A Speech on Beauty
by Abiola Babalola How many people here are on instagram or any social media sites? Okay, so how many people here follow models or should I say instagram models? If so, then how would that instagram model that you follow on instagram or any social media sites look like? From Body type, skin type; are they always wearing makeup or are they always half naked? What about when you're out and about in the world? Do you see women on billboards with the perfect smile and the perfect skin trying to promote a face wash they never used a day in their life? Or a man on the cover of a magazine with his shirt off with the perfect structure of abs looking into the sunset? The beauty industry. The media. The fame everyone strives for it. To look and act a certain way. They will get surgery to make their noses smaller, to make their waist smaller, and more just to fit the standard beauty standards. And we have the media to blame for it. The media promotes this “perfect life” or the “perfect look” that almost everyone wants to have. There are billions of people in the world and everyone looks different. No matter how many times people say that being different is unique, they are clearly wrong. Society has a set of beauty standards that makes people question their own looks. From celebrities, blogs, friends, and even to enemies, make you rethink your appearance. This standard is a definition of what the world considers being beautiful. This idea is something that mostly everyone knows about and can relate to. There is no one in this world who is exactly the same, but people still feel the need to meet this standard. Everyone has two sides to them. One side is trying to boost your self esteem with “you are perfect just the way you are”, while the other side puts you down by telling yourself “I have to change, I have to fit in.” There is always going to be that side that cares about what the world thinks and the other that could care less. According to a Yale student in her article, people have chased the ideal look for centuries; alas, this look comes and goes as trends and generations do. (Yan, 2017). This talked about how the word beautiful has changed over time. In the 1930s, the first supermodel was Lisa Fongossagrives who was the face of standard beauty, She was very skinny, was admired by many girls and was dreamt about by many boys. Girls were trying their best to lose weight and to get as skinny as the hottest models while growing up. They are thought that being bigger than a size 5 was the worst thing ever. While now, the standard beauty for our generation is to be “slim thick” or an hourglass figure. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these points play a big part in the growth of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that goal, most people believe that one of the biggest factors is outer beauty. So, people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted, they have to look just like them. That’s when they take extreme measures to change their look because they have been influenced by the Medias’ idea of beauty. This usually used to happen for mostly women, but in recent years, the gender gap has decreased. Now, men also feel the need to look good because of the media. Abiola is a Senior who wrote this speech for Mr. DiMarco's Speech and Debate class. This particular speech means a lot to her because it shows how she feels about society.
0 Comments
|
About Epiphany
Epiphany Literary Magazine is a safe space for students at Franklin High School to share their creativity. Archives '16-'20
June 2020
Categories
All
|