Cosmetics Obsession Damages Your Beauty
YWCA USA (Young Women Christian Association) has recently released a new report “Beauty At Any Cost” about the risks and dangers of beauty cosmetic means used by young women and girls. The report says American women and girls are spending incredible amounts of money just to look like the models in fashion magazines, society’s current ideal.
The association brings forth some numbers which show that women’s interest toward beauty skin care products and cosmetic means has increased in recent years. So, according to their statistics, women spend some $7 billion a year, on average about $100 each a month. This amount, if saved for five years, would be enough to pay the fees of a public college.
Couriermail reports YWCA USA chief executive Lorraine Cole’s statement:
“We believe that the obsession with idealized beauty and body image is a lifelong burden that takes a terrible toll on all young girls and women in this country.”
It’s true, the issue is not a new one, but recent studies show that there has been a rapid increase in the use of cosmetics during last few years. According to the American Society For Aesthetic Surgery, nearly 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were realized in the US in 2007, which amounts to a 446 percent increase in 10 years.
Besides numerical statistics, YWCA’s report also delves into the physical and psychological problems that women are submitted to as a result of abusing cosmetics. Many women do everything, even if it means harming themselves, to make themselves look like the “beautiful” models’ images: they smoke or keep insane diets to maintain a low weight or undergo risky cosmetic surgeries. YWCA found that 10 million women suffer from an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, and among them 40 percent are girls from 15-19 years old.
As to psychological damages, they are even more serious than physical ones, yet nearly interconnected. One study found that only 30 minutes of TV programming and advertising can change the way a young woman perceives her body, because body image can be influenced by “ideal body shapes.” Twenty-four hour advertised standards of being thin, airbrushed and perfect, make women feel uneasy in comparison to these characters. This fact may cause depression and low self-esteem, which could have crucial influences on a woman’s life.
Maggie Vlazny, a mental health professional, said in YWCA report:
“Self-esteem is a core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience joy. Once achieved, it comes from the inside out. But it is assaulted or stunted from the outside in. A woman with low self-esteem does not feel good about herself because she has absorbed negative messages about women from the culture and/or relationships.”
On this issue, YWCA USA teamed up with documentary filmmaker Darryl Roberts to distribute his new documentary “America the Beautiful.” The film is the critical analysis of the harm caused by the current beauty obsession.
Yes, it is tempting to want to look like the “perfect” images staring at you through the magazines, but almost all of those models look the same, and in the end, they are forgettable. So if you don’t look like a model, you should be happier for it, because it’s proof that you are unique and that is where true beauty really comes from.
Photo: © news.com.au
Related posts: