The document discusses the history of ideal beauty standards portrayed in media from the Renaissance era to present day. It examines how beauty standards have changed over time and influenced by different cultures. Today, the media promotes an unrealistic ideal of beauty that negatively impacts adolescents by lowering their self-esteem and increasing risks of eating disorders. While some efforts have been made to promote diversity, more needs to be done to counter the harmful messages perpetuated by the constant focus on physical appearance in media.

1. Beauty and the Beast: Ideal Beauty and the Media

2. Beauty is visual, but in most media images, it is the same visual – the eye popping features and stunning proportions of a few hand-picked beauty icons.” – Nancy Etcoff, PhD It’s everywhere. It is that little voice in your head that tells you how many calories you can eat, what kind of clothes you can buy, and what beauty products to use. We are constantly reminded of how imperfect we are by the media. Magazines, television, and movies all glorify achieving “Ideal Beauty.” But what is ideal beauty? When did we get so wrapped up in how we look? How did all of this start? How big is this problem? Ideal Beauty in the Media

4. The Renaissance People of the Renaissance era loved curves. The curvier a lady was, the more fertile she was said to be. (This was vital to producing sons.) There is no doubt that most of the great beauties of the time would be considered “too fat” for our modern standards. One of the most important factors in beauty during the Renaissance was a woman’s face and complexion. Ideal beauties were always blonde and had pale skin. High foreheads were considered extremely attractive because it was thought to resemble the representations of the Virgin Mary. To achieve this, many women plucked their hairlines back. From artwork of the time, we can get a better idea of the ideal beauty.

5. The beginning of the 18 th century ushered in a new beauty ideal: a woman was only as good as her hair-do. Women wore wigs made out of horse hair and wool and sometimes was as tall as 30 inches. Even though this style was fashionable, it was also dangerous and annoying. Since hygiene wasn’t like it is today, the wigs were usually infested with lice. Women often had headaches from the weight of the wigs and also had to be careful not to hit chandeliers in ballrooms. The 17 th and 18 th centuries saw the introduction of many beauty products we still use. People of the time did not bathe, but doused themselves in perfumes. Women with large eyes were also revered, but to achieve this look they dilated their eyes with Belladonna. The make-up they used often contained poisons like mercury and lead. This era also saw the introduction of fake teeth, hair, bosoms, and especially calves. The 18 th century made this beautiful Georgian & Rococo

6. Victoriana Victorians took great care to achieve the beauty ideal of their time. The great trendsetter of the time was actually Queen Victoria, and the Victorians admired both a mixture of fading, “fainting” beauty and statuesque elegance. The “fragile” trend led Victorians to admire corsetry, which is a sense, held the women up. Starting at age 3 or 4, girls would be fitted with corsets made out of whale bone and steel. Corsets were hard to breathe in, and women often felt faint and would gasp for breath if the laces were too tight. (This only enhanced the beauty ideal.) For the Victorians, women were not moral without their corsetry.

7. A New Era Begins... Towards the middle of the 20 th century, a media revolution took place. Suddenly, beauty began to come from the Hollywood starlets on the silver screen. Marilyn Monroe revolutionized beauty ideals with her curvy figure. Since the turn of the century women had been fighting for their rights. Boyish looks and fashion became the style in the suffrage movement. When the 1950’s arrived, the femininity returned with Marilyn as the poster child for all-American feminine beauty.

8. Rise of the Media Today, we are exposed to more media than ever. With television, movies, and magazines influencing our ideas about beauty, it is no wonder we feel pressured. Unfortunately, the pressure that comes from the media sometimes can be too much to handle. The idea behind the modern beauty standard for women is being a sex symbol. Women are often over-sexualized in media by unrealistic portrayals. However the age group most effected by the standards of the media are teenage girls.

10. Influence on Adolescents Adolescent girls are one of the biggest victims of the media. The media provides girls going through puberty with confusing messages. These messages can have serious consequences which include: Low self-esteem Risk for Anorexia and Bulimia Early Sexualization Objectification Identity Confusion

12. The Artifice of Beauty

15. Fighting Back In light of recent studies, people are finally beginning to see how detrimental beauty is to the health and well-being of women, especially adolescents. As a response, some companies, like Dove, are promoting the idea of individual beauty. Although this is a small step in the right direction, it is going to take more to fight the media beast. Our starting point lies in finding ways to love our bodies rather than hate them.

16. Words of Wisdom