Beauty is Harmful - Book Report/Review Example

Beauty is Harmful A high orientation towards physical beauty is harmful because it leads to discontent towards an individual’s appearance. This is particularly true on both men and women as what study of Hargreave and Tiggemann has shown (2009). Modern society has always stressed the importance of a beautiful appearance. There are several factors that contributed to this increasing preference towards high physical orientation. Amongst the reason cited by Hargreave and Tiggemann was social comparison and media.

The idealized beauty for women connotes an hour glass well proportioned figure and a muscular body for men. These figures of idealized beauty are often unrealistic and cultivate discontent towards one’s physical appearance where such discontents were not pronounced before the exposure to these idealized figures of beauty. In the study of Hargreave and Tiggemann, it was reported that exposure to this unrealistic idealized concept of beauty has negative consequences. The most specific reason stated was a pronounced dissatisfaction in one’s appearance (Lorenzen, Grieve, & Thomas, 2004 qtd.

in Hargreave and Tiggemann 2009). Worst, such idea of beauty also precipitates a depressed mood among men because they felt less attractive after being exposed to still photographs of muscular media images. This can be construed as a new development about men’s reaction to beauty because earlier study only reported that it was just the women who are vulnerable towards dissatisfaction towards their physical appearance. The primary reason that was attributed to women’s vulnerability towards high orientation of physical beauty was their high exposure to fashion magazines and television programs that depicts unrealistic thin images of models which the models themselves will have hard time achieving without the aid of computer enhancement.

It can also be attributed to the limitation of the studies conducted before which only concentrated on social comparison as a source of physical dissatisfaction where men scored significantly lower than women. In the study of Hargreave and Tiggemann however (2009), it was suggested that perhaps such vulnerability was not exposed before because there used to be a dearth of media materials that depicts idealized physical beauty to men before. Now that they are ubiquitous and can be found in billboards, posters, television and other media channel, this vulnerability finally came to front.

This hypothesis was validated in the study because men who were not exposed to these idealized images did not demonstrate the same dissatisfaction that manifested towards the subjects who were shown the muscular images. Exposures to beautiful images that are promoted in magazines, in movies, on billboards, and television are harmful because these images lower the self-esteem of those who sees it. The audience of these idealized beauties inadvertently compare themselves to these images that are unrealistic where the models themselves will have hard time achieving without the aid of computer enhancement.

It also makes the audience frivolous because these idealized images inadvertently makes an individual tie up his or her self worth to physical appearance which is not a healthy gauge of one’s sense of self. It is also unhealthy because it makes the audience strive for an idealized concept of beauty that has no other value than its aesthetic worth. It benefits none except those who purveys those idealized beauty because they profit from it. It also breeds discontent and unhealthy personal disposition because it induces its audience, men and women, to strive for something that is not only unrealistic, but also of no use to better one’s life, society nor does it contribute to a common good.

This idealized concept of beauty can even be used to manipulate one’s psychological make-up to serve a particular end that does no good to an individual. In a study by Duan, it was reported that these sense of beauty which is ingrained in western society as a pre-requisite to be desired or loved is used by companies to induce its consumers to get hooked on an unhealthy habit of smoking to sell its product. . It capitalizes on using women’s image as models which are considered to be beautiful and made it an archetype of confidence and beauty that women must feel compelled to meet (2003).

This is the marketing thrust of Virginia Slims to induce women to smoke by inducing anxiety among its target market then later provide Virginia Slims cigarette as the panacea to relieve the women of its distress through the use of beautiful images in their advertisements. The studies conducted about beauty concluded that high orientation towards beauty is harmful not only to the body but also to one’s self-image. Among men, the study of Hargreave and Tiggemann demonstrated that the subjects exposed muscular images did not only feel dissatisfied about their physical appearance but also felt depressed later.

To validate, the subjects who were not subjected to such images did not feel or demonstrate such dissatisfaction and depression (2009). In the study of Duan, it showed how women’s vulnerability to become beautiful is manipulated by a tobacco company by creating anxiety among them to be able to sell its product that harms their health. Considering these ill effects of high orientation towards physical beauty both on the mind and the body, society must learn to put less importance to beauty because it does more harm than good.

References Duan, George (2003). Tobacco Marketing Aims: Veni, Vidi, Vici. Online. Available at http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/10197/10442568/ch2swduan.pdf [accessed March 6, 2012] Hargreaves; Duane A; Tiggermann, Marika 2009. Muscular Ideal Media Images and Men’s Body Image: Social Comparison Processing and Individual Vulnerability. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10(2):109 –119