Grace Barney
Montoya
English 102
29 July 2025
Beauty standards and their effects on women
Women around the world struggle with confidence and how they look. Today it’s so easy to just turn on Instagram, TikTok, and even Facebook and see other women and think I wish was pretty like her, I wish I was skinny like her, I have wrinkles, and she doesn't. If you have ever felt this way, welcome to womanhood, I have never met another girl or woman that hasn’t thought at least one of those things. Since the beginning of social media have these feelings for women been magnified? Are beauty standards good or bad? If your considering the same thing, reading this article might answer your questions.
Perspective #1
Sabrina Figueora states that, “I’m not saying that all beauty trends should stop, as some are harmless and, in many cases, inevitable. However, I believe we need to stay skeptical about many of them.” (Figueora) the author goes on saying that beauty trends always start fun and harmless but as time goes on and other people perceive it in a different way, and then It becomes harmful to people's perception of themselves. “For example, the deer pretty or bunny pretty trend on TikTok started off as a non-serious, unique way to call people pretty. As stupid as it was, its intention wasn’t to make other people feel insecure or bad — however, social media shapes our perceptions of things nonetheless.” (Figueora) most beauty trends are useless people used to say if you drink coffee and drink through a straw, you will getjowls and if you get jowls when you're older, you're not considered perfect. Many people also believe that certain features about your face make it so its not in “facial harmony”. Figueora overall argues that Beauty standards are a bad thing for the most part.
Perspective #2
On the other hand, Ben Knight argues that girls seeing other women be positive about their bodies and the way they look. “Researchers from the School of Psychology, UNSW Science, tested whether viewing just a few body positive social media posts a day could positively impact body satisfaction and appreciation. In other words, could seeing a range of messages challenging unrealistic beauty ideals and promoting body acceptance at every shape and size help participants feel more secure about their bodies Interestingly, another group of participants in the study viewing appearance-neutral posts – content unrelated to a person’s looks – also reported a decrease in body dissatisfaction.
King did a study of women within the age boundaries of 18-25, and some of the results were that women who spent 14 days looking at posts with postive self love help mental health instead of making women have insecuirities. “Even viewing appearance-neutral content on social media appears to be beneficial for body image,” Dr Fardouly says.
Other intensive interventions, such as ‘detoxing’, can also be effective and boost our well-being. But they are unlikely to be implemented en masse for long periods, particularly by adolescents.
“It’s very unrealistic to expect that adolescents will stop using social media altogether, so it’s not an effective long-term strategy. Social media isn’t going away. But as we’ve shown, it’s also not really the time you spend on it, it’s what you’re doing when you’re on it,” (King)
Similarities and differences
Some of the similarities between the two arguments is that they both agree that when women look at ads or post’s that say you need to change your body it can be very dangerous to the person. Their mental health it’s proven that many women either starve themselves to be skinny and even some women take their own lives because they just feel like there is no way that they will be good enough and will never measure up. Another similarity is that they both agree that social media trends are pointless in some instances. Both authors point out in some part of their article that. Social media is harmful to many people around the world, especially women. And teenagers in particularly. Some differences In the author's opinions Is one of them focuses. More on the mental effect and the study. Of the. effect on the women that are looking at the social media post. Whereas. Figueora More focuses on the trends that effect the women in particularly. And how the social media posts affect the women instead of like talking about how women. Can see happy posts and be positive about themselves. She dives more into the Tik Toks or Instagram posts that the trends that are hurting the girl's mental health. Another difference is that king., Thinks social media is Something that teenage girls should not have because the effects of social media and, what it does to your confidence and. Self-esteem. But Figueora Only states that. Social media trends are more of the problem, in some cases more than social media itself. So, she's trying to get rid of the ones that are useless and hurt Many others self-esteem. Not just their self-esteem. But also. The way that they look at themselves.
Strengths and weaknesses
one of the strengths of the two authors articles are that they both had logical Information The. Took a study that was done and put it in their article making their argument stronger than it would be without it. Another strength is that they take surveys from a group that it will actually affect and they use their data to answer the questions and concerns of others to give them the answer. Some weaknesses in their arguments are that Figueora Uses her opinion. When she talks about the different beauty trends. Which makes her argument biased. But King used facts, but he also to some degree, used his opinion. Another weakness is that the news has a lot of information that is only found because they want the results, the way they turn out, but. Usually in studies they give a positive and negative amount. Of people Thoughts How well? And they didn't add the amount of people that didn't think that social media was affecting their mental health negatively. Or their opinions. Therefore making it not incredibly credible because they never stated the other side.
Compromise
Even though these articles both have flaws. And their strengths, I personally think that Beauty standards on Instagram, TikTok or any kind of social media? Is harmful to. Many women and teenagers my age. And I think it should be put to a stop and not have ads about ways to become more beautiful.
Work cited
Comments
Post a Comment