The Beauty of Women in our Society.

The Beauty of Women in our Society

The beauty myth; what is it? The beauty myth implies that women's greatest goal in life is to look and feel beautiful, so it seems. But according to Naomi Wolf, "The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men's institutions and institutional power".

What factors determine the social construction of gender identity in our society, and how do these factors influence the shape of that construction? I believe one huge factor that strongly influences gender identity in our society is the media, especially for female teenagers. In my opinion, the media is a strong influence on females' most desired feminine attribute, which is their appearance to look and feel beautiful.

Female teens view models as the definition of beauty. Models are always being viewed in magazines; therefore, magazines for female teens are a highly influential source of media on young girls and their perception of beauty.

English: Christina Aguilera performing during the ...

Christina Aguilera during a concert from her Back ...

The Beauty Myth

These magazines contain a lot of advertisements which can influence a girl's perception of beauty and how to look beautiful. How is this done? These advertisements are being endorsed by models that are promoting products that help make girl's look and feel more beautiful. After observing the latest issue of Seventeen magazine, I believe that these advertisements are promoting more revealing clothing, make-up, and beauty products. One advertisement that caught my attention was a make-up ad. It had a beautiful model with a pretty face who was promoting a new line of lip stick. On the bottom of the advertisement, the description was, "Smooth. Popular. True. Friendly. Be everything you are. Glossy. Colorful. Flavorful. Beautiful. Be a girl." When young girls that haven't experienced these things on their own look at these advertisements and see these ultra thin and beautiful models,