Detrimental Effects of Beauty Standards Perceptions (Essay Sample)

Hajar Lamrini
Luisa Ferreira
Advanced Writing
Date:
Detrimental Effects of Beauty Standards Perceptions
Although beauty standards have several meanings, the most common meaning of beauty standards are facial expressions or how pretty one looks as well as the body fitness people wish desire to acquire. Generally, although beauty standards are a concern for the women, there are some men who hold this important. Physical beauty is a concern for the women and features such as a flat tummy and a good looking face are essentials for determining beauty standards. However, the standard of beauty for a woman will greatly depend on the perceptions of people they interact with and the society as whole. For example, in some societies being thin or slim is considered fashionable and defines beauty while in others the same implies that a person is weak and fragile. The media plays a great role in influencing people to work towards what a particular society believes to define beauty by mechanisms such as advertisements and beauty pageants. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have enjoyed their share of influence on making individuals doing what is within their reach to meet the standards set by people they consider or are considered beautiful. This paper seeks to look into how the perceptions of beauty standards by the society can have detrimental effects to an individual.
Alteration of eating habits to facilitate the perceived beauty is one of the way people are influenced by the perceptions of beauty they draw from the society. The changing of eating patterns with the aim of achieving beauty standards exposes an individual to developing eating disorders that have far reaching consequences in terms of health. Interfering with eating patterns with the aim of achieving a desired body weight and shape in most instances attracts Bulimia and Anorexia. The two are eating disorders that are mostly associated with the quest to achieve a desired weight or body figure. Bulimia entails eating large amounts of food within a short period of time with the aim of gaining weight while anorexia involves self-starvation with the aim of reducing the body weight. Anorexia for example affects various body parts such as the brain, the functioning of the heart and the bones. If the effects are not effectively addressed in time the probability of death arising from the same cannot be ignored. The brain functioning is affected by Anorexia as McCormick et al highlights, “Most people who develop AN typically have above-average intelligence quotients (IQ). However, during the active phase of AN, 50% of individuals with AN have been found to have mild cognitive impairment on two or more neuropsychological tasks and one-third outright failed two or more tasks”. (page 602). Bulimia on the other hand affects the pancreases and may lead to further complications such as obesity and diabetes because the pancreases is incapacitated to perform its role of regulating the level of sugar in the blood as highlighted by Mehler, “Oesophageal complications run the spectrum from mild esophagitis to life-threatening oesophageal rupture. Esophagitis, oesophageal erosions, ulcers, and bleeding are thought to be secondary to the frequent contact of the oesophageal mucosa with the regurgitated acidic gastric contents. Thus, patients with bulimia nervosa often complain of heartburn and acid-reflux symptoms” (Page 96). General, changing eating habits in order to achieve a desired body weight and figure exposes one to the risk of being a victim of eating an eating disorder which may critically affect their health.
Technology and human tissue knowledge advances has been influential on various aspects of human life with beauty standards being no exception. Ranging from beauty products to procedures. botched and cosmetic surgeries have been the gateway for people to alter their physical features and look how they desire and consider to meet the beauty standards. The youths are going through the procedures to look like the people they consider beautiful and the older generation is see...