I would like to focus on a growing problem in the United States: the negative body image many women maintain of themselves. Many women who are very attractive, who are loved by husbands, boyfriends, fathers, mothers, and children, cannot love themselves because when they look at their body, they cannot see themselves as others see them. Instead, they focus only on the things they feel bad about, such as large thighs or small breasts.
The conventional wisdom is that this is a result of modern media, which confronts women on a daily basis with images of beautiful models and screen sirens to which they cannot hope to compare. I do not believe that media is the cause, but I do believe that it contributes because of its insistence on a particular standard of beauty. It tells women that there is one and only one way to be beautiful. Often, the standard rotates around one or more “fad girls,” as the entire media engine works as a single creature to promote the new movie by Jessica Alba or Halle Berry, and plasters her image on everything everywhere, saying this is beautiful.
The cosmetic surgery industry is often criticized for feeding into the general desire for perfect bodies that women feel, then utilizing it for its own profit by encouraging women to undergo unnecessary risks from optional surgeries. This is a charge that pricks my conscience, but I do not believe that it is entirely true. Cosmetic surgeons don’t want patients with bad body images, because these patients will never be satisfied with the work they receive. Cosmetic surgeons want patients to come in with a good body image who may have one or more problem areas that they would like to address.
To help foster positive body images in women, I have planned a series of blogs on artists who use their vision to see and represent the beauty in women of all sizes. I will start tomorrow with Gustav Klimt.
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