Why is beauty so important to society?

Jump to Last Post 1-17 of 17 discussions (17 posts)
  1. ii3rittles profile image78
    ii3rittlesposted 12 years ago

    Why is beauty so important to society?

    It seems as the, the "more" beautiful a woman is, the further she can get in life, just on her looks alone. Looks have become so important to young girls and women in general that 16 year old girls are having plastic surgery, and really beautiful women and girls call themselves ugly. It seems as though society even deemed that being slightly thick, fat or even over weight automatically makes a woman ugly. Why is this happening?

  2. rtburroughs2 profile image73
    rtburroughs2posted 12 years ago

    On the whole, society goes with what is popular, as sad as that may be. There once was a time where heavier women were considered very attractive. Two of the most attractive women of the 19th century Mae West, and Marilyn Monroe, were both a size 16.

  3. QualityContent profile image70
    QualityContentposted 12 years ago

    Our society is obsessed with beauty. Many people can't accept themselves for what they are. People are also "sheep" and they follow the leader. The media also plays a role.

  4. sen.sush23 profile image59
    sen.sush23posted 12 years ago

    Beauty is a perception and the individual's perception can get modulated by the group's perception. Thus societies begin to determine what would be called beautiful and what not, particularly when it comes to personal beauty. In African societies, there were women who would lengthen their neck by wearing restricting metal/wood/ivory neck ornament; as in Japan they would not allow the feet to grow. These lead to medical complications, and women had to suffer consequences of trying to be beautiful. In our times, it is the 'hour glass figure' that has been declared to be most pleasing to our eyes. But trying artificially to have one, has its consequences. We hear of the buttock burst incidents. Then there is Anorexia Bulimia. Sometimes cancer. But beauty does not really take you places, as you suggest. All the beautiful men and women of our times, have also been gifted, intelligent, and hard working too. So if we are gifted, or intelligent or hardworking - we can arrive even if we are not beautiful.

  5. maddot profile image65
    maddotposted 12 years ago

    I guess you have to define what beauty is. I think a person's beauty is defined by the type of person they are , not by their  looks. initially someone may seem pleasing to the eye, but if their behaviour falls short they tend to lose that initial pleasing look. I  find that as i get to know a person they become more beautiful; sometimes it's the gentleness in their eyes or a wide open smile that reflects their outlook on life or an expression that reveals their deep compassion.
    If you look around at your friends I think you will find you are not always attracted to people becasue they fit the steryoptype of beauty that is sold to us by the media which is product based and aimed at getting us to spend on things that create an illusion of beauty.

  6. leijintang profile image41
    leijintangposted 12 years ago

    For example, beauty can bring click, and click brings money.....Still,beauty can bring disaster to girl.

  7. Dave Mathews profile image60
    Dave Mathewsposted 12 years ago

    In one word, "VANITY" both men and women have it.

  8. donnaisabella profile image71
    donnaisabellaposted 12 years ago

    I believe any woman is just as beautiful as they believe they are. If you compare yourself to others, you will always find something to be dissatisfied about. America has to start looking at true beauty which is the inner beauty of a beautiful soul, a person that accepts themselves and lives it out for all to see. It is not a result of carelessness but respect for oneself and for others. I will not let the world mold me into what it wants so I can be at their mercy.

    Psalm 139:14  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,  I know that full well.

  9. Insane Mundane profile image58
    Insane Mundaneposted 12 years ago

    Easy answer: Sex sells; go figure...   

    However, I disagree with your "slightly thick" statement due to the fact that "big booties" are being promoted these days on a regular basis.  Thankfully, I like full-figured women, as I've never been attracted to a pile of bones.

    Oh, great, now the old song "Baby Got Back" from Sir Mix-A-Lot comes into my mind, like the one located here:   http://music.yahoo.com/sir-mix-a-lot/vi … k--2147288

    LOL!

  10. mikejhca profile image92
    mikejhcaposted 12 years ago

    Beauty effects people and so does seeing something ugly.  In the summer I spend a lot of time looking at animals and scenery that I consider beautiful.  It triggers an emotional response that makes me feel good.  People can have a similar effect.  Seeing beautiful people leads to positive thoughts and emotions while seeing people I consider ugly can cause me to have negative thoughts and emotions.

    People have different views of what is ugly and what is beautiful.  For me it is mainly about health.  In general if I look at someone and they do not look healthy they do not look beautiful to me.  I think what you said is happening because women are being compared or comparing themselves to models and actresses.  When I go to the beach I do not see very many people that look like models and there are usually a lot more overweight men than women.

  11. cicsomum profile image61
    cicsomumposted 12 years ago

    We (humans) are all about food and sex, so why does that surprise you

  12. Express10 profile image84
    Express10posted 12 years ago

    Beauty is important to those who don't feel they are beautiful. It is also important to those who are consciously or subconsciously searching for a mate (whether or not they have one). People are superficial and impatient and use beauty as a shortcut to determine someone's worth, intelligence, or level of health. The media perpetuates this and so do the teens, 20 and 30 somethings that I see prancing around in little more than a t-shirt and heels trying to pass this off as a dress. I have seen stunning women and girls of all shapes, ages, skin tones, and sizes.

  13. Mother of Zeno profile image59
    Mother of Zenoposted 12 years ago

    http://erbjam.blogspot.com/

    This link goes to a blog of mine. There are two posts there that are sort of about this subject, and how worldly pressure took the life of someone I went to school with. It's really sad what girls, and even boys are being pressured into. Beauty is not only skin deep, but people just don't seem to realize it.

  14. Trevor Davis profile image57
    Trevor Davisposted 12 years ago

    One could very well say that by having the security of looking attractive to the opposite sex that they could find a more suitable partner who is successful and therefore produce a safer and more suitable living environment.

  15. Vlorsutes profile image73
    Vlorsutesposted 10 years ago

    I think it comes down to man's pursuit of perfection. As a whole, our lifestyle is driven by the idea that the closer you are to perfection, the better, more successful you are in what you do. As such, our physical appearance, an indicator of our status, is often the first things that people judge someone else on, and as such is what many focus on altering and "improving".

    We're driven by this thought, and we'll time, money, and resources to be able to achieve this perfection, no matter the cost. We'll spend thousands and thousands of dollars on the latest diet trend or to go under the knife and countless hours working on "improving" our bodies through over-the-top exercises, all to achieve a facade. Health is one thing, but nowadays people take these practices to such extremes, all in the sake of perfection, that many become obsessed by it.

  16. gmwilliams profile image86
    gmwilliamsposted 10 years ago

    Despite being told that beauty is skin deep, society has outer measurements of what is considered to be beautiful. Despite what you been told , outer beauty has extrinsic advantages & rewards. read more

  17. profile image52
    WATERSTARposted 10 years ago

    From WATERSTAR, beauty is beautiful and as you can clearly see it is taking over the whole world, and the reason is it must be so the GOD who made you so beautiful declared that at this time in the days that we are now Living that the daughters of mankind will be very fair and beautiful and truly truly all the women of the twenty first century are plesant and nice to Look at this his the Last fenally of Beauty before the Lord the Maker of all return, so enjoy your Beauty GOD LOVE YOU the way you are, just dont over eat you are Beautyful By being the best you, you can be. BY WATERSTAR:

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)