by Suzy Stembridge

Created on: June 20, 2009

Throughout the ages, the media has played its hand against our perception of what is beautiful. From the renaissance era on graphic images depicting the fairest maidens of the land, to today's magazine 2-page cosmetic advertisement spread. These images were supposed to replicate real life beauty but instead, it has evolved into subconscious messages, educating us on what should be beautiful. If history has thought us anything from the cone shaped bra period, it is that the masses can be easily swayed in the astuteness of beauty.

Billboards around us display images of sleek artistry and cleverly themed colors. Models pictured with spaced-out stares or sullen pouts exude what deems to be sophistication. No one really walks around with a moody disposition 24 hours and looks like they're stoned. Yet we buy the products in hopes of achieving the same look. Hair was once wore meticulously styled, displaying confidence and accentuating the face. However today we are told that the 'just got out of bed' look is the latest trend. Products for sleek smooth hair are replaced with a new range to make hair frizzy and voluminous, and it's often by the same cosmetics company.

In the 1400's, Sandro Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus' painting depicts beauty as a woman with porcelain skin, long wavy blond hair and delicate features. Women in that era strive to achieve fair skin and a voluptuous lower half, alluring men with the promise of fertility. Today, we view that painting differently. We see the lack of muscular form, generous thighs and love handles. Venus would be viewed as plus size by today's clothing stores. Current runway models get skinnier while designer labels cater for the tall and thin. Plastic surgeons are fought after to create bee-stung lips and a more generous chest with implants. Women put themselves through various forms of torture to look like their favorite celebrity. The personage of the moment is whomever who has appeared on the silver screen or grace the most number of magazine covers. Through the times, women wavered to whatever the media at that time viewed as beauty.

While the today's mass media cater to market consumer products, the pursuit of beauty seem to be following the same route. Beauty is perceived as whatever promises that product offers and the masses agree with it. Individuality is slowly being replaced by conformity. The media use to tell us that beauty is fertility and prosperity, now it seems to be telling us that the secret of beauty is at a department store near you and that beauty is something you can achieve only through sacrifice and a hole in your pocket. Will the press one day tell us that real beauty lies within and that lash extensions, plumping lip glosses and fake nails are superficial and frivolous?

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