The media today is saturated with so many pictures of women that it is very difficult to find a single publication or website that does not contain them. Pictures of attractive women or even parts of their bodies are used to sell any number of products. What is really disturbing is that these pictures are creating unhealthy beauty images and expectations among women.

One look through a magazine or TV channel will lead one to believe that there is place only for slim tall women with large breasts and a perfect complexion. Any person you see on screen who does not conform to these physical parameters will most likely be in a supporting role or will be given a ‘nerdy’ personality. The message is very clear and it is that only good looking people have any chance at success and that unattractive people somehow deserve to be overlooked.

What is an even bigger cause for worry is that models on fashion ramps are beginning to become increasingly thinner and younger. It has reached a point that some of them look absolutely emaciated and unhealthy.

A casual survey of women will tell you that they feel greatly pressurized to conform to these beauty images as perpetrated by the mass media. They feel that they have no chance at all at finding love if they cannot attain the perfect figure and fit into the kind of clothes that are currently stylish. The problem gets magnified in countries where the local women are not anywhere close to the Western ideal of beauty. This actually leads to situations where the women who represent the country at international beauty pageants look nothing like the local women of that country and all of the beauty contestants manage to look similar irrespective of race. This is probably the best example of women being forced to conform to unrealistic beauty images.

The biggest beneficiary of all this pressure to conform to media created beauty images is the fashion industry and all of its off shoots. Women who are insecure about their looks are a sure market for buying large numbers of clothes as well as slimming aids and cosmetics. Media houses are definite beneficiaries of all this compulsion to look beautiful because these women who are anxious to look beautiful are avid readers of fashion publications and also of a whole lot of diet and fitness books. There is a huge publishing industry that churns out books and magazines that supposedly will guide women to a better life by making them look better.

It is about time that women realized that they are being played by the media and stopped being so gullible. The obsession with looks that the media encourages is designed to increase the spend on non essential substances and to encourage an unhealthy materialistic style of living. The women who are spending all the money to look ‘beautiful’ will never be satisfied with their looks and the only ones who will benefit from this are various companies that cater to their insatiable demand.

Author Bio: I am basically a graduate at the University of Hamburg and you can get awesome articles and valid information from the ones which I submit specially for you to take a look at. Check out Beauty Images, Beauty Graphics or Beauty Pictures.

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: Beauty images, unhealthy beauty images, look better, fashion industry, materialistic