How do Western beauty standards negatively impact women?
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1The Effects of the Western Beauty Standards on Women First Name and Last NameYork University SOSC 1185Tutorial # DateWord Count 2500[DO NOT COPY – SAMPLE STUDENT ESSAY]
2The Effects of Western Beauty Standards on Women Display media are criticized by eating disorder and body image researchers for inundating impressionable viewers with the display of unattainable cultural beauty and thinness images of women (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). Although such standards are unattainable, they suggest that women need to both measure themselves against and aim to achieve this ideal (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). In this paper, I will examinethe question: How do Western beauty standards negatively impact women? Beauty standards are the physical characteristics that constitute a society’s ideals of physical attractiveness.These standards vary depending on the era and geographical region. A set of ideal features can differ for each gender; however, they are very demanding for women. Such ideas are established and communicated to society through media, film and television, magazines, advertising, etc. My analysis focuses on Western beauty standards, the beauty standards that depict the features deemed ideal in Western regions, such as North America.Western beauty standards often base themselves upon a White, European ideal (Silvestrini, 2020). For women, standards includes light skin and a near underweight body. As my research concentrates on the negative implications of Western beauty standards on women, it is essential to understand what the term “woman” will denote. For the purpose of my research, the term will include individuals who identify with the gender expression of a woman regardless of their biological sex. Although the term may be used to refer to the female biological sex, it likewise refers to a socially constructed gender expression separate from biological sex. While gender and sex may correspond, one may identify with this gender expression regardless of their biological sex. Likewise, biological females do not have to identify with the gender expressions associated with being a woman. Such gender expression is communicated through behavior, norms, and roles. Moreover, it impacts the experiences and opportunities available to the person. My research defines the “woman” in terms of gender expression as gender dictates the norms expected of a person, which includes the norms perpetuated through beauty standards. Likewise, as gender shapes one’s experiences, this includes experiences with beauty standards. This research is relevant as beauty standards are a feminist issue like the matters covered during this course. Additionally, this course discussed socially constructed gender norms and their harmful assumptions about women’s roles in society. In a like manner, beauty standards are harmful socially constructed assumptions about how a woman should look. Moreover, this course has also addressed gender codes, and beauty standards are related to gender codes. For instance, the beauty standard of women having long hair may define their femininitylike a gender code.
3The adverse effects associated with Western beauty standards of thinness are amongst the most prevalent issues discussed in the literature concerning the impact of the standards on women. Strahan, Spencer, and Zanna (2007)discuss how many women, including girls as young as nine, wish to lose weight. The authors explain that this desire has induced harmful weight loss measures, potentially leading to eating disorders (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). Moreover, they highlight that researchers and theorists view beauty standards as an influencing factor of such body dissatisfaction and the consequent change in eating behaviours (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). To illustrate this influence of beauty ideals on women, Strahan, Spencer, and Zanna (2007) examine how viewing images of thin women that perpetuate Western beauty standards impact women’s eating behaviours. Their study likewise aims to determine if challenging such beauty standards may lessen this impact (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). Strahan, Spencer, and Zanna (2007) conducted four studies on 262 undergraduate women. I will exclusively refer to the studies relevant to my research, study 1, study 2, and study 3. The first study found that participants who viewed commercials featuring thin women ate less in the subsequent taste test than those who viewed neutral commercials (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). However, it was affirmed that the participants were hungry as they were directed not to eat or drink for 3 hours before the study (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). This finding demonstrates the degree to which Western beauty standards affect women, as brief exposure to these ideals in the media is sufficient to provoke the harmful behaviour of restrictedeating.Other studies revealed that challenging such beauty ideals by displaying commercials with heavier women and persuading the participants to believe that their peers do not favour these ideals reduces consequent eating restrictions (Strahan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2007). Their studies highlight the impact of the Western ideal of thinness on women. The authors affirm how a widespread desire to resemble perpetuated beauty standards leads to restricted eating patters, but once standards were challenged, eating restrictions lessened. That indicates the importance of denouncing beauty standards and using diverse body types in the media, or simply pointing out itsinsignificance by challenging such ideals and decrease harm suffered by women, these days.Western beauty standards not only negatively impact women’s perception of their body weight but also affect how they perceive their lives. Engeln-Maddox (2006) establishes this finding in his study, which examined how college-aged women predicted their lives would differ if they resembled the Western beauty standard. The participating women were asked to compose a written description of Western beauty ideals (Engeln-Maddox, 2006). Afterwards, they were instructed to list eight ways that their lives would potentially change if they lookedlike the ideal woman they had described (Engeln-Maddox, 2006).Engeln-Maddox (2006) explains that the participants listed an array of both social and physiological benefits that would accompany this change in appearance. Such benefits included higher self-esteem, confidence, happiness, assertiveness, greater romantic success, more employment and economic opportunities/success, and lessened pressure from family and friends
4concerning their physical appearances (Engeln-Maddox, 2006). Engeln-Maddox (2006) likewise expressed that two types of unfavourable life changes were identified, including negative social changes, such as being viewed as less intelligent or less approachable and having negative personality changes, such as becoming shallow. However, the positive life changes identified by participants greatly outweighed the negative life changes they described. Findings from this study illustrate that Western beauty standards negatively affect women’s lives, as women who do not resemble the standard may be dissatisfied with their quality of life along with their appearance. They may also believe that their level of success, happiness, and opportunity is contingent on an ideal that is difficult to achieve.As the Western beauty ideal derives from a White and European standard of physical attractiveness, it is crucial to assess its impacts on women whose racial features cause their appearance to differ from the ideal, not solely its impact on women as a whole (Silvestrini, 2020). Evans and R McConnel (2003) examine the self-assessment of women whose appearances differ from the Western beauty standard through conducting a study on 52 Black women, 54 Asian women, and 64 White women at Michigan state university. Evans and R McConnel (2003) explain that the participants viewed three images of women who exemplified the Western ideal to compare themselves to and subsequently reflect on their personal feelings of attractiveness. Their work highlights that previous research has shown that Black women adopt strategies, such as engaging in comparison with women in their racial group rather than those who depict the Western ideal, to protect their self-esteem (Evans & R McConnel, 2003). Their study specifically sought to understand if Asian women engage in similar self-protective tactics, as research indicates that the western ideal adversely impacts Asian women (Evans & R McConnel, 2003). For instance, the work discusses that Asian women are the most likely, amongst other ethnic groups, to seek plastic surgery, particularly surgeries that alter race-related physical features (Evans & R McConnel, 2003).Evans and R McConnel (2003) discuss that their results illustrated that Asian women revealed higher body dissatisfaction, worsened body image, and lowered self-assessments than Black women following exposure to the beauty standard. Moreover, the authors express that Asian women’s results were similar to that of White women; however, they reported more discrepancies between their ideal and actual selves (Evans & R McConnel,2003). Evans and R McConnel (2003) explain that this demonstrates that as Asian women have internalized an ideal from which their appearances differ, they experience more harm. Evidently, women whose appearances aredistant from the Western beauty standard due to their racialized features suffer appearance-related dissatisfactionfollowing exposure to the Western ideal. However, the work also displayed that White women who more closelyresemble the ideal also experience dissatisfaction, re-emphasizing that the beauty standard negatively impacts allwomen. Although Evans and R McConnel (2003) found that Black women are less impacted by Western beauty standards as they employ self-protective tactics, Silvestrini (2020) demonstrated that Black women are, both
5directly and indirectly, negatively affected by such beauty ideals. Silvestrini (2020) examined how racial stereotypes, sexual racism, and beauty standards in the media impact the experiences of undergraduate students through the use of survey analyses and interviews. I will be utilizing solely the section discussing the negative ramifications of Western beauty standards.Silvestrini (2020) discussed that as Western beauty ideals stem from a White, European standard, they affect inter-racial attraction and self-esteem as skin colour becomes a factor of attractiveness. The interviews Silvestrini (2020) conducted interviews with two Black women revealed that these women experienced pressure to conform to the ideal to feel beautiful. Moreover, Silvestrini (2020) recounts that both women discussed straightening or perming their hair to more closely resemble the ideal as their dark skin and hair texture led both to feel unattractive, and even experience bullying, a largely negative impact of the beauty standard on women of colour. These interviews also revealed that Western beauty standards have indirect adverse effects on women. For instance, Silvestrini (2020) explained that two male undergraduates claimed that they were primarily attracted to White women as they are more prevalent in the media. Such attraction preferences that stem from Western ideals are harmful to women of colour. In addition to negatively affecting how they view themselves, these ideals negatively affect how others perceive them, consequently halting their ability to form intimate relationships.Research from Harper and Choma (2019) likewise displays how Western beauty standards adversely affect Black women and Indian women, whose racial features often deviate from the ideal. Harper and Choma (2019) argue that as the Western beauty standard perpetuates white ideals such as straight hair and fair skin, women of colour experience greater appearance-related pressures than White women. The study observed that although women of colour and White women monitor their bodies due to beauty ideals, women of colour also monitor their hair texture and skin colour (Harper & Choma, 2019). Harper and Choma (2019) explain that such monitoring may lead to skin bleaching and hair straightening/relaxing to resemble Western beauty standards. Their study explored the relationship between internalizing the Western beauty standard, the dissatisfaction of hair and skin, and the use of products to achieve the White ideal in women of colour (Harper & Choma, 2019). 149 African American women in America and 168 Indian women in India participated in their investigation by completing measures of Whiteness internalization, skin tone dissatisfaction, hair texture dissatisfaction, skin tonesurveillance, hair texture surveillance, and skin bleaching behaviour (Harper & Choma, 2019). Harper and Choma (2019) discuss that in both the study of African American women and the study of Indian women, internalizing the White Western ideal had a significant and direct correlation with monitoring skin tone and hair texture, along with dissatisfaction with skin tone and skin bleaching. Harper and Choma (2019) further explain that such internalization directly correlated with hair texture dissatisfaction for Black women. Evidently, as thesestandards present a white ideal, women whose racial features differ from such standards experience
6dissatisfaction with their hair and skin. This dissatisfaction may cause a strong desire to alter one’s appearance, as demonstrated by the dangerous trend of skin bleaching. Therefore, the Western ideal’s connection to skin bleaching behaviours illustrates how such an ideal may physically harm women. My research sought to provide analysis around the question of how Western beauty standards negatively impact women. Through a survey of relevant literature, I identified several ways in which the Western beauty standard adversely affects both women as a whole and women whose racial features deviate from what the standard deems to be ideal. First, I ascertained that exposure to the Western ideal of thinness elicits the damaging behaviour of restricted eating in women. Additionally, I discovered that Western beauty standards do not solely lead to harmful body dissatisfaction, as research indicates that it likewise leads to dissatisfaction with the overall quality of life. Women view their confidence, happiness, level of success, and opportunities as dependent on the similarity of their appearance to the unattainable beauty standard. This is ultimately damaging as the majority of women do not meet this grandiose and impractical ideal. Moreover, I found that as the Western beauty standard perpetuates a Eurocentric ideal, women whose racialized features differ from this standard are negatively impacted in various respects. Women of colour suffer from issues with body image and self-assessment following exposure to the standard, while women who resemble the ideal suffer to a comparable yet lesser extent. Furthermore, women of colour experience problems with self-esteem and believe they must conform to the ideal to be attractive. This heightened pressure to conform leads to dissatisfaction with features such as hair texture and skin colour, which provokes physically harmful behaviours such as skin bleaching. Moreover, the “White” ideals affect romantic attraction towards women of colour as Eurocentric, Caucasian features are presented as desirable. This leads men to develop a heightened attraction towards white women consequently restricting women of colour’s capacity to create relationships. Evidently, the Western beauty standard negatively impacts women’s self-perception, quality of life, behaviour, and ability to form relationships.
7Reference ListChin Evans, P., & R McConnel, A. (2003). Do racial minorities respond in the same way to mainstream beauty standards? Social comparison processes in Asian, Black, and White women. Self and Identity, 2(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309030Engeln-Maddox, R. (2006). Buying a beauty standard or dreaming of a new life?Expectations associated with media ideals. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(3), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00294.xHarper, K., & Choma, B. L. (2019). Internalised white ideal, skin tone surveillance, and hair surveillance predict skin and hair dissatisfaction and skin bleaching among African Americanand Indian women. Sex Roles, 80(11–12), 735–744. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0966-9Silvestrini, M. (2020). “It’s not something I can shake”: The effect of racial stereotypes, beauty standards, and sexual racism on interracial attraction. Sexuality & Culture, 24(1), 305–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09644-0Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2007). Don’t take another bite: How sociocultural norms for appearance affect women’s eating behavior. Body Image, 4(4), 331–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2007.06.003
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