Beauty is a Beast Draft One

Beauty is a Beast

Why self-esteem is at an all-time low

 

There’s been a multitude of things in the media over the last few months about the beauty and fashion industry as well as the self-esteem levels of young girls. France made the not-so-drastic choice to ban beauty pageants, Dove launched its campaign of ‘Real Beauty’ and Barbie is no longer the most popular girl in Malibu. Times are changing. So, it’s about time that the problem of low self-esteem was addressed.  

            We all know of the perfect ideal that we can wear whatever we want, whenever we want, so why does no one act upon it? You don’t see Miley Cyrus crying in the bathroom that everyone hated her outfit; she’s out there in the spotlight writhing around in a plastic bikini no matter how socially inappropriate it is. I’m not saying that we should all jump on the bandwagon, wearing wetsuits in winter, but maybe it’s not such a bad idea to adopt some of Miss Miley’s ‘don’t care’ attitude?              Women through the ages had different opinions of beauty. Females of the 21^st century are weightlifting the pressure to be thin, to be picture-perfect…but if you look at the pictures of the 15^th century, society preferred their women chubby by today’s standard. 18^th century women liked to squeeze themselves into corsets that were uncomfortable but beautiful, yet nowadays women are shamed for wearing the current trend of corsets and cropped tops. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure Marie Antoinette didn’t get hassle for her high fashion.

Girls are judged everywhere for wanting to look young, sweet and pretty by strangers. They shouldn’t have to put up with that, because youth is hell enough as it is. When we were all young, sweet and pretty without realising it and a girl told us our Lelli Kelli sandals were so 2003 our mother's would tell us she was "just jealous". That's what they've been telling you for years; that you're perfect 'just the way you are'. Hate to break it to you, Bruno Mars, but no one believed you. Why was that exactly?

A study was done by Boston University showing the levels of self-esteem in teenage girls throughout their college life and how it decreased as the years progressed. What that research told us was that generally all girls are insecure. We’re just hardwired that way. The beauty and fashion industry is meant to be a hopeful resource to girls to prove to themselves and others that they can be beautiful no matter what their shape, size or social status. As time’s gone on the beauty and fashion world has become one of criticism and judgement, no longer a celebration that women can look however they want.

So what about an even younger audience; how are we influencing the opinions of young and impressionable girls? I bet you can all name someone that owned at least one Barbie…or thirty and we wonder why girls have such high standards. Barbie has perfectly styled blonde hair, an unrealistically perfect figure and the biggest wardrobe known to mankind. She is the epitome of perfection. Or should that be she was?
In a recent report published by Mattel, the creators of Barbie, the sales of the multi-billion dollar doll dropped by 6%. Girls just aren’t as interested in Malibu’s most famous anymore.  This is probably due to the introduction of competition, ironically also owed by Mattel. ‘Monster High’ are dolls made to be daughters of famous monsters with the catchy slogan of ‘Be Yourself, Be Unique, Be a Monster’. It’s definitely encouraging to see consumers opting for a brand that encourages individuality rather than idealism.

             It’s not just young girls that are gaining better ideas about what beauty is, but also a slightly more mature generation. Dove recently launched a campaign talking about finding ‘Real Beauty. A survey was completed, worldwide, that showed only 4% out of over 1000 women consider themselves beautiful. The research also revealed that 72% of women feel the pressure to be perfect. That’s just upsetting. The beauty world should be doing something to fix that depressing statistic.

Some may argue that beauty is encouraging women to improve their self-esteem and the way they view themselves, but those people haven’t yet fallen down the rabbit hole and been exposed to the hypocrisy of the beauty industry. How can people feel good in their own skin when they constantly compare themselves to the likes of Kate Moss and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who prance around catwalk like they’re queens of the world?

                In general we need to come up with a way of combatting the self-esteem issues that shroud women like a black storm cloud. This could mean using models with more ‘average’ proportions in magazines and fashion shows, or changing the dolls that are given to girls so a better message about self-image is presented. The point is that every woman has the power to pick up a magazine and say “I’ll look good in that outfit” and not bother to pay attention to the person actually wearing the clothes. Every woman has the power to believe they are beautiful.
Together we can change the way people think about themselves and what it really means to be beautiful.