What is Beauty?

What is beauty?

There is no right or wrong way to answer this question. Beauty - physical and non-physical - means something different to each person. The Oxford Dictionary defines beauty as “the quality of being pleasing to the senses or to the mind.” People have different measures and ideas of pleasure so it makes sense that beauty has a variety of meanings. 

However, American culture has a much more narrow definition of beauty. The media bombards men, women, and children with images of supposedly attractive, “beautiful” figures. An American ideal is displayed upon TV ads, billboards, magazines, cartoon characters: everywhere. Beginning at a young age, children unknowingly have an extreme expectation of beauty. Girls overwhelmingly grow up playing with Barbie dolls and watching Disney princess movies while boys save the day with action figures like G.I. Joe and play violent video games. What seems like natural, innocent fun and inherently teaching children that to be beautiful, happy, and successful, girls must be thin and naive and boys must be strong and fearless. 

As children become young adults, they are exposed to more media and increasingly taught who they are supposed to be. Magazines, television, movies, internet ads, billboards: they are inescapable. Each one illustrates the same definition of beauty. Women always appear tall, lean, and thin and men always large, muscular, and powerful. In these advertisements, these are desirable and worthy qualities. 

College and high school students reflected these exact values when asked what is beauty? They answered that beautiful women are pretty, tan, have a lovely smile, and are long and lean while beautiful men are tall, strong, have a six-pack and nice eyes. There is an intense focus on physical characteristics and the conventional American beauty ideal. 

The National Eating Disorder Association reported that one quarter of television advertisements sent out messages about attractiveness and that 47% of girls in grades 5-12 want to lose weight because of magazine pictures. It’s no secret that women loathe themselves each year after watching or hearing about the Victoria’s Secret fashion show or that the majority of Americans make annual resolutions to lose weight and fit into a smaller size. These goals are not about health - they are about appearance. If beauty is up to opinion, then why do people spend so much time, money, and effort promoting and pursuing this distorted definition of beauty?

When asking children what they aspire to be when they grow up, they do not respond with answers like “thin” or “strong” or “pretty.” Instead, they pick inspiring role models like the President or a book or television character who serve  a more wholesome purpose in making the world a better place. Yet as they grow up, teenagers and adults often feel more pressure to strive to be “beautiful” and at times put more value on achieving this than other life goals. There is beauty in the magic of being a firefighter or a teacher. It pleases the mind, the world, and contributes a better world. There is more value in having a beautiful mind and character than an aesthetically pleasing body. Children understand this concept but the media murders this notion every single day at every place Americans look. 

While it is impossible to avoid media images, it is important to be mindful and critical of media images. The media should not define beauty for the individual.