RCL Blog 8

Topic: Beauty standards

Purpose: To educate the audience on the toxicity of women’s beauty standards and its negative psychological effects on women

Thesis Statement: The shift in women’s beauty standards (in Western culture) has done more harm than good.

Introduction: This [show picture] is a picture of Kim Kardashian from 2007. This next picture [show different picture] is Kim Kardashian in 2017. In just 10 years, there’s a noticeable difference, right? Why do you think there is? The purpose of this talk isn’t to point out differences in someone’s body but instead, to answer the questions: 

1. How did women’s beauty standards change? And 
2. Why is this important?

Body:

1. So first, let’s establish what the shift is. Within the past 30 years, Western women’s beauty standards have changed drastically.
   1. One main way we can see this is through fashion
      1. [show slide] On the left is a picture of the Victoria’s Secret Angels from 1995. As you can see, every woman looks about the same. There’s no diversity in body type or race. 
      2. On the right is a picture of some of the models from the 2018 SavagexFenty Show. We see a lot more diversity because today’s standard of beauty (for women) includes more than just skinny white women.
   2. It’s also evident through media
      1. [show Vogue archives] In the 90s, we can see the same pattern of no diversity. But if we go to 2018 (or 2010s in general) there’s more women of color.
2. For the sake of time, I won’t elaborate too much on the causes of this shift but the main one is social media
   1. Social media has allowed women of different body types to showcase themselves for others to see. 
      1. A study performed at Florida State University showed that, “there is a clear psychological advantage when the media shows more realistic body types than the traditional thin model”
      2. Social scientist Dr. Frank Niles claims that the reason beauty standards have changed is because of the “exposure effect”, the idea that the more we are exposed to something, the more we like it.
3. So now back to the question: Why is this change important?
   1. There are some positive effects of this change
      1. More diversity in media which positively affect minority youth
   2. I will be focusing on the negative effects but I personally believe they outweigh the positive. This shift has caused plenty of negative psychological effects on young women and social media is a huge factor in this
      1. There are many social media movements in regards to body image and for they are positive. Others aren’t. One example is the Twitter “thinspiration” trend where Twitter users will post pictures of anorexic women, praising them. While it is important to celebrate all body types, there are some body types that are simply unhealthy; many argue that promoting these body types as beautiful is toxic for young women.
      2. This shift has also caused an increase in plastic surgeries. By raise of hands, how many of you have heard of a Brazilian Butt Lift or BBL? In 2020, when the google search term “bbl” was at its peak, there were over 40,000 butt augmentations performed despite it being one of the deadliest cosmetic surgeries to exist (Ellin). According to the Aesthetic Surgery and Research Foundation, 2 out of every 6,000 bbl surgeries result in death which is the highest mortality rate for any cosmetic procedure. So why are so many women risking their lives for a bbl? Because today’s beauty standards have conditioned us into believing that we need to look like that in order to be beautiful. 

Conclusion:

While women’s beauty standards have become slightly more ideal and we’re moving in the right direction, there is still plenty of work to be done. We need to stop comparing our looks to others and holding ourselves to toxic beauty standards. This is a lot easier said than done, but it’s possible. If you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to others, consider cutting down your social media usage so you aren’t as susceptible to these standards.Our beauty standards are still very damaging and we should work towards standards that will not force people to harm themselves to fit into. 

 

Slide Descriptions:

Slide 1: 2 pictures of kim k from 2007 and 2017 

Slide 2: the questions “how did women’s beauty standards change” and “Why is this important?”

Slide 3: 2 pictures, left picture of VS Angels from 1995, right picture of 2018 Savagexfenty Show models

Slide 4: slide with vogue archives link

Slide 5: social media (will probably google ‘social media’ and use the first pic that pops up)

Slide 6: picture of a black girl playing with a black barbie doll

Slide 7: picture of twitter logo

Slide 8: pictures of celebrity women most recent instagram post (showcasing their hourglass figures)

Slide 9: the words “what can we do?”