Culture of beauty

The culture of beauty refers to the prevalent standard of physical attractiveness as dictated by popular opinion. Beauty culture usually focuses on certain features, primarily facial symmetry and low body weight, some of which may be rooted in evolutionary biology. However, the mainstream media plays a prominent role in what modern society considers beautiful. Factors that influence the culture of beauty include television, films, social media, and advertisements. Mainstream ideals of beauty are bound to the history of beauty itself and the use of cosmetics throughout history. Since the late nineteenth century, cosmetic companies have used mass-market appeal to persuade consumers, especially females, to buy their products. Cosmetics quickly grew into a billion-dollar industry, bombarding the mainstream media with its visions of beauty and thereby shaping popular views.

In the Western world, the idea of beauty is most consistently associated with femininity, with the media and many other aspects of culture commonly asserting an innate connection between the two. Beauty culture extends beyond the feminine scope, however, and affects both women and men. The negative social impact of beauty culture has received more attention in the early twenty-first century, with studies revealing its influences can contribute to mental and physical distress.

Overview: History of Beauty Ideals

The word beauty derives from the Latin word bellus, meaning pleasant or pretty. Ideals of beauty have existed for centuries and have been applied to things like nature or architecture, as well as the physical attractiveness of the human body. The ancient Greek scholar Plotinus defined the beauty "recognized by the eye" as "the symmetry of parts towards each other and towards a whole." The celebration of symmetry in beauty existed for thousands of years before the Greeks, however. One of the earliest examples of distinguished symmetrical beauty is the sculpture of Nefertiti, wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten in the fourteenth century BCE. Nefertiti's statue is considered beautiful by both ancient and modern standards, supporting scholarly argument for a universal standard of beauty. Other artistic representations perpetuated this idea of beauty, and an emphasis on ideal proportions endured throughout the ages with few exceptions.

Some researchers have suggested that apparent universal standards of beauty may have to do with genetics. Research indicates that both sexes prefer facial symmetry, which has been correlated with overall health. Large-scale studies have shown that on average heterosexual women prefer men taller than themselves, with broad shoulders and a torso tapering to a narrow waist, and masculine facial features, characteristics that may indicate fitness. Heterosexual men have been found to generally prefer youthful women shorter than themselves and with a low waist-hip ratio, features that have been associated with health and fertility. Aside from symmetry and proportionality, however, many of the defining characteristics of beauty historically varied from culture to culture and even within cultures over time, including ideals of weight, skin tone, and hair color and style. Nonphysical traits have also sometimes been viewed as components of beauty, such as intelligence, perseverance, or honesty. These observations suggest that many markers of beauty are cultural constructs rather than innate products of evolutionary biology.

Historically, many cultures established standards of beauty for both men and women, and ideals of attractiveness remain influential on both sexes. However, in modern Western culture the term "beauty" itself has often been more strongly associated with femininity. This emphasis, along with the historical marginalization of women in many other aspects of culture, has contributed to especially significant social pressure on women to conform to imposed standards of beauty. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, movements have arisen opposing the culture of beauty as an arbitrary, unfair, and potentially harmful phenomenon.

The Industry of Beauty

Humans are known to have enhanced their physical features with cosmetics as far back as ancient Egypt. Makeup and various skincare products had many roles over the centuries, including hygiene and ritual use, and were employed by men and women. By the late nineteenth century, however, women in the Western world predominantly used cosmetics to conform to modern beauty standards. Entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to turn female insecurity into profit and made cosmetics into an industry. Cosmetics gave women of all classes the ability to "paint their faces" and improve their look. Though for a time heavy makeup was strongly associated with prostitutes and lower-class women, the industry's allure grew over the years and it became a major moneymaking venture. As cosmetics manufacturers and sellers increased in wealth and power, they often stood at the forefront of advertising, pioneering many marketing techniques and helping to broaden the market for their products. This strategy dovetailed with the rise of mass media, and the cosmetics industry would be highly influential in shaping the ideals of beauty for decades to come.

Beauty culture continued to flourish throughout the twentieth century. The first modern beauty contests emerged in the 1920s and judged young women's physical appearance. Judges often measured a girl's personal hygiene by how clear her face looked, which was a major quality of female attractiveness. The early twentieth century also saw the emergence of movies and movie stars. These highly visible figures significantly influenced people's perception of beauty. Many girls imitated their favorite celebrities' hairstyle and makeup choices, hoping to heighten their sexual appeal—a goal also suggested by the pervasiveness of sex in advertising. The golden age of advertising in the 1950s gave the beauty trade even more power. Cosmetics firms manipulated the social relationships and rituals of females to infuse their product into the culture. Cosmetics even maintained their popularity during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Companies began marketing makeup as a way to express this newly seized female sexuality, and though many females rebelled against the idea of "made-up" beauty, the industry continued to grow and diversify. Companies introduced product lines designed to satisfy various needs, such as retaining a youthful appearance. The advent of "anti-aging" cosmetics reemphasized the association between youth and beauty culture.

In the twenty-first century, the beauty industry grew even more with the rise of the internet and social media. So-called "influencers" on social media developed huge followings, which corporations quickly tapped into, often collaborating with them to create new product lines that appealed to their wide audiences. In addition to sales of cosmetics online, beauty-focused stores like Sephora and Ulta became extremely popular. The beauty industry became more international as well, with Korean beauty trends, or K-beauty, in particular, soaring in popularity. Celebrities also found great success launching their own beauty lines, such as pop star Rihanna's Fenty Beauty cosmetics brand, which emphasized products for diverse skin tones, and Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty line.

Body Type and Beauty Culture

The culture of beauty is not limited to cosmetics and facial appearance. Body type is an important aspect of beauty culture, though ideal body types have varied throughout history. As with other forms of beauty, there is a close link between body image and the media. By the twenty-first century, mainstream Western culture largely considered slender bodies exemplary of beauty for women, while the ideal for men ranged from lean to hypermuscular. Images of runway and print models promoted these attitudes, as did film and television. As a result, diet and fitness became an important part of the culture of beauty. A new industry rose alongside cosmetics, marketing itself as a component of extended youth and beauty. The diet and fitness business prospered as people sought optimum health and physical attractiveness. The industry experienced exponential growth largely due to the mainstream media's increased fixation on remaining young and fit.

Impact of Beauty Culture

The stress placed on beauty culture and body image has piqued scholarly interest for decades. Some have linked the modern obsession with beauty and fitness to mental illnesses such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and body dysmorphic disorder. Additionally, many researchers have suggested that mainstream Western beauty culture's emphasis on White models as the standard can create or reinforce negative perception of—and negative self-perception by—people of color. Some non-Western cultures, too, marginalize people of color in their mainstream conceptions of beauty, as in the case of some Asian and African cultures that place great value on light-colored skin.

There has also been considerable backlash against the mainstream media's imposition of physical "perfection." Modern technology allows photo editors to alter a person's photograph to their taste, and photo editors for popular magazines and websites often use software such as Photoshop to eliminate what they consider imperfect physical features on models in advertisements and photo shoots. The use of filters and editing on social media has further promoted unrealistic beauty standards, heightening the desire to appear "perfect" among users, especially teenage girls. Actions such as these have enraged many critics, who consider such revisions unrealistic, oppressive, and harmful to people's self-esteem. Some companies responded to this backlash in the early twenty-first century with marketing campaigns that sought to highlight beauty in realistic, everyday people—especially women—with varying physical features. Meanwhile, campaigns such as the Black is Beautiful movement sought to overcome racial inequality in the predominant culture of beauty.

While images in advertising and on social media became markedly more diverse and inclusive of different races, body types, and other measures of beauty during the twenty-first century, unrealistic beauty standards remained prevalent in the media. Mainstream standards of physical appearance have been found to particularly affect adolescent to college-aged women, and many studies have correlated the media's depiction of beauty with female body dissatisfaction. Advertisements for cosmetic, hair, and diet products in particular have been maligned for promoting self-criticism by suggesting that if a person's physical features do not match up to the ads, the consumer should purchase the product to meet mainstream standards. Moreover, toxic beauty advice shared widely on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram further contributed to low self-esteem, normalizing unrealistic standards of beauty and promoting the use of potentially harmful beauty practices to achieve such standards. Many studies showed increased levels of depression, stress, guilt, shame, and insecurity when women viewed images of other women in print and digital media. Despite these findings, consumers continued to spend more money on beauty products year after year.

Bibliography

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