Saturday, November 23, 2013

Natural vs. Artificial Beauty

  Cultures have changed drastically over thousands of years, and so has the expectations of beauty. Let's take the example of the picture below. In the 1800's women who were curvier, and wore more conservative clothing were admired and treasured. They wore very little makeup, considering it was a rarity and available exclusively to people who could afford it.


 
 
Now that society has evolved, so has our vision of what women should look like. The wealthier parts of America have become superficial, and have gained the expectation that women should be flawless. Women who are skinny, and small are ideal in some areas of the world. Nowadays, magazines for high end fashion objectify women to sell clothes to certain people. The idea is if the women associated with the product is beautiful, then whoever buys the product will be beautiful too.
 
The debate is the line that is being drawn between natural and artificial beauty. Are photo shopped women better because of the commercial purpose, or not? The problem is the standard this sets for young women seeking self esteem. When the ideal is what is on the cover of a magazine, then what impact does that halve on young girls? Then when society demands that natural beauty is better, it hurts the advertising market. Where can the line be drawn?  
 
 
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 4, 2013 at 8:18 PM

    While our conceptions of beauty certainly seem more artificial to our eyes, in many the past was just as superficial. Women were expected to have tiny waists, large hips, and often balanced ridiculous hats and wigs. Many times women today complain about how models are too skinny and how much pressure this places on women, but in the past skinny girls were ostracized for being ugly. I'm not arguing that any of this is right, I'm just saying that an artificial ideal of beauty is not unique to our time. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tkawiZiYB68/UYgcKr61sgI/AAAAAAAAFys/M5sHWfuyJJw/s1600/corset+most+miserable.jpg

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  2. UnknownDecember 13, 2013 at 1:33 PM

    The way that the media displays women, it sickens me. I do not like the way they make girls believe they should be super thin, unable to enjoy certain foods because they do not want to be judged by society for living. Shifting slightly, da Vinci was very influential in showing off beauty in any aspect as the human figure is a beautiful piece to be marveled at. By studying the curvatures of females, he could make nearly any figure look beautiful. This is what we need to get society back to for everyone's sake.

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