by Shannon Lisa

Created on: June 09, 2010

There is a lot of pressure in today's society to be a lot of things, at least depending on what society you ascribe to. The pressure to be beautiful is heavy indeed, but the true issue stems from what the definition of beauty is. Many people say that women feel that pressure more so than men. I am female, so my opinion in that regard could be biased. As a graphic designer that once worked as a re-touch artist for a magazine though...it will still be biased, it was a men's magazine. My best examples come from the perspective of being female, so I suppose I should illustrate that though I may reference the specific pressures women feel; much can be translated into what men feel as well.

The definition of beauty has changed drastically over the years. Not just decades, centuries. Once upon a time in a society that many stem from, large women were considered the epitome of beauty. If you were large you ate well and therefore had money. If you were large you were eating at all, which meant you were healthy. Large men held high stature and large women were sought after. I wonder how this made the thing or, dare I say, skinny women feel? They must have felt many things, but I doubt if beautiful was one of them. Not so long ago in our very recent and memorable history, skinny women became the epitome of beautiful. Large women were shunned. They were considered unhealthy. Large women were then in the unfortunate position of feeling anything but beautiful.

The pressure has always existed to varying degrees and in different forms. Humans create this interesting ideal and then hold fast to it in such a stubborn manner. It verges on the ridiculous, but at least in much of history the standard of beauty was a healthy person. If you did not have enough money to eat, you couldn't possibly be healthy. The pressure wasn't entirely based on just being beautiful, the pressure existed in a necessary and instinctual fashion...the base need for food. Health problems arose from not eating and food and water were valuable commodities. Things change though and to some food is an unnecessary evil in today's society. Food makes you fat and fat means unhealthy. Fat means ugly. I thought fat meant beautiful, but I'm behind the times...

Though a personal change is happening in many people, the general public at large still views the unrealistic as the standard of beauty. At my job I was required to 'touch up' images of scantily clad models. These average women were to be turned into glossy

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>