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1.Feminine Beauty Ideal In Fairy Tales

Feminine Beauty Ideal

The feminine beauty ideal is reinforced in the feminine beauty ideal has persisted over hundreds of years by examining its pervasiveness, and tracing its survival, in children's fairy tales. Her study confirmed that "Children’s media can be a powerful mechanism by which children learn cultural values".. Through fairy tales, boys and girls are taught specific messages concerning the importance of women’s bodies and women’s attractiveness. Fairy tales work as a social force to guide children how to act, look, and dress. Beauty is also sometimes linked to race and class. There are usually consequences in breaking the gender norms.

Masculine Dominance

Gender stereotypical roles presented in children’s fairytales “limit boys and girls freedom to express themselves ,and pressure them to behave in ways that are deemed appropriate”. While physical appearance is portrayed as the most important attributes to females in fairy tales, males are constantly portrayed as the dominant, powerful figure. Males symbolize strength, ingenuity, adventurous, extremely capable, and hero-like. Studies show that male domination is also represented and reinforced in children fairytales in that the names of male figures are mentioned at least twice as often as females.

Fairytales and Race

Beauty is also sometimes linked to race and class. Beauties in fairy tales are often associated with white females that have economic privileges. Being black is typically seen as ugly and “cursed” with no hope of being as physically appealing and privileged as white females. Although being a white, beautiful female is ideal for most females, beauty also is associated with being a source of danger. Studies and research show that in fairytales where beauty is associated with physical harm, 89 percent involve harm to women.

2.Feminine Beauty Ideal In Magazines

Ever since magazines such as Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Teen, Teen People, and Cosmo Girl! have began selling copies, the images of female bodies were shown everywhere. Women -- and their body parts sold everything from food to cars.. Women are constantly being reminded to lose those extra pounds, and how celebrities are doing it. As a reward, women will have it all; the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and an amazing career . According to the cosmetic and diet product industries, they present an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain to assure growth and profits of these companies .. These magazines make women insecure about their bodies. This encourages them to buy more beauty products, new clothes, and supplements to help with their diets. On the other hand, women who are being exposed to these picture perfect barbie-looking women are linked to depression, self-esteem issues, and unhealthy eating habits. The culture of thinness is in every magazine which portray success.

Teen Magazines

As the majority of teenage magazines sold in stores are targeted towards females, females are most affected and influenced by the content of these magazines. In every single top selling magazine, the topic of weight loss is almost always included, advertised, or discussed. People magazine came out with a special edition magazine titled "People: How They Did It, Half Their Size!" ("How They Did It." People Magazine 10 Jan. 2011: 1-136. Print). In contemporary American society, women constantly thrive to be skinnier in order to achieve the ideal feminine beauty image. Size is a huge component in the ideal feminine beauty image, maybe even the most important. Teenage females seek into teen magazines to find models, trendy looks, and even to see how they could possibly alter their physical appearance to be beautiful. Teen magazines in the Western World advertise thin celebrities who have flawless figures and shape. In America, individuals live in a culture where being the perfect size and weight is absolutely crucial to achieve the ultimate goal of being physically attractive for females. "Teen magazine this fall reported, without comment, that 35 percent of U.S. girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that among normal-weight girls 50 percent to 70 percent consider themselves overweight" . Teenage magazines most often reinforce the norm and standards in society for women to participate in the culture of thinness which will ultimately bring physical attractiveness and success.

3.Feminine Beauty Ideal Among Different Races

As we take a look into the feminine beauty ideal among race, we come to one conclusion. Many women conform to the prevailing beauty standards of certain corporate culture or to advance. “There are institutional forces that propagate the idea that the white ideal of beauty is the only acceptable ideal of beauty.”. The reality of the situation is that “white” is considered the golden standard and that everything else is deemed unacceptable. Women of color find themselves under enormous pressure to compensate for that which they “lack”. The fact is that races have different ideas of female beauty. Whites and Asians like their women thin. Blacks and Latin Americans on the other hand, like their women to have a good, full figure. They consider this their beauty ideals. The bottom line is that “beauty is a social construct, whatever standards we have will be maintained and continue to flourish if we choose to keep them without fighting back”

Over time, race has become a large and important component of the ideal feminine beauty image. The ideal feminine beauty image is most often linked to the portrayal of whiteness in advertisements, movies, celebrities, etc. Even in other cultures around the world, women strive to achieve a beauty that reflects what is considered a western, white female. “By and large, female models used to illustrate Halloween costumes conformed to the ideal image of the “Little Miss” beauty pageant winner; they were almost overwhelmingly White, slim, delicate-boned blondes who did not wear glasses” (Nelson 231). This statement emphasizes that the commercial market strongly influences children from a young age that being beautiful requires being white, skinny and blonde even through Halloween costumes. Any deterrent from this ideal beauty image may cause one to be considered as ugly and abnormal.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Gibbons, Sheila. "Magazines Send Girls All the Wrong Messages." Uncovering Gender. Women's E New, 29 Oct. 2003. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.womensenews.org/story/uncovering-gender/031029/teen-magazines-send-girls-all-the-wrong-messages>.

2. "How They Did It." People Magazine 10 Jan. 2011: 1-136. Print.

3. Owen, Patricia R., and Erika Laurel-Seller. "Weight and Shape Ideals: Thin Is Dangerously In." International Journal of Eating Disorders (2004). Wiley Online Library. Web. 21 Jan. 2011.

4. Spade, Joan Z., and Catherine G. Valentine. "The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales." The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage / Pine Forge, 2011. 185-92. Print.

5. Sypeck, Mya F., James J. Gray, and Anthony J. Ahrens. "No Longer Just a Pretty Face: Fashion Magazines' Depictions of Ideal Female Beauty from 1959 to 1999." International Journal of Eating Disorders (2004). Wiley Online Library. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://ql3dq7xx6q.search.serialssolutions.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/?&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.atitle=No%20longer%20just%20a%20pretty%20face%3A%20Fashion%20magazines%27%20descriptions%20of%20ideal%20female%20beauty%20from%201959%20to%201999&rft.auinit=M&rft.aulast=Sypeck&rft.date=2004&rft.epage=347&rft.genre=article&rft.issn=0276-3478&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=342&rft.stitle=INT%20J%20EAT%20DISORDER&rft.title=INTERNATIONAL%20JOURNAL%20OF%20EATING%20DISORDERS&rft.volume=36&rfr_id=info:sid/www.isinet.com:WoK:WOS&rft.au=Gray%2C%20J&rft.au=Ahrens%2C%20A&rft_id=info:doi/10%2E1002%2Feat%2E20039>.

6. Zlatunich, Nichole. "Dreams and Prom Reality: Girls Negotiating “Perfection” at the High School Prom." Sociological Inquiry (2009). Wiley Online Library. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://ql3dq7xx6q.search.serialssolutions.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/?&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.atitle=Prom%20Dreams%20and%20Prom%20Reality%3A%20Girls%20Negotiating%20%22Perfection%22%20at%20the%20High%20School%20Prom&rft.auinit=N&rft.aulast=Zlatunich&rft.date=2009&rft.epage=375&rft.genre=proceeding&rft.issn=0038-0245&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=351&rft.stitle=SOCIOL%20INQ&rft.title=SOCIOLOGICAL%20INQUIRY&rft.volume=79&rfr_id=info:sid/www.isinet.com:WoK:WOS&rft_id=info:doi/10%2E1111%2Fj%2E1475-682X%2E2009%2E00294%2Ex>.