The Standards of Beauty
According to the exploratory analysis made by Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs, Angood, and Dwyer, the emergence of the slim body type as a beauty standard for women in fashion magazines have resulted into a phenomenon that could be detrimental to many American women's emotional and physical health. These findings are similar to Cindy Maynard's conclusion about body image in fashion magazines as she also claims that teenage girls today are taught to achieve an impossible goal of beauty and perfection. She affirms that the images that we see in fashion magazines today do not promote self-esteem and positive self-images.
These two different articles both declare the negative impacts of beauty magazines in the western society. However, the explanatory analysis contains more facts and primary research regarding body image today. Reports made by Garner and colleagues and of Silverstein and colleagues in the first article prove that years of research had been done to study body image in fashion magazines. From the turn of the century throughout the 1970s, they have examined the standard of physical attractiveness for women presented in the mass media, and concluded that women became much thinner and less curvaceous. On the other hand, Cindy Maynard mainly focuses on surveys to prove her point about the negative effects of fashion magazines on teenagers.
In her 1997 Body Image Survey, both girls and boys reported that “very thin or muscular models” made them feel insecure about themselves. She also discussed reality in fashion magazines, as she states that most of the models we see on the covers have been reproduced, airbrushed and computerized.
Why Society Impose Unrealistic Beauty Standards
Another article from Media Awareness Network also talked about the standards of beauty in fashion magazines. Similarly to the other two articles, fashion magazines are claimed to be presenting an impossible goal to achieve and maintain for women. Unlike the last articles, this network provides societal reasons why standards of beauty are constantly being imposed on women. They state that the beauty industry is presenting an impossible goal to generate sales and profits for cosmetic and diet product industries.
They also provide more statistical information, as they verified that 50-70% of normal weight girls believe that they are overweight. Finally, this article differs from the last two articles as it cited a positive impact of fashion magazines in our society. A Quebec magazine, Coup de Pouce, for example, had been consistently including full-sized women in their fashion pages for the past few years. This article posed the message that even though most magazines are filled with negative messages of beauty and thinness, some magazines are also working for the betterment of society's standards and self-worth.
Relating Body Image to Fashion Magazines
After examining these three articles, it is evident that body image and fashion magazines do go hand in hand. In many cases, fashion magazines affect individuals negatively, as they consistently impose such high beauty standards and sell the idea of “perfection” in our society.
Because of the consistent propaganda of such high standards of beauty, individuals start to believe the images that they see in front of them. It is therefore valid to conclude that fashion magazines do have an influence on all individuals.
