WOMEN AND MEDIA
Today, the beauty ideals are defined for females, same as for males: women should be beautiful and gentle, and men should be strong and independent.
Every period of time has it's own beauty ideal, which is natural until it starts to harm a body and a psyche. It seems fine to accept those beauty ideals as long as it bring us esthetical pleasure and makes us richer in that way. Some kind of fashion dictatorship is developed in the present time, which imposes enormous demands on both genders. Creating of your own image is not a product of your personal values, but from the pressure of the society.
It leads us to the paradox. Although the beauty ideals of women and men differ from the ideals created by media, lots of people tend to imitate it, consciously or subconsciously. But, it is not possible to imitate it using natural ways.
Striving to conform is not only the source of inferiority complex, but also it leads to unnatural operations on human body (plastic surgeries), which can cause psychological disorder, such as anorexia and bulimia.
Media
They are creating and strengthening the stereotypical image of woman and her role in the society. Woman is usually represented as: 1. Support to her husband, to whom she makes winter food stores and cooks homemade food 2. As sexual object whose aim is to draw attention to selling products 3. As manager, contractor and successful businesswoman with important social status, and this model is very often unreachable for normal woman.
In all 3 cases the woman is represented as happy and care-free being. In her everyday problems such as, home violence, various forms of discrimination and humiliations, media are not interested. Miserable existence, corruption and undergoing of useless social conventions are hidden behind every dazzling smile. Reality is passing away.
Advertisement
One of the media's tool that follows our every step is advertisement. It tries to sell us products - from a tooth brush whose brushing part can move, till a luxurious Mercedes or new brick for your roof. An advertisement is inseparable part of our world, which surrounds us and we take it for granted, or in better case, as necessary evil.
If we observe an advertisement from the other side, we will realize that the woman is misused in many ways. There are two kinds of advertisement in which women are used - one is targeting the female audience and one is targeting the male audience. The first role, "the natural one", represents a woman in her social defined roles: as caring mother who decides which diapers fits the best for her baby; as diligent house-keeper with the new refreshing perfume, who is the happiest person when she can iron with the new iron, wash a floor 3 times per day, take laundry in washing with the new detergent ( advice is given from her husband - a qualified person),and what is essential - to spread the fat-low cheese on the bread to all members of the family.
Second kind of advertisement targeted on female audience is for cosmetic and various decorative products, by which every man can be spellbound and seduced. In other words, if you will not use that product, which will make you look like those girls from the cover pages, normal man will not even look at you. For that purpose, the advertisements for the diet products are matchless. Slogans similar to this one " I have lost 30kilos and then I found my ideal man", are absolute negation of woman's and man's natural look as whole, and it clearly represents sexism. They tell to the women who they have to look, if they want to be socially accepted.
The second role of the woman in the advertisement is the role of the sexual object or important component of the selling good. That kind of ad is targeted for the men. The girls with measures 90-60-90 are appearing in the ads for silicon glues, for the cars or magazines for the men, saying: "buy this car, this magazine, this alcohol and the women will like you and they will go in a bed with you". It is from the great importance to realize the danger of advertisement before it becomes deeply rooted in the society, even there is already strong feeling of fake beauty ideal, racism, xenophobia and negation of human nature.
Health
Today's society allege the women to adjust unnatural "beauty ideal", which is for the majority of them unreachable. It has negative influence on a psyche, meaning physical health. Physical disorders starts with reduced self-confidence, insecurity and inferiority complex; it influences on the chronic depression and it can end up even with the hard affection, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa is affection that mostly affects young women and girls. They are trying to stop getting fat (which is very often only their fiction) by refusing food and throwing up deliberately. In that way they loose their appetite, which can be interfered with the periods of bulimia. It is followed by obvious decrease in the body weight and loss of menstrual cycle. That causes distortion of electrolytes inside of an organism (exp. lack of potassium causes heart arrhythmia). Psychological changes are also appearing, such as hysteric and neurotic behavior, lying etc. Affection can lead to total metabolic collapse of an organism and to death.
Bulimia nervosa are continuous attacks of overfeeding, when the girls eat even 10 times per day, which is followed by attempts to stop gaining weight by vomiting and causing forced "cleaning" of an organism, by taking medicine for causing diarrhea. Bulimic girls sometimes have damaged teeth, because stomach acid has destroyed them. Strong vomiting can lead to splitting of gullet or breaking apart of stomach, which are deathly complications.
Biological, social and psychological factor influences those disorders in feeding. 1-3% of overall female population has bulimia, 0.5% has anorexia, and about 10% of young girls have some symptoms of anorexia. About 50% of people who were affected with anorexia get recovered, about 25% of affected ones will never again gain their normal weight, and in the time interval of 10 years, 5% of anorexic people will die.
According one research of Faculty of Art and Science, done in Pula, more than 40% of the girls between 11 and 19 is on the diet, from which 9% of them follow a rigorous diet, and 31% follow moderate one. Only 30% of respondents had real problems with obesity.
Further aspects of negative influence of, so called "beauty ideal" on the human psych are unnatural corrections on human body, called plastic surgeries. The proof is plenty of "decorative" surgeries (correction of volume and shape of bust, liposuctions), which are done more often than those surgeries that are needed for health care. Today's society is used on the possibility of performing those surgeries. It is not unusual at all, that a man gives an enlargement of breasts as gift to his girlfriend. There is this extreme fashion trend in Brazil where the 15-year-old girls are told to have an breast operation.
It is not necessary to mention that any kind of correction on human body, unless it is required, is always unnatural and unhealthy, and it can be dangerous for living. Some people are solving their obesity problems by following various diets. Unfortunately, not all of those products for loosing weight are healthy. Using of those products can lead to malnutrition (and also to those with obesity problems), which reflects with general body weakness, exhaustion, canceling of vital organs and full metabolic collapse of an organism, which is often followed with psychological distortions, and anorexia which often ends with death.
Fashion industry
Eigthies brought big change in the fashion area. The middle class started to chaange social habits, which used to be reserved for the rich class till then. That provided, beside other things, gigantic development of luxury close industry. In that period also begun kult of so called supermodels. At the end of the eigthies, on the area of fashion also appeared kult of slim bodies. Billions of women in countries of rich North since then are exposed to adjusting their bodies to model ones, which were purposely selected, because they were unreachable. In reality very low number of women can have physical predispositions to have height of 180 cms and to weight 55 kg. But with the help of diet products, such illusion is created. It is not by accident that produces of clothes, cosmetic and diet products have the common owner. The logic is clear: we will show you the clothes that you are not able to wear, but instead, we will give you hope that one day you will be able to wear it, only if you buy out diet products. This stand is helped by many of fashion magazines, fashion agencies, photographers etc.
"Third world" is not left without the influence of fashion industry. The whole lines of luxury and the most expensive fashion houses are buying the material from the developing countries of Middle and South-east Asia, which is hand-made, made by the women who work for low wages and in unsatisfying conditions. Because of the absence of the laws, who protect the worker's rights, the lack of self-organized workers and low wages, some fashion houses also produce "design confection". The women of the Third World will never be able to afford those clothes, even if they will be willing for it.
Magazines
"Women magazines" are sending contradictory signals to the women. Besides the traditional magazine (Mila), which are stressing the woman's role in the home and family, there are many new magazines which are send to the modern or ambitious women (Cosmopolitan, Elle). On one way, they are telling to the women how to raise their self-confidence with articles about how to be beautiful, successful and sexy, and in the other hand they are commanding how the woman should look like. They are giving a fake feeling of free will. They say "be yourself", but they offer only one kind of look, which is unreachable. You can read about that you don't have to commit a suicide just because you are not 90-60-90, but in the next moment they are offering you a diet. On every page you can find beautiful, slender and unhealthy skinny models, which reflect you with the perfect happiness.
The researches have shown that majority of adolescent girls (71%) lose very quickly their self-confidences, because they don't look like the perfect picture of woman presented by media, and their efforts end up with health problems. Psychological problems may last the whole life. Majority of photographs with the models are corrected by the help of computer: their legs, hips and waist have being corrected, reflection of their skin has being changed, and clothes fixed to look better. Sometimes, the best parts of the body have being connected, so the perfect figure have being created and the unreal ideal is finished. The human body becomes the thing, which is easy to manipulate and shape for the purpose of certain aim.
Magazines are giving the clear picture how to reach a happiness, success and attractiveness for the opposite gender, by telling the people to visit the shops and buy luxury cars, fancy dresses, make-up or diet products, which are telling us: " Your happiness is very near you-if you don't suit the ideal, it is your own guilt."
Since we were young , we are listening how the beauty is not everything in this world, but personality is. Unfortunately, it is valued very rarely. On the working place, in the social and partner relationships, people who fit the media standard have an advantage, and efficiency, qualifications and knowledge are just supplementary factors. Where is the mistake? It is on us to try to change the situation, because it could also happen to us that we are not enough pretty to be successful in our life goal!