Girls and women of all ages have struggled at some points in their lives with their appearance. Whether they've wanted to be taller or thinner, most women have thought at some time or another, how they could improve their looks. For the most part these thoughts of trying to achieve perfection have come from the influences from the media. The media has portrayed images of beauty that most women do not and cannot look like. The force of the media is so powerful that it has put an impact on how women should look and act in order to obtain happiness. How often in movies, television or even magazines have you seen an oversized woman who was exuberant and cheerful?.
In the American Heritage Dictionary beauty is defined as a pleasing quality associated with harmony of form or color, excellence of craftsmanship, truthfulness, originality, or another, often unspecifiable property. It is thought that everyone has there own interpretation of what beauty is and what it is not. However, in today's society the media has shown and defined beauty in more of a physical appearance. .
In the book Our Bodies Ourselves For the New Century the authors described the link between society and beauty. .
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Every society throughout history has had a standard of beauty, but at no other time has there been such an intense media blitz telling us what we should look like. Magazine covers, films, TV shows, and billboards surround us with images that constantly reinforce the idea that "beauty" is everything (Iazzett 34).
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It appears that media more than ever has a role in setting the standards of beauty in society. It is obvious that the media and the appearance that it gives off, manipulate young women in today's world. It influences them and eventually gets some to think that they aren't good enough. The image that has been established by society as the ideal body image for women is very clear in our society.