The consequences of being beautiful are not always as glamorous as we hope. In order to confront the often unfavorable costs of beauty, we must first understand what drives the pursuit of beauty. According to Deborah Rhode, the forces that fuel this obsession are a mix of sociolobiolgical foundations, cultural values, market forces, technology, the media, and advertising tools.
From a sociobiological perspective, appearance has gained importance through evolution. “Sexual selection” is to thank for the aesthetic preferences that exist today. “Over time, individuals whose genes survive are those who choose mates with characteristics conducive to reproductive success. Attractiveness is one such characteristic because it signals health and fertility, particularly in females” (Rhodes, 46). In mate selection, men look for youth and appearance in women while women look for financial capacity in men. In our society, a thin body is linked to a higher socioeconomic status. This contradicts the goal of evolution since extremely low weights can cause problems with the female reproductive system.
For most of our history, a woman’s value has been in the home, and her status reliant on her physical attractiveness to attract a husband (hence the term “trophy wife”). Social status and appearance go hand in hand for Women. Men don’t have this problem because traditionally, they have alternative ways of building socioeconomic status and appealing to a spouse. Appearance based “gender hierarchies” exist for women because of the various social and economic influences that perpetuate them. These influences come mainly from the media, advertisements, and technology. “Taken together, they lay the foundations for discrimination based on appearance and the personal costs that it imposes” (Rhodes, 48).
Our culture’s pursuit of beauty has not been totally negative for women. The positive effects of the beauty industry in the pursuit of equal rights for woman is something I had never thought much about before reading The Beauty Bias. It is an industry that is for women by women, giving females a huge opportunity to be successful entrepreneurs and business executives. Women are to thank for beauty schools and salons as well as direct sales marketing strategies and celebrity endorsements. While the beauty industry has allowed women to take a step forward in their push for rights and equality, it has also pushed them back by fueling the already strong obsession with appearance for women as individuals. An example of this step backwards would be the rise in distribution and sales of weight reduction products. Since 95% of dieters do not keep weight loss off, the market obviously has a low consumer and high corporate interest. The beauty market is not only targeting women. Adolescent girls have become a desirable target for the beauty industry. “Female adolescents have been a particularly inviting market because most are unhappy with their bodies and vulnerable to media messages” (Rhodes, 51). What is an industry that prays on the insecurities of young girls really doing to push women’s rights and equality forward?
With new advances in technology, it is becoming easier and easier for women, girls, and even men to change what they do not like about themselves. Rhodes makes an important point with the statement: “Beauty may be only skin deep, but that’s what’s instantly and incessantly available in our electronic age; and it is increasingly out of touch with the bodies that nature offers” (Rhodes, 54). I think this is part of one of the biggest injustices in our culture. The media, the beauty industry, and social constructs are constantly blasting messages of how females should look. Being bombarded by the ideal and totally unattainable (for most) image of the “perfect woman” could drive any female to insecurity, eating disorders, and life threating procedures.
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