Superficiality

We live in a world that "requires" a certain beauty standard we have to follow, otherwise we won't feel beautiful. At least, that's how I feel living in New York City all my life. Wherever you turn, there are billboards and ads, magazines and television commercials with stick-thin women and chiseled, muscular men advertising for their respective perfume or clothing companies. Sometimes I wonder how it got this way; the trends for fashion and beauty definitely was not the same fifty years ago.

http://wa1.cdn.morefm.co.nz/morefm/AM/2013/10/31/9530/perception-of-beauty.jpg?quality=70

Our society in NYC definitely puts an unnecessary pressure on our population; it's not just adolescents who get affected, but even small children see this image that they feel they have to live up to. Who dictated the rule that females needed to be under a certain weight to feel beautiful? Who announced the rule that girls must wear pink and boys must wear blue? I've seen my fair share of reality TV shows and "beauty" transformations in the tabloids and news outlets and always wondered how our society became fixed on this definition of beauty.
In Spring 2014 I was enrolled in an Intercultural Communications class and one of the groups in my class presented different versions of beauty. I saw that different societies had different ideas of what it meant to be beautiful: while the US has standards of thin women and muscular men, communities in Africa for example like the curvy women because it showed a sign of wealth and happiness. In many parts of Asia, people wear what looks like ski masks to the beach to maintain their porcelain complexion, while in the US, it's considered "beautiful" to have bronzed, tan skin.

Beach attire in China: http://www.chicagonow.com/cinnamon-twists/files/2012/08/jp-masks1-popup-624x415.jpg

Tanning in the US: http://www.theamericanmag.com/uploaded_images/article_3912_GIV9u4yOEt.jpg

Everyone has different perceptions of beauty, whether it's pale or tan skin, using heavy makeup or none at all, plump or skinny figures, to wearing headwear and conservative clothes. Maybe because I speak with a psychology background, I believe we should be more accepting to all cultures and all sizes and appearances; it makes for a more tolerable community and also makes us more open-minded to the things we can't necessarily relate to. It improves relations among each other and sets a better example for our younger generations to follow.