Make your own beauty

The sexy and sassy, mouth pouting 16 year old model struts her 49kg, size 6 body on the catwalk. Audiences ‘oooohh’ and ‘arrrrrh’ as the towering figure captivates the minds and imaginations of all that surround her. She is upheld as the ideal female image by so many; a goal that  young girls and women strive to attain. But why? Despite the fact that I've been told that I don't have to be built and look like Barbie to be beautiful, the media doesn't agree. Instead day in and day out young women and girls like myself must contend with this impossibly beautiful disproportional doll image that the media bombards us with in magazines, billboards and on the television. 

Beauty it seems is no longer be in the eye of the beholder. No, instead of a wide range of body shapes and sizes being presented,  we are fed a restricted diet of one narrow ideal of beauty. Thinness and attraction are increasingly promoted as the essential components of beauty and worshipped by those aspiring to look like the skinny models on the catwalk or the teeny tiny celebrities in the magazines. Yes and when those in the public eye commit the ultimate sin of eating and being a normal size, they are named and shamed with articles and photos documenting their fall from grace as was the case with Australia's Next Top Model contestant 18-year-old Alissandra Moone,  a 57kg size-8 model who was bullied and called fat by contestant judge Alex Perry. It is the media who have defined and reinforced what beauty is in our society and their influence can have extremely detrimental effects on young women and girls who compare themselves to what they see in the media and come up short.

The  media is guilty of not reflecting real bodies and these 'unrealistic' body figures imposed by the media, place increasing pressure on teens and affect their perceptions of their own bodies. When teenagers compare themselves to skinnier girls, the affect can be tremendous affecting them emotionally, physically and psychologically; leading to conditions such as depression, anxiety and low self-esteem and even driving some to consider cosmetic surgery.

A 2008 study conducted by the University of Queensland found that 80 per cent of Australian women are dissatisfied with their own body image, whilst 90 per cent claim they know other women who are unhappy with their shape. It is the media who must shoulder some responsibility for this statistic as on average we are subjected to 3,000 advertising images a day featuring heavily airbrushed men and women. From smooth and flawless skin to large muscles and slim waists, advertisements have airbrushed both men and women for the past 70 years removing imperfections. The media is not compelled to reveal the extent to which media images have been digitally altered and far too often we believe that we are observing real men and women not enhanced representations. This situation must be addressed and all computer enhanced images should carry a health warning.

We need to change the culture that says thinness is beauty and nothing less than perfection will do. This is no magic wand we can wave overnight and the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty,  a 60 second advertisement documenting a journey from real beauty to retouched glamour proved just this. The advertisement reveals how models are ‘beautified,’ with  digital enhancement software that smoothes the skin, fills the lips, lengthens the neck, thickens the hair, evens and enlarges the eyes as well as narrowing the face. The video was viewed by more than 300 million people globally and received accolades for ripping off the veils of beauty; making girls and women alike realise the ordinary person can never look this good because neither did the model when she started out.

We cannot protect children from these images forever. What we need to do is to empower them to develop the resilience they need to think critically about media messages. Such knowledge will reduce the effects that this exposure has on young people who internalize these images and believe them to be ideal. The media itself also needs to be transparent and acknowledge the degree to which images have been enhanced.

Beauty is about how you express yourself – your looks, your image, your personality. A common ingredient in every beauty ideal is self-confidence. So next time you look in the mirror and your brain gets flooded with those unflattering thoughts and comparisons with Hollywood beauties take a step back and acknowledge the whole crazy world of beauty and looks obsessions that the media has created. And then… maybe you’ll see that you don't have to have that perfect body because that perfect body doesn't exist. Be happy and healthy in your own skin.