Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Sexism & Patriarchy Beauty Standards for Women

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20 replies, 20 voices Last updated by Afshan Iqbal 2 years, 1 month ago
  • simran arora
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    @simran
    #31346
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    It is not surprising to notice that beauty standards do not limit to any one section of society. The first thought in my mind is the stereotyped appearance of both the sexes in society. One may say that appearance does not matter, but I think it is all that matters. Whether it is a beauty award or a marriage union, either side is expected to look presentable. Some other examples could be a man with a well-built structure to be favored above a healthy or slightly fat man.

    In India, the traditional society favors slim women with long hair but no facial hair. A woman’s eyebrow should be perfect, and there should be no scars over the face. One can say that the features of any sex are the epitome of beauty. Let’s say this ideal to perfect eyebrows is going on forever. You must have remembered that when Kajol, the Bengali artist stepped into Bollywood, her eyebrows were not shaped. People around her might not have questioned it, but the audience did raise their opinion in different ways.

    Though plus-sized models are applauded for their work, the same scenario does not work inside the household. Any fat or healthy woman has the pressure to reduce her weight, especially if she wants to marry. Here, the idea of acceptance becomes difficult. Also, it is ironic to notice that if one wants acceptance, society’s standards must be obliged. Almost every institution participates in this quest.

    The contradiction in Indian society begins with the clothes one chooses to wear and continues with the figure one carries. If we go beyond, it goes on with skin color, the size of the eyes or forehead, the ideal beauty of long hands, and so many endless things. People may refuse to be part of racism, but we all play a role by passing comments on several people.

    The work-out tradition has a profound impact on the male section of society; as soon as one enters the diagram of college, one eager to go to the gym for peer acceptance and less for a healthy lifestyle. Both men and women should fix their curves like the scars from an accident. You must have heard of the backlash one faces in the cinema industry. There have been many actors who had to reduce their weight before participating in social activities. The soul has not reached the remark of beauty because appearance still matters.

    The sad reality is that all beauty standards begin within the four walls of the home. It is the place where you receive most criticism, lead by judgment. Here, the family tries to fix the wrongs in you, like an object for public display. It is disheartening to grow up in an atmosphere covered with hypocrisy disguised as love and care.

    Semantee Chattopadhyay
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    @semantee03
    #31663
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    For years the definition of beauty has been a typical 90-60-90 body type, long legs, skinny face with big eyes, perfect skin and so on. These stereotypical standards do more harm than good. In India, advertisements and movies promote this “ideal body” image too. It socially constructs a notion that physical attractiveness is the most important asset. People generally get body-shamed for their looks. Youngsters are getting diagnosed with mental health problems to fulfil these beauty standards. From friends to relatives and even parents hurt people by commenting on their looks. Indian pop culture reinforces fat-shaming by portraying fat female characters as one-dimensional, and only defined by their weight. Fat single women are never portrayed as desirable. A woman who has gained weight after marriage is also not desirable and forces the husband to look for other options. Tying a woman’s worth to her physical appearance, and then shaming anyone who doesn’t fit a narrow beauty standard, is pervasive.
    Some people take medications to lose weight. Some people go through surgeries. Some people use harmful chemical products to attain clear skin. Indian advertisements have shown that fair skin can get you a job or a muscular body can get you into a movie. We should teach the upcoming generations that looks don’t define you. To stand out you don’t need to have a perfect body. Nowadays, we have seen situations changing social media influencers, content creators, celebrities have openly called out this discrimination. We have to understand that body and beauty standards have shifted throughout history, based on economic society, and culture. Human bodies are different, it remains diverse in shapes and sizes. Instead of judging and mocking other people should concentrate more on their fitness and well-being. Generally, shaming starts when people don’t feel confident about themselves. They should do everything to make themselves feel better and accept others as they are.

    nehachitroda
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    @nehachitroda
    #31709
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    As beauty word appears, many assume it related or tied up to women’s only, it’s a myth or thought or assumption whatever we can say, people relate this word to women’s only. Is it an assumption/compulsion that women need to be beautiful by looks and each way possible?
    Beauty doesn’t mean that you should be fair and good-looking, but it’s about your inner qualities and what you are, and how you behave and show up yourself.
    But not only people but society as a whole think and want women to fit and fair and many commercials also show women as a fair and it also promotes that if you use a fair cream you will become beautiful and everyone will accept you. Sometimes it becomes awkward and insulting for women with normal skin tone or dark tone, but if skin tone would define your beauty then many will feel that they will be rejected by all whether it’s about a boy rejecting a girl or family insulting a dark-toned girl.
    It is also assumed that women have to be perfect in all terms may it be facial or body structure or looks, actually it is sometimes imitated by things shown on media or commercials, and it’s so much seriously taken by women that they start following each routine of actress shown on that commercial. If a girl is fat, she is said to lose weight because the fat women are not accepted if she is thin, she is thin, it is said to her to become healthy and these all things continue everywhere whether at home or surrounding or any place. Beauty begins at the moment where you don’t compare one woman with another or any individual with another in any terms.

    Shumaila Siddiqui
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    @shumaila
    #31760
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    Beauty standards are nothing but another section which society has hyped, specially for women to present her in a certain way. Due to the social media the beauty standards has gone to a height where we are enabled to meet up the standards of so called beauty.
    Women are charming in every shape and size which they are being designed naturally. All women have her own beauty. Irrespective of every quality she has and being born with.
    Social media has been a demeaning platform for beauty standards. It has raised a bar in the name of artificial man made filters to define the beauty of women. Women are in a constant race of being perfect leaving behind their natural beauty. Some women are facing low self-esteem and depression on how they are not being able to live up with the idea of beauty on social media.
    We have been brainwashed from years that women who have a fair, tall and without hair body is the most beautiful girl. But what about the girls who don’t meet up with this standard aren’t they also have their legacy of beauty and why they are not supposed to be in a category of beautiful.
    Women who work tirelessly for the needs of their family, and she is tanned due to the sun. If we see that women with a beautiful thought and wide eye than we can find charm in that women which is charming.
    Women produces another human being, and they face a high altitude changes after the delivery. There is a stretch marks and some more marks of after effects of pregnancy. Women are supposed to not have those marks because it counts as ugly according to our orthodox society.
    Women’s should live the way they want and make choices how they want to look and what makes them happy from inside.
    Ladies be your best version and not just another version.

    Mayuravarshini Mohana
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    @mayura
    #32126
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    Beauty is a measure of aesthetic sensibility and it pertains more to the perceiver than the perceived. By no means is beauty a definite idea. Just as cultures change over time so do the standards that define beauty. For instance dark skin tone was cherished in medieval India while 21st century C.E. deplores it.
    Our current world has misunderstood the idea of beauty, restricting it to physical appearances. It is to appreciate the unique loveliness of a person. Instead beauty has become a set of criteria, a specified image prescribed to every individual. It has become too strait-jacketed a term that has a very narrow vision of what is beautiful and what is not.

    Colourism and body negativity are the most immediate and inimical consequences of such criteria. Prevalent beauty standards advocate to both men and women the idea of a perfect or ideal body, which is not surprisingly euro-centric. Our film industries seem to prefer light skinned, slim waisted, tall belles with almond eyes and long lashes, and broad shouldered muscular men with enhanced jaw lines. We are quick to internalise these images and accept them from a very young age. As a consequence, millions of boys and girls, men and women look at themselves in the mirror and see not what they are but look for what they aren’t. They develop depression, anxiety and eating disorders in a bid to become conventionally beautiful. In the process, they develop negative attitudes towards their body and subsequently their self-image.

    Why then do popular media sustain these unrealistic ideas of beauty? In simple terms, the insecurity creates a dependable market for beauty products. The anxiety among people from Asian and African communities regarding their physical appeal was cultivated during colonialism which capitalism promptly received as heirloom. The colonial regime perpetuated euro-centric ideals of beauty, which was in turn invariably associated with superiority and power.

    Beauty is no longer a matter of aesthetics. Beauty is politics.

    Capitalism, through standardising beauty, tells us that we are not enough. While doing that, it points us towards an image of what we ought to be, and thanks to cutting edge beauty products, we can finally get there. How often have advertisements propagated the idea that success, wealth, satisfaction and even happiness will become ours only if we become a certain kind of beautiful? And how naively we’ve believed that!

    Our bodies are uniquely beautiful and we must learn to embrace it. The journey is hard but is certainly worth the effort. We owe it to ourselves. Body positivity is the ultimate cure.

    Dharani Sri
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    @u19mae026
    #32130
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    Beauty standards
    This judgmental society always have some certainties for everything and so for the beauty standards. This not only include girls but also boys. The most important fact is that women are criticized more because of this beauty standards.

    This society always expect women to be thinned, light skinned and more curvy at certain ratios. This beauty trend keeps changing time by time.

    Most of the women strive to maintain the uncertain beauty standards set by the society.
    Most of the women, men, girls and boys fell into this unrealistic beauty standards by the extended use of social media. Those influencers of social media promote various products with the help of their beauty. And we people also fell into these fake advertisements. There are some netizens who criticize the social media and cine field fame, when they cross the beauty standards. They criticize them until or unless they change them back to the previous structure or kill themselves.
    We may hear that ‘appearances are deceptive’, but we follow them and them in our life? We all judge people by their appearance. Due to this behavior of the society most of the introverts, who`s self-esteem level is low afraid to move forward and show up in front of the society. They afraid whether they may be criticized because of their appearance and beauty standards.
    Now a days we forget the phrase, ‘don`t judge the book by its cover’. whether the person male or female, thick or thin, light skinned or dark skinned, they are beautiful by their heart and by their thoughts.
    I end by saying that, we people should now the reality that these beauty standards even not a standard one. It keeps changing. The trend which had been during our grand parents’ generation are not as same as the one in our parents’ generation and in our generation. Don`t believe in these fake beauty standards. BEAUTY LIES IN THE HEART!

    Anika
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    @anika
    #32201
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    Beauty standards are unrealistic and promote low self-esteem and do more harm than good. But it wasn’t always like this. The beauty standards which are considered undesirable now were very popular before.
    Firstly, people of colour are ignored. Many people think that having white skin is ideal and anything else is horrible. We have seen it all across the world, people with a fairer complexion get more privileges and are accepted by society. The media promotes this by making movies with fair-skinned actors as heroes and dark-skinned actors as villains or ‘funny’ people. In many areas of the world, until recently, it was very rare to see dark-skinned people in feature films as the lead which didn’t have stereotypes. In fact, In India skin whitening creams are extremely popular. Indian parents often contribute to this by making colorist remarks to their children if they aren’t fair enough.
    You also have to be of a certain body type, if society does not like the way you look, you will be mocked. To many, if you aren’t the correct size with the perfect body proportions, you are seen as unattractive. Being thin is desirable.
    Beauty standards affect both genders. Men have to have six-packs and look handsome. Many actors often have to starve to get the ideal body type for their roles. If anyone doesn’t conform to the ideal beauty standards, they are seen as unattractive.
    Many get plastic surgery to fit beauty standards because according to society, they’re not attractive. They often modify themselves just to look desirable and beautiful to everyone. Celebrities edit themselves on social media. Many want to be them not realizing that is not how they look. And when celebrities look at their unedited pictures in the media, they feel that it isn’t them.
    What we have to realize is this: beauty is subjective. Everyone is expected to look a certain way but it doesn’t mean that you should. Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is unique and that is what makes them beautiful.

    Manpreet Singh
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    @manpreet
    #33376
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    It is easy to forget that standards of beauty are arbitrary with pictures of perfect beauty that overwhelm us every day; they change drastically across culture and culture and with time. Such changes in beauty norms typically mirror the responsibilities women and men in a given society are expected to fulfill. The most beautiful are generally regarded full-bodied ladies of broad hips and big breasts in cultures where females are valued mostly for their fertility —their ability to carry and nurture offspring. Large entities are a symbol of prestige and power in countries such as Fiji. But as societal circumstances and gender roles change, so are beauty ideas. Take a look at some recent US reforms. During the 1960s and 1970s, beauty ideals changed to stick, flat-chested figures, represented by supermodels such as Twiggy or Kate Moss in the mature curvature of the stars, including Marilyn Monroe. The fact is that the ideal female form just as women have started dramatically gaining in education, jobs, and politics, looked like a frail, emaciated, and non-threatening pre-teenage girl. Women may have gained independence and power, but they were pushed to regulate their bodies through diet and exercise to live up to ideals that could hardly be achieved. Social media, periodicals, journals, and even TVs tend to push lofty ideals that can hardly be achieved. You must look for a means to society, even if you have tried to form yourself for it. You must at least recognize your “beauty” In fact, underlying it all there is still criticism. Women must be slender, but not too thick, and not so dense to have a stomach. Women can wear makeup, but it doesn’t look too hard since we’re trying. We can display skin, but we can’t be embarrassed too much. For a woman even to have body gases, it is regarded odd, or unusual. Women have very high societal standards and they must stop being placed upon us. It produces problems of self-hatred and of trust from a small age. It is mental and physical drainage because we attempt to locate the status quo so hard when the status quo is realistic.

    038 deepika Singh
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    @038-deepika
    #33531
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    As a child I never questioned my beauty or the way I looked. I would get up in the morning, let my mom do my hair, always satisfied by whatever she did with it, dress myself up without even bothering to see if I looked ‘pretty’. I never questioned the way I looked and I loved myself for who I was.
    It was until the 7th grade, I realised, I was not beautiful. I was hairy, I had acne and I had an imperfect nose. I started comparing myself with others always finding a reason to question my beauty and the way I looked. Now that I am a grown up 19 year old women, I wonder who made me believe all this. Who made me stop loving myself for who I was?

    Everyone has a perception of their bodies but it is not them but the society that shape these perceptions and views, which are almost entirely perpetuated through the media. Today if you search the word ‘beauty’, you will end up with a sea of fair-skinned, thin, young women as if good looks does not come in any other form. Since we all are living in a generation where social media plays a pivotal role in our lives, it is almost impossible not to fall victim to the models and celebrities promoting a certain body type. Nowadays young women including myself are told to have long hair, small waist, big butts and a perfect skin and at the same time look natural too. Is it possible for a person to fulfil these unattainable beauty standards?
    Insecurities are inevitable, they impact all of us. For some, it is intense and for some it is just an insecurity here and there. But to harm our bodies for some insecurity is a huge matter of concern. And this is the extend to which the beauty standards fixed for us, by the society, affects us. We need to understand and propagate the idea that these beauty standards are unrealistic and unachievable. We are imperfect and hence, we are beautiful.

    Aditi Sahu
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    @aditi
    #33977
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    Unreasonable and absurd beauty standards for women have been going on for centuries. Be it the appearance of highly thin waists in Victorian England, to hairless prepubescent body all over the world, the beauty standards for women are highly problematic and degrading.

    You might have heard people saying how an “ideal” woman is supposed to look like, she should have big breasts, small waist, long legs, big buttocks, fair skin, long lashes, thick eyebrows, and rest of the body should be hairless. Isn’t beauty supposed to be subjective? Why have we created such harmful notions of beauty, particularly when it comes to women? These unreasonable standards of beauty not only make women feel conscious about their body’s shape and size, but it also impacts their mental health very negatively. They feel so inadequate in themselves, that they keep on spending money to achieve an “ideal” beauty, which does not even make sense.

    It is high time that we realise that women’s worth do not depend on how they look and that beauty standards are nothing but just a way to make women feel bad about themselves. If an “ideal” beauty exists, it exists in the mind of an individual, and it’s different for everyone and highly subjective. We should realise that beauty standards do no good and should be discarded from this world!

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