Beauty Standards Aren’t BEAUTIFUL

Beauty standards have been around for decades. Many Americans, especially those in their teen and pre-teen years, have been negatively impacted by them.

An article by Bulb on “Society’s Beauty Standards Effect on Teens” shows that 58% of 13 year old girls start worrying about how they look. This percentage goes up 25% by the time they are 17, meaning that 78% of girls are affected by beauty standards by the time they finish high school. People forget that men can also be affected by these standards. A study from UCLA shows that 90% of boys in high school and middle school workout often to “bulk up”. Society brainwashes kids and teaches them to mimic celebrities and models. Girls are normally told that they have to be “skinny” and that they can’t have facial hair. They’re told that they all have to look the same. Boys are told they have to look muscular and bulky. They are told they have to look like certain things when they are still developing.

Society’s beauty standards affect men and women , but over the years they have been popularly known to have a bigger effect on women.

Sophomore Nicole Rogers thinks women have higher standards for beauty than men.

“I think it’s really done really poorly how everybody sees women. They don’t have the same beauty standards for men at all. And I think that’s kind of messed up,” Rogers said.

To her, beauty standards are unfair. There are more rules women need to follow or else they are “not good enough.” Women are told they have to change the way they look. It isn’t possible to structure yourself a certain way unless you were born that way. If you were born with big hips, it becomes nearly impossible to make them smaller. If you have a wide ribcage, then there’s virtually nothing you can do about it. You can’t look a certain way if your body wasn’t built that way.

“I am actually proud to say that I have never done something I didn’t want to for college… I like to live my life beyond appealing to what colleges might like, because life is short, and I want to live it in a healthy way that makes me happy,” Krumme said. “...I love the rigor of school, so I feel like a top school with high rigor would be enjoyable for me… but too many people value what college they want to go to based off of the popularity of the name, or their prestigious reputation… when in reality just because a college has a high end reputation doesn’t mean that it is better than any other college.”

In a world where sixth graders on college forums beg for tips on how to mold themselves into the perfect applicant, where seniors are driven to immeasurable stress looking back at their high school years, and where everyone in between suffers similar, unhealthy states, it’s time that students liberate from it all. The college application process may not change, but mindsets can if students start to prioritize learning and passion over colleges’ definitions of success.

by Michelle Rosas, Web Assistant

To Rogers, these standards are toxic and unhealthy. Back in 2016, the “ideal look” was based on a photo editing app called “Facetune,” and loads of makeup. “Now, the beauty standard is a more natural look,“ Rogers said, which begs the question: if beauty standards change so often, why are they so important? An article on The Breeze says that beauty standards can lead to body image issues, low self esteem, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

Culture also has an effect on how people look. People from certain cultures or countries can’t fit America’s beauty standards because of where they were raised and how people around them look. Freshman Norelys Canales Lopez says that beauty standards are pointless because of the diversity in cultures we have in America.

“We have [a variety of] people from different regions. We have Mexican people and we have Asian people. Setting a beauty standard for those different types of people I think is useless because they have different features and stuff,” Lopez said.

Race and ethnicity have a big impact on looks. Some countries have completely different opinions on beauty. An article from Slice says that beauty standards differ around the world. In France, French beauty is simple, as they believe in a more natural look. In Russia, however, beauty standards require much more effort. Practices such as beauty rituals are highly common. People from different races get negatively impacted by society’s beauty standards because they are told they have to have certain features when they physically cannot

There is not just one definition of beautiful. Beauty is different everywhere, yet beauty standards seem to ignore that.