Today, I am going to talk about how the media portraying only certain beauty standards is unhealthy and harmful, for potentially both our physical and mental wellbeing and isolating to the masses.

I am going to start by asking a question.

Do you feel beautiful?

Think about it.

Do you feel beautiful?

Chances are, the answer is no. Only 20% of us living in Britain like the way we look. 

20%

 1 in 5.

Meaning that out of the thirty people in my English class, statistically, only 6 of us like the way we look.  And it is media who is at fault.

To understand why, first, we have to understand what beauty is. 

English Oxford Living Dictionaries defines beauty as a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight, or an excellent example of something.

Appreciating beauty is natural, as humans we are programmed to do it. But nowadays beauty is also other things. Beauty is love. Beauty is hope. Beauty is a feeling. Beauty is expression. Beauty is simple. Beauty is complex. Beauty is unobtainable. Well, it seems to be. 

In the UK, we’re all expected to look like professional athletes. Men are expected to look powerful and muscular and women thin but with curves in all the right places like Kim Kardashian clones and that is unrealistic to expect everyone to look like that all of the time.  

Some people would argue that beauty is different in different places. It may be different but it does not mean the extent people go to, to achieve those beauty standards is any less. 

In South Korea, which has a booming beauty industry, plastic surgery is a common 16th birthday present and one of the most popular surgeries is jaw surgery which involves cutting bones in the jaw. It takes weeks to recover from and 52% of recipients lose feeling in their face from the surgery. This is only one example showing that Western beauty ideals have spread to the rest of the world through globalization and are now being upheld by models even in places like India and Japan who have traditionally regarded preserving culture as more important, minimizing diversity seen around the world.

Beauty standards are traditionally seen to only affect women, men are usually overlooked, and the significant lack of statistics on the matter from a male point of view seem to reflect this.  Some believe that when it comes to men people tend to be more accepting and I agree, men throughout history have had much more freedom than their female counterparts. 

But the media does not seem to recognize that it does affect men and isolates them by only promoting female issues making men feel like they are abnormal and making them less likely to speak out. A study done on the behalf of the Succeed Foundation found that men have more body angst than we realize, but will joke about it rather than having a serious conversation.

The evidence shown confirms that some men do in fact have body image issues such as low self-esteem, suffer from eating disorders and feel extremely pressured to hit the gym more often than ever. This had led to disorders such as bigorexia, or muscle dysmorphia which 10% of men in the gym have, it is basically the opposite of anorexia where men work out compulsively, prioritize working out over family and may abuse steroids or protein shakes. 

Yorkshire born Oli Cooney started using steroids aged 16 when he started bodybuilding, which he said he thought made up for his 5’3 stature after 2 heart attacks and 3 strokes doctors warned him to stop working out which he ignored, working out 4 days a week and he died aged 20.

As I said before the media is to blame for unattainable beauty standards. 66% of 17-21-year-olds would agree that there is not enough diversity among high-profile women in the media and 56% of women say seeing body diversity in the media made them feel better about themselves. 

Now with social media there is a constant pressure to look good, with UK women now on average spending 474 days of their lives applying makeup, essentially reconstructing their faces to hide what they do not consider beautiful, with techniques learnt, inspired and based on large social media celebrities such as the Kardashian’s which has lead to the globalisation of western beauty standards. 

In India, skin lightening creams have become increasingly popular as people strive to look more like the people they constantly see online, but these contain harmful substances such as mercury, leading to the thinning of the skin, kidney, liver or nerve damage and abnormalities in newborn babies. 

Some may argue that high beauty standards existed before the spread of the media and they would be correct but they were more diverse and varied between countries and classes and the media has made these restrictive and exclusive. ‘

Unattainable beauty standards contribute massively to poor physical, mental and social wellbeing. Children as young as 6 are developing eating disorders which over 1.6 million people in the UK are estimated to be directly affected by. This is understandable as a quarter of girls aged 7 to 10, have had someone criticize their body. Is this really acceptable?

The modelling industry is renowned for being too harsh, with girls a little smaller in size than me are being treated as if they are morbidly obese which was the case for Ana Carolina Reston who died aged 21, she had been modelling since age 13 but became anorexic after she was told she was too fat at a US 4 (UK 8) she died at a US 00 with the waist size of a typical 7-year-old after surviving on a diet of only fruit juice, apples and tomatoes so she would meet the beauty standards to make her a supermodel. 

Since then, the modeling industry has improved somewhat, with the inclusion of plus size models, e.g. Ashley Graham. Which start from size 8, the average woman is a size 12, so the average woman is not even considered normal size. So it is hardly surprising that 23% of girls aged 7-21 report not participating in exercise because they are unhappy with their body image. I know boys who would rather get changed in the toilets than in front of their peers as they are insecure about their bodies.

These disorders are brought about by beauty standards that are not inclusive and varied enough. The actors we usually see are stereotyped. The men we see in movies are often sculpted and toned and if they aren’t they are usually mocked in some way, shape or form.

Many would argue that we see ethnic, older and bigger role models in the media but these celebrities are often very close to the beauty standard and still receive a lot of hate. Even so-called black movies, tend to favor actresses with a lighter skin tone which brings them closer to the pale, thin beauty standard we all know. 

But even those who are seen to match these beauty standards, seem to get hate. Victoria Beckham came under fire when she hired the Canadian model Chantal Habschied, whom the media deemed to be too thin, The Body-shaming on social media became so bad, Habscheid’s mother stepped in to defend her daughter. “This model is beautiful, hard working and has genetics, like all of us, that predispose her body to look a certain way.” 

Of course, not all of our bodies are predisposed to look like Chantal, Amy Schumer was cast as Barbie and many body-shaming trolls believed that she is ‘too fat’ to the role. ‘Too fat’? Too thin? When will they be happy?

Body image caused by high beauty standards is an issue of enormous public concern. It is a contributing factor in poor mental wellbeing, eating disorders, obesity, low aspirations and a range of risky behaviors including drug and alcohol abuse, and self-harm. 

So what I want us to do is annihilate anorexia, beat bigorexia, stamp out suicide, and celebrate us, ‘flaws’ and all. 

I am speaking for those who don’t like themselves. I am speaking for those who’ve been made to feel like they are anything less than beautiful. I am speaking for everyone. 

I am not saying that we shouldn't find things beautiful; there is beauty in everything and everyone and as we are human we are programmed to appreciate this beauty and so there will always be beauty standards. 

But, by breaking the chains of unattainable beauty standards, by increasing the diversity of what we see as beautiful in the media worldwide and by making it more inclusive for all colors, ages, body types and disabilities we can make the world a slightly more accepting, healthier, happier place.

Do you feel beautiful?

The answer may be no right now, but hopefully, soon you will do.