Skinny, big boobs, long blonde hair, tanned complexion.
Muscly, big penis, tall, toned. The media seems to define
beauty as stereotypical perfection. Curvy, colourful, bright
hair, pale complexion. Skinny, average height, deep green
eyes, piercings. The oxford dictionary defines beauty as
"a quality that gives pleasure to your senses or mind."
Beauty, is not what the mainstream tells you to be, by
definition, beauty is perception. It's what pleases the many
diverse people out there.

Think about this, what do you
think is beautiful? I bet not one of you thought of the exact
same qualities. I bet most of you have thought "ew" at least
once when a friend tells you about someone they have a
crush on. Sure, they think that particular person is fantastic,
but still you think they're rank.

So how did beauty come to
have such a refined definition? It's hard to think diversely,
when we are bombarded with images of the same looking
people through mainstream media. We cannot turn on the
T.V. without it, we cannot walk down the street without
seeing an image of some muscly guy or skinny girl. In this
day in age media is everywhere. Every last company
wanting you to buy their product or service. Mostly through
making a person feel as if they are not beautiful enough.
There are billions of different beauty products out there.
Not one would sell if we all felt amazing about ourselves.
Make us feel unattractive so their product will make us feel
better. By the time a person is 21 they would have watched
over 1 million commercials. All designed to tell you how
much better you could be. Designed to make you feel FAT.
Designed to make you feel UGLY. Billions of dollars are
spent every year to make you feel worthless.

And it works.
92% of girls want to change at least one aspect of their
body. Approximately 1 million men and boys suffer from
anorexia. The media has damaged our minds by setting
unrealistic standards. The average weight of a model is
23% lower than that of an average woman. And only 5%
of woman have the "model" figure. The media filters out
everything but the "perfect"figure, to make you feel
abnormal about your body. To make you want to change
it. To make you buy their products in order to do so.
Genetically 95% of us won't have the "normal"model figure.
Yet people die being convinced they need it and can get
it. 1 in 10 people with an eating disorder will die due to
complications from the disorder. Dead, because no-one
ever told them that most of us will never be able to
achieve the perfect "normal" figure without severe health
complications. I guess some would risk their health for
happiness. But have you ever found a happy bulimic or
anorexic? Eating is a survival instinct. Our bodies reward
us when we eat by releasing happy hormones,or
endorphins, for furthering our survival. When our bodies
are starved we do not get these hormones, leaving us
unhappy. Therefor, being unnaturally thin will not make
you happy.

Speaking of unnatural,most of the images
you will see of people in the media and advertising aren't
natural. Realistically, very few of us have "natural beauty".
Is make up natural? Is cutting,styling and dying your
hair natural? Is even the skin products, shampoo and
deodorant we use natural? Think about that next time
you wished you looked like him or her on the cover of a
magazine. Not only have they applied appearance
manipulation like make up and styling, they have applied
other factors like lighting and editing. All photographers
know the perfect shot needs the correct lighting and
requires many different frames to find the best one.
Furthermore most require Photoshop or picture editing.
A beautiful person in a magazine generally gets
professional styling and make up and during editing
may get their skin colour, texture, and entire body shape
changed. Put simply, mainstream beauty is created.
According to this theor