myself based on the unattainable.

The deluge of daily images on social media has not helped matters. A recent study (allegedly played down by the owners of Facebook), revealed clear evidence that adolescents, especially girls, experienced increased rates of depression, anxiety, and self-injury - the data shows a clear spike from the early 2010s.

Social Media & The Teenage Crisis

The data collected on social media and teenage issues have been questioned. Critics argue the data can be explained by the fact that teens are just more likely to be diagnosed or recognize symptoms today. However, researchers found an alarming corresponding increase in other supporting measurable behaviors such as self-harm (mostly girls) and suicide (both sexes).

Rates for hospitalization due to self-harm doubled for girls aged 10 to 14 in the period between 2010 to 2014. The premise is teens post pictures of themselves and as a result, they are subjected to the daily judgment of others. Leading to many types of image, and weight-based disorders.?

What Are The Alternatives?

As a fashion marketer, I’ve watched as the industry changed (more diversity), but stayed the same (favouring impossibly tall and thin above all else). If our body image and assessment of our physical self are based on external factors then we are doomed to always judge ourselves harshly.

Western media is slowly accepting (helped by Gen-Z) diverse ideas of beauty. If you look hard enough for it, there is a concurrent trend toward positive messages of self-acceptance on social media. Harnaam Kaur is a British woman with a condition that allows her to grow full body hair including a beard. Instead of hiding her condition, she became a model, activist, and speaker breaking down stereotypes and facial hair stigma

However, body positivity is still focusing on the body, skinny, transgender, fat, white, disabled, or black we are still focused on how we look; rather than how we feel about ourselves.

This brings me back to the question - why do we still place so much value and emphasis on how we look rather than who we are on the inside? Can we look further than the image we project to the outside world as women and value intelligence, kindness, selflessness, or even skill?

Society has to deal with the outcome of a generation of teenage girls judging themselves via the number of likes gained. Some even feel the need to airbrush their image until it bears no resemblance to reality.?Tik Tok's latest beauty filter has caused outrage in some circles.

Follow The Money

The latest social media trend is Black Phishing or Asian Phishing, a term coined for influencers who subtly or otherwise adopt black culture in terms of hairstyle and dress to gain street cred on social media. Some say fuelled by Kim Kardashian or in order to be endorsed by brands looking for safer ‘diversity’ options.

As tweeted by a Washington Post journalist “I don’t see it as complicated. Her proximity to and appropriation of blackness has gotten her (and her family) paid. Handsomely.”

Is appearance somehow linked to resources? Think about all the wealthy men with beautiful, usually younger women. We idolize beauty and judge women based on their looks because traditionally our economic value was connected with childbearing, health, and producing male heirs to continue the family line.

Many cultures still connect outward beauty with the likelihood of health and survival. Some argue beauty ideals became entrenched as capitalism made beauty a system of currency to peddle potions for a multi-billion dollar industry.

Perhaps the answer is to separate Hollywood, fashion magazine glamour, and celebrities from our reality. Perhaps we could all agree that celebrity beauty is not real, since it's used for entertainment, which can be consumed like any other type of cultural artifact. And therefore not a standard to judge ourselves by.

Perhaps we also need to understand beauty standards change over time and vary between cultures. Gordon Selfridge was the first to put makeup at the entrance of the store, before that makeup was used by prostitutes so no respectable woman wanted to be seen wearing it, let alone buying it. Today makeup counters at the entrance of stores are ubiquitous across the globe.

If women understood the beauty ideal in context, spanning across time and cultures perhaps we could find our own uniqueness. Because somewhere in the world, someone appreciates whatever it is you hate the most about yourself.

If we truly came to terms with our own uniqueness perhaps we can embrace the amazing gift we’ve been given - our bodies - that run, dance, sing, laugh, argue, create, lead, give life, and everything in between.?

This article was first published here www.anisajohnny.com on the 25 August 2022

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