Film Analysis: Never Perfect

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

Jane has gotten used to cruelty and biased behavior towards her average looks, and develops a miserable self-esteem that believes the only possible way to describe her exterior is “plain”. This self-esteem prevents her from even beginning to recognize that anyone could appreciate her or find her beautiful in any manner. The society’s typical reactions and judgments shaped Jane’s self-esteem, and prevented her from receiving equal treatment as that of a beautiful woman.

In the short film“Doll face” by Andy Huang .This move sent us a message that is “Do not be brain watch for the media.And Huang poses haunting questions about beauty self-image. technology, and what it means to be human.

This is a topic this is heavily addressed in Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. Morrison’s novel focuses on the character of Pecola, a young black girl who comes from a very abusive family who demean and undermine her confidence in herself. The novel deals with issues such as abandonment and identity with the central character longing to change her appearance so that she may be free of the “burden” of having features that don’t conform to conventional societal views of beauty. In

My hair, loved by my family for its thickness, was too dark and unruly. My cheeks were too full and puffy for beauty standards. My eyes were suddenly too small and no one was afraid pull the sides of their eyes into a slant and ask me if they looked ‘Asian’ enough. These differences surpassed the borders of only physical appearances; my classmates began to question if I was adopted or why my grades weren’t always exceeding expectations. These differences weighed heavily on my happiness with myself. Fitting in is something that every child desires, and to be ripped apart from that because of my appearance never seemed fair. I wanted to belong in a culture where everyone around me looked normal, yet I was stuck on the outside due to the way I’ve looked since I was born. Growing up, I wanted to escape the traits that made me look Asian in favor of sinking into the simplicity of my other

It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.

People acquire extreme measures by obtaining plastic or cosmetic surgery to resemble someone they desire to be or to have the same physical appearance as them. According to CNN, an online news source, “Nicole Kidman's nose. Angelina Jolie's lips. Plastic surgeons say they receive these specific requests regularly and usually oblige.” Plastic surgeons receive specific requests from their patients because they are aiming to obtain a similar image to a celebrity. Society changes its aspects to who is accepted because individuals are influenced by the positive feedback to the “perfect” body. For instance, seven years ago, it was Jennifer Lopez’s body that was the ideal physical appearance who people wanted to resemble, five years ago Selena Gomez, and today it is the Kardashians. (CNN) Due to an increase in people changing their ideas of who has the accepted image, numerous people fulfill drastic measures to become a doppelganger of someone who is famous or whom they idolize. Melissa Dittmann, a researcher for the American Psychological Association, claims that ”Physically attractive people often receive preferential treatment and are perceived by others as more sociable, dominant, mentally healthy and intelligent than less attractive people.” Given the perception that people who are idolized in society are given more advantages compared to an individual who is referred to as simple or a nobody, seek plastic surgeons to receive changes to their appearance to become one of those individuals with the preferential treatment. To illustrate, individuals in today's society, specifically women, adhere to the idea that being gorgeous and resembling a supermodel will make them attractive. (NCBI) Moreover, multiple individuals may only look at the physical image instead of what they are on the inside. Television programs today construct the impression to people that cosmetic surgery solves issues that are

Beauty is one of the most misunderstood words in the world, it is often overused and misinterpreted. We can not truly tell what is beautiful or who is beautiful because we all have different likes or tastes. Nowadays cosmetic surgery has become a world phenomenon- women all over the world want to become what they perceive as beautiful- especially in well-developed countries like the U.S and South Korea, which are world leaders in technology. In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting how the cosmetic surgery industry affects women in the United States and South Korea, and how it influences the culture and social aspects of both

Becoming beautiful has been one of the topmost objective people sought throughout the centuries; from plants to injections, from dieting to finding a part of the body that can be deemed beautiful. This can also be said about different confidence levels that various people established for themselves. The stigma of ugliness influenced society for decades, allowing confident levels to constantly change. According to several doctors that worked on the “Self-Perception and Self-Esteem of Patients Seeking Cosmetic Surgery” study have stated “the main

Throughout history beauty standards have been enforced on females. They are taught what the ideal beauty is by the media and current culture of that time. Woman are expected to look a certain way to be beautiful and if not they are considered ugly. They change their appearances in order to conform to the established beauty standard and often lose a part of their identity in the process. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she captures the struggle young girls and women face to meet the expectations popular culture has on the ideal beauty in the early 1940s.

People acquire extreme measures by obtaining plastic or cosmetic surgery to resemble someone they desire to be or to have the same physical appearance as them. According to CNN, an online news source, “Nicole Kidman's nose. Angelina Jolie's lips. Plastic surgeons say they receive these specific requests regularly and usually oblige.” Plastic surgeons receive specific requests from their patients because they are seeking to become a near double for a celebrity. Society changes its aspects to who is accepted because individuals are influenced by the positive feedback to the “perfect” body. For instance, seven years ago, it was Jennifer Lopez’s body that was the ideal physical appearance who people wanted to resemble, five years ago Selena Gomez, and today it is the Kardashians. (CNN) Due to an increase in people changing their ideas of who has the accepted image, numerous people fulfill drastic measures to become a doppelganger of someone who is famous or whom they idolize. Melissa Dittmann, a researcher for the American Psychological Association, claims that ”Physically attractive people often receive preferential treatment and are perceived by others as more sociable, dominant, mentally healthy and intelligent than less attractive people.” Given the perception that people who are idolized in society are given more advantages compared to an individual who is referred to as simple or a nobody, seek plastic surgeons to receive changes to their appearance to become one of those individuals with the preferential treatment. To illustrate, individuals in today's society, specifically women, adhere to the idea that being gorgeous and resembling a supermodel will make them attractive. (NCBI) Moreover, multiple individuals may only look at the physical image instead of what they are on the inside. Television programs today construct the impression to people that cosmetic surgery solves issues that are personal, mental , and social. (NCBI) These television programs emphasize that making

Today, beauty is seen as a double-edged sword. For some women, it’s a blessing, while for others, it’s a curse. An attractive powerful woman might have worked diligently her entire life to get to where she is, but there will always be someone who will think that she got everything handed to her on a silver platter because of her looks. On the other hand, a not-so-attractive woman is constantly coerced into altering herself by the media, society, and those around her in order to become somebody who can perhaps use her looks for her own benefit. As the influential novelist,

Connie was 15, and was very beautiful but she still had her insecurities. She had a habit of always checking her face in the mirror to reassure herself that she was still just as beautiful as she had always been. Her mother who was constantly disapproving of her would say, “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” (Oats). Connie’s mother was once pretty too but now her looks were gone and that was why she was after Connie (Oats). To Connie looks were everything and continuously checking herself in the

How many times have you came across a magazine with models and actresses to which you have wished you had their body, eyes, features? Now, how many times have you actually been able to identify yourself by any of the people presented in these magazine? From the moment a child is born their life is introduced a set of expectations. Whether this child is a boy or a girl, we fill their head with things that we have deemed as acceptable and the things that are not in this society. Myself included has been influenced by the beauty standards that society institutes. Due to theses ideals being so embedded in everyone else's head, the expectations it set were not what my presence embodied. Just like it happened to me, many have been affected by the beauty standards that we see everyday expressed by society. The beauty standards that society has created have been placed in our world for as long as we can remember; they reflect our original values and beliefs while also oppressing the people who do not fit the standards.

As eyes wander up and down, left and right, one may feel the pressure to appeal to the eyes that are watching, but as Harry Winston once said, “People will stare, make it worth their while” . The desire to appeal to those eyes will send many to extreme measures. Magazines models and publishers portray an image of beauty that is almost impossible for the average woman to obtain.