When it comes to the topic of beauty, many will agree that there are multiple factors that influence us each and every day. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is the question of whether the media has influenced beauty. Whereas some are convinced that the media remains as a mindset of what you can strive to be, others maintain the thought that the media has and can warp the minds and thoughts of various individuals.

Images of men and women in the media are manipulated all throughout the media, from magazines to websites and online blogs, but do they stand as a realistic standard of what the majority of the American public is attaining to be? The media has influenced us to think that these manipulated images are what we must aspire to be. From the various articles that state how they pictures are carefully put together, from the application of makeup to the setup of the lighting as well Although we soon realize that we do not fit the standards that have been put in place for the public, which are highly unattainable.

The media has set impossibly high standards for everyone, which has many feel like they must degrade themselves to fit the reality. The media has presented the idea that in order for the term beautiful to apply to anyone, they have to look a specific way, to appeal emotionally and physically to the public. We have all felt the effects of advertisements, yearning deep to reach that “perfect weight” to be able to fit into your favorite shirt, to have your skin clear or a brighter smile. You are conforming to the abnormality and you feel that you must degrade yourself, in order to make yourself feel more than you originally are.

Everyone is a target of the media, and everyone is only invulnerable to these expectations for a short period of time. Even if you have your own mindset as well as your own thoughts and opinions, the tantalizing thoughts of becoming something that you are not is always going to belong to that little voice in the back of your mind. The teenage public roughly sees about 5,000 advertisements a day and as a result, Body image research has found that looking at advertisements for just sixty minutes a day lowers self-esteem more than 80%. The portrayals of woman like this are 66% of the reason young teen’s diet and are self-conscious regarding their weight. Although perceptions of beauty may be influenced according to how you have seen and accepted beauty in the past, there will always be a certain difference in how you compare yourself to celebrities rather than to your own personal role models, because you expect celebrities to look good while you accept what your own personal role models look like because you see them daily. Beauty is everywhere, and the photo-shopped, imperfect pictures made perfect are nearly unavoidable, but are these reliable standards of beauty?