How can we erase the stereotype definition of "beautiful"?

Question

People have got all kinds of notions on what's attractive, lot of it influenced by media like mags, celebs, TV, movies etc, plus cultural biases that say a certain colour, size, look is better than others. All of this is pretty damaging, especially to the
self esteem of young girls and guys, who might feel 'less' about themselves due to this.

Answer 1

Maybe its about time we start saying outloud - amongst ourselves - and to advertisers - those ads you have, real pretty, but I'ld like people in them that look like I might pass them on the street."
Lets let it be known, to our young people and in our hearts, that every one of us is beautiful in some way.
Revolutions start with a ripple.

Answer 2

All teenagers fit into some kind of stereotype. Even if you're not the cheerleader, the jock, the prep, the band geek, the nerd, the stoner, the dropout, the goody goody, the rich kid, the teen mother, the loner, or any other obvious stereotype then you may just be a misfit. They're always a group of misfits. They're the group with the girl the doesn't give a **** and has tons of rumors about her, the guy that's so obviously gay but won't admit it, a fatty, someone who believes they get along with all the other cliques and that kid that no one knows even exists and they're all real good friends even though they don't appear to have anything in common. Being a teenager is about being a stereotype and trying to find out where you fit in.

Answer 3

In today's world, youngsters are influenced by what they see and not by what they feel and know. Visual bombardment is perhaps the most influential aspect of propaganda that has been exploited by the ad media. People are attracted by the catch phrases and wonderfully retouched pictures and videos that swirl in front of our eyes.

In the old days during World War 2, propagandists in both the axis and allied nations used movies and radios to sway the public to their way of thinking. It was very effective.

Today, the manufacturers have discovered this secret. For example, in the 1950's until the 1980's the people were cajoled, persuaded and literally pushed into believing that a curly head was beautiful. So much so that, half the population who had curls thought themselves beautiful and the other half spend loads of money every few months to have their straight hair curled!

When everyone was nicely curled up, the manufacturers did an about turn and started the hype that straight hair was beautiful! Now, you find the curly hair brigade desperately straightening their hair every few months and spending a fortune doing it. Similarly, with the whitening brigade that has caught on now. Now, white is beautiful. Sometime in the future, you will see a return to the dark, bronzed feature.
Removing moles, however small, is another in thing now. Do you remember a time when moles were considered a beauty asset? Do you know that the Chinese hold certain moles in certain parts of the body to be auspicious?

What has happened to the simple plain beautiful girl and the simple plain good looking guy? Even the 8 team will not dare to come onto stage without their makeup! If they cannot come out as plain Janes and Joes, can you blame the teen crowd who will and does emulate their fab heart throbs.

Where then is beauty? My answer would be, keep your money and look at yourself. Eternal beauty is not on your skin. It comes from within, deep within you. Bring that beauty to the fore and it will remain shining for all to see. Pasted on beauty can be washed off. Beauty within can never be washed away unless you yourself will it.

Have you ever seen some elderly women and wondered how they look beautiful? I don't mean those stars who are cosmetically and surgically altered blondes. I mean, those ordinary women we meet in our ordinary life. They look beautiful at any time of the day or night. That beauty is what we see with our hearts and not our eyes.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. John Keats was right. He saw beauty with his whole array of senses, not just his eyes.

Answer 4

Time will change the stereotype definition of "beautiful"
If you look at all the classic paintings...Rubens, Michelangelo, Da vinci etc...the stereotype of a beautiful woman was a girl with rosy plump cheeks and rosy plump breasts and rosy plump elbows and a rosy plump bottom. It was considered a sign of beauty to be plump...because it meant you were well fed and therefore, rich.
Hour glass figures were in my grandfather's day...a good woman was robust and statuesque.....and that was to do with the old movies which were stretched on the screen so everyone looked really tall....regardless of the fact it wasnt real..everyone wanted to be tall ...thus the invention of the first platform shoes. I think fragile and waif -like came in with Twiggy in the late 60s...when super models were just becoming fashionable....and gay men were suddenly designing clothes and telling us how we should look. (like flat chested gay men) Apparently now, we must have flawless, smooth, hairless, bodies with absolutely no fat and some muscle tone. All this of course is thanks to photoshop photography in glossy magazines helped along by the make-over surgeries and tv programs that are becoming the norm these days. There is absolutely no point in trying to erase a definition which is forever changing. Before you know it...beauty will be defined by the 'improvements' you've been able to afford.... new noses...new lips, new cheek bones etc. BUT....just ask any man, what he recognises as attractive in a woman and despite all the media hype, his instincts will take over. He'll be looking for a hot blooded, wide hipped, well breasted woman with hair in all the normal places and he won't notice a mole on the shoulder or a pimple on the chin. If you know how to laugh, cook, rear children and enjoy sex...you will be considered beautiful to most men. Those men looking for perfection...should stick to virtual relationships on their computer. The current definition will evolve into something else soon enough.

Answer 5

There's this intern in my office who looks like a beanpole literally but thinks she has "fat arms". Either she's senile, blind, hallucinating, or we have a serious problem with how people today, especially kids, are perceiving themselves. Who knows what's normal anymore, as people's self image has become so distorted.

Every guy out there seems to have a superslim/thin girlfriend but at the same time, i hear guys sayin they love women with meat on them. What gives?

When i lived in the US, i was far less concious of my self because people seemed to be more accepting of variety and size/colour/shape wasn't as much of an issue. Maybe the average person wasn't so shallow. But Asians for sure, are obsessed with colour/weight/size/looks, especially colour.

If you want to have good self esteem, perhaps you should avoid any circumstances where you 'll meet relatives because there's nothing more critical/blunt than an Asian relative hahaha :) (this also cures all issues you may have with your job, weight, marriage or lack thereof etc.) heehee.

Answer 6

Some would say you can't as there appears to be evidence of objective beauty. See Divine Proportion or the Golden Ratio. I agree that we should spend more time reducing the influence the media has over young people by turning it off or leaving it on the racks. But, stereotypes often develop as a result of general observations of truth.

Answer 7

When ladies in their 40's and 50's went for slimming centres just to get the perfect figure, chances are slim. When a straight thinking adult can be influenced by these stereotyped view, what's more for young girls and guys.
And the media is not helping either.

Answer 8

What???

If there is a stereotype, that would mean people would NOT have all kinds of notions on what is attractive. If there are many different perspectives, there is no STEREOTYPE.

From dictionary.com: Stereotype - A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

Anyway, to the gist of your question. I don't know too many guys who find the ultra-skinny, just off of heroine look very attractive. Most guys I know find realistic attractive...

I think you are whining.

Answer 9

Beauty is in the eyes of beholder. If some1 think some1 is beautiful and attractive, I think it is best that we support the idea or at least not to make a bad comment about it. Because, we might be detroying a perfect love story that is waiting to happen. In our society today, majority usually rules. If it doesn't always stay on the right side, left side sometime keeps our world in balance. So, why hide in the dark, come out to meet the world &...see ting2. : )

Answer 10

Via fashion world's model and celebrities. Young ladies in these days are complaining that they're not slim enough, even though they're gorgous in the eyes of others. Young ladies were influenced by the so-called top models. The concept of " 0-size " making young ladies fasting and not healty, even cause death.
Everyone have thier own special figure, humans are unique. So, we don't need to become a copy cat.

P/S: 8TV rocks!

Answer 11

Sadly, I don't think we can ever erase these stereotypes. People buy into them too often. The thing that never changes, though, is that no matter how close (or far) one is from the idea of beauty for one person, there is another who has never laid eyes on one so beautiful. There is a body type, skin color, beauty level that is different for each person looking on.