In our modern age, are we still clinging on to old fashioned views? Ana Sadler investigates
Every day on the internet, beauty gurus like Zoella and Tanya Burr tell us to accept ourselves and the way we look, whilst applying a thick coat of foundation or eyeliner. Ironic isn’t it? Telling young girls how to do a “Pretty, Everyday School Make-up Routine” or what outfits are in trend this autumn, rather than telling them to read a book or focus on their work, seem to be the most important messages people want to put across. Of course, beauty tips are vital to a girl’s success – not just anyone can be a neuroscientist, you have to know that blending your eyeshadows is a vital step in the study of the nervous system! Actually that goes for the study of any subject.
Statistics tell us that in 2013 there were 45,365 women who underwent plastic surgery in comparison to the much smaller number of 4,757 men. This just goes to show that women aren’t content with turning to the simple, temporary effect of make-up to be perceived as ‘beautiful’ anymore and they’re even starting to make people believe the idea that there may not even be such a thing as natural beauty, that there are always more ways to make yourself look better.
These enemies aren’t just in the beauty world, they’re also in the world of body image. Every day we’re told to embrace our body, the curves we were born with, however, adverts and magazines constantly promote and advertise a skinny body and now it’s not just men drooling over these women’s bodies. Increasingly girls are saying things like “I would turn for her” and posting images on Instagram with the hashtag “wcw” which stands for Women Crush Wednesday. These desirable, unrealistic bodies seem to be put out as what almost seems like a form of torture, photoshopped images put in front of our eyes to make us want to achieve the impossible.
It’s physically impossible to achieve these bodies without photo editing technology actually working on a living, breathing body, which I think is about as probable as pigs flying. I guess the good old Instagram filter will satisfy us for the time being. However positively we talk about another girl’s body and how amazing it is, there are enormous amounts of negativity behind what’s being said; this negativity that we inflict on ourselves often goes unnoticed.
It seems that a female's true enemy is in fact other women – no, I’m not referring to the petty and quite simply pointless endeavour of slut-shaming, making girls feel ashamed because they are flirtatious whereas boys are pressured into sexual activity to show dominance, (and if it isn’t that then it’s general name-calling), but I am referring to the horrible world of beauty. It’s presented that our lives should revolve around how we look and that we should worry about that most in our daily lives, that is in a female’s case anyway. You don’t see men looking at articles on “How to get the perfect shave” or watching a “My daily shaving routine” video; maybe that’s just because no one makes any. And why is it that there are none of these videos? It’s because there is a massive gap between the expectations of how a female is presented and those of how a male is presented, not only that but the harsh reality is that a man’s appearance seems less important than a female's. If a male wears a pair of jogging bottoms then we’d say “So what?” but if a girl did so we’d think she was lazy.
The thing is we buy into it all, hook line and sinker… ladies, do you really want to go through life thinking that the only way to be happy and successful is to have a flawless appearance? In the 'wise' words of Sarah Dale, a contestant on this year’s Apprentice contest: “Because we’re female, and most people will buy from females because females are more attractive to look at, tomorrow what we need to do is wear loads of lipstick, make-up, heels, we’re going to wear short skirts.” Or not.