Feminine beauty ideal

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales were written by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm in German at the end of the 18^th century and first translated into English in 1823.^[4] Their fairy tales tend to involve a heroine, who is usually beautiful, and an evil of some sort which is characterized as ugly. Beauty and ugliness are often used as symbols to represent good and evil. Grauerholz stated in her findings that “parents need to be aware that some stories tell children that unattractive people are more likely to be evil and reinforce tradition gender roles that may be confusing for today’s young women”.^[2] The Brothers Grimm fairy tales were uses in central Europe to educate children on gender roles of boys and girls.^[2] The fairytales surround young girls with the notion that they must be beautiful to be successful. “Fairy tales written during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were intended to teach girls and young women how to become domestic, respectable, and attractive to a marriage partner and to teach boys and girls appropriate gendered values and attitudes”.^[1]: 186 Not only are we teaching our children that we rely solely on looks but also teaching girls to take on the role of house maker and to please their husbands when they are older.

“The lengths adolescent girls go to in seeking society’s beauty ideal, such as developing eating disorders and seeking plastic surgery, are argument enough that the preoccupation with beauty can become dangerous”.^[5] Girls are often learning, from our fairy tales, that beauty is everything. You must be beautiful to have that Prince Charming or the Happily Ever After. Fairy Tales like Shrek are more realistic. “It’s the opposite of the ugly duckling story. The princess becomes the ogre in the end. But that whole movie was about twisting the fairy tales around”.^[2] From Fairy Tales we get the feminine beauty ideal, which is: “the socially constructed notion that physical attractiveness is one of women’s most important assets and something all women should strive to achieve and maintain”.^[1]: 185 Girls are learning from our fairy tales that skinny and pretty are ideal and needed for a positive future. They are taught that the ugly, less beautiful girls are put off as evil and are being overlooked. This is causing our daughters to force their bodies into the “ideal” shape and form by starving themselves and seeking out eating disorders to help them reach the beauty ideal. “Discourse analyses reveal several themes in relationship to beauty. Often there is a clear link between beauty and goodness, most often in reference to younger women, and between ugliness and evil”.^[1]: 187 Girls believe that beauty is related to the sense of goodness and being a princess. However, they also associate with being ugly with not being good enough and having a lonely future. “Both men and women are being increasingly manipulated by media messages concerning attractiveness, a trend that is undoubtedly linked to efforts to boost consumerism. This trend does not necessarily contradict a social control perspective that suggests such messages should be directed more toward women than men”.^[1]: 190 Boys are not being criticized by their body images nor are they being manipulated into believing that they must have good looks to have a successful future. Girls have to defend themselves and their future from falling back into the domestic house maker lifestyle. These fairy tales are telling our children that when they grow up they are destined for a standard lifestyle. Where the man brings home the money and the woman takes care of the family.

Mass media is one of the most powerful tools for young girls to learn and also understand about feminine beauty ideals. "Before mass media even existed, our ideas of beauty were limited to our own communities."^[6] Because of that, people would stick to seeing each other in person in order to see the beauty ideals from one another. But as mass media developed, the way people see feminine beauty ideals changes how females view themselves and one another. Each day, girls are exposed to images of beautiful models and advertisements about beauty and fashion. “The average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day, says Renee Hobbs, EdD, associate professor of communications at Temple University.” ^[7] In most advertisements, every female model would always portray the same kind of look. By that, they would have a thin body with an hourglass body shape, beautiful soft and smooth skin/hair, and just looking absolutely flawless. Because of the images that young girls are exposed to, they start to believe that physical appearance is highly seen upon every female in society. “Girls today are swamped by ultrathin ideals not only in the form of dolls but also in comics, cartoons, TV, and advertising along with all the associated merchandising…”.^[8] Furthermore, mass media is also a way to advertise all the cosmetic products, clothing, fashionable items that girls can buy in order to become beautiful. “Targeting markets to sell products such as diets, cosmetics, and exercise gear, the media construct a dream world of hopes and high standards that incorporates the glorification of slenderness and weight loss.”^[9] Girls become persuaded by media, which it could lead them to buying a certain kind of product that will make them get the same results as the products says.

There are consequences when young girls learn about feminine beauty ideals. When girls are exposed to the ideas about feminine beauty, there is always a major setback. In most cases, young girls can start to developed low self-esteem about their physical appearances especially with their body. Because of media, “...[g]irls learn that their bodies should be used to attract others.”^[10] They tend to follow that kind of ideology. In Disney movies and fairytales stories, beauty is often associated with skin color. Majority of the main (and supporting) female characters is often associated with having light skin, which represents good and beautiful while the antagonist is associated with dark skin, which represents bad and ugly. For young girls who read or watch these movies or stories, they will get the idea about their skin color and how they are seen in society. Those who are dark skinned could develop low self-esteem esteem because of that. Besides skin color, there is also body image that is a major concern for female in today's society. “Body image becomes a major issue as females go through puberty; girls in midadolescence frequently report being dissatisfied with weight, fearing further weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss.” ^[11] By having low- self-esteem, it can lead to depression also. This happens a lot with girls around the world. The more they are exposed to all the ads in magazine, commercials, or billboards with thin looking models; they feel as though they have to be that way. “Thus, social comparison theory would predict that women may compare themselves to societal standards of beauty in order to assess their own level of attractiveness.” ^[12] There is a lot of pressure for girls to conform to the feminine beauty ideals and that they must understand they need to look a certain way in order to be accepted in society. Girls who do not categorize as being thin but want to be, they tend to go on an exercise plan, a diet and even worse, develop eating disorder.

“By promoting an ideal of feminine beauty that is impossible to achieve for the average woman, the media created increased dissatisfaction with one's body which may lead to weight control behavior and increased risk for developing eating disorders.” [13] Girls who tend to develop eating disorder would start to have health issues. Furthermore, "Men place more importance on the physical attractiveness of women than women do on the physical attractiveness of men." [14] Because of that, woman tend to look their best for the male gaze. This gives even more pressure for woman to look their best at all times.[3]