The dangers connected with beauty standards

Oct 25, 2015 News

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By Akola Thompson
It may seem a very over done area of focus, but beauty standards, aside from being a perplexing topic, has very real repercussions on the self-perception of individuals causing them to engage in dangerous activities.
In Guyana, like many other countries around the world, the perfect male and female are those with a light complexion and soft hair. Complementing the foregoing is an hour-glass figure for the woman and a buff physique for the man.
This has caused many persons to make dangerous purchases and engage in harmful practices to achieve some semblance of the perception they have of beauty.
Due to the mass media and books which sexualize the human face and body, we are in an age where beauty is normally measured solely on one’s outward appearance.
A troubling practice that has been adopted by many people with dark complexion is that they are opting to purchase cheap and often dangerous skin lightening agents, popularly referred to as “bleaching cream.” They’re attempt is geared at achieving that coveted “red-bone” complexion. While some may practice skin lightening due to the belief that lighter skin would ensure a better life in a world that seems to readily embrace those with light skin. In fact some would proudly relate that the lighter the shade is the more beautiful, confident and appealing they feel.
I recently asked of a young lady who admitted that she “bleaches” her skin what drove her to engage in this practice. Her response was “I just want to look beautiful.” When asked if she didn’t consider her dark skin to be beautiful, she stared as if she was just asked a most absurd question.
The “bleaching” practice, despite the reasons however, comes with hazardous health consequences according to those in the medical field. There are reports of such activities lending to blood cancers, cancers of the liver and kidneys as well as skin infections.
A popular trend that is becoming very popular now too is that of persons parading with blue, green and maroon eyes. And some of them ardently swear that’s the natural colour of their eyes. While this trend may seem to be a harmless way of slightly tweaking one’s identity, eye infections and corneal ulcers with rare cases of blindness can be caused by wearing contact lens. Those in the eye care field have disclosed that persons can also develop cases such as pink eye, corneal abrasions and eye irritation.
Youths who may be of the belief that they fall short of the ideal represented in the media can develop low self-esteem which could lead to them developing eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa (starving one’s self) and bulimia (extreme over-eating followed by vomiting).
These illnesses, experts have concluded, can often result in depression, substance abuse and anxiety disorders and an assortment of health issues which in many cases end in the untimely death of the individual.
The various practices related to the pursuit of the ideal body image displays the underlying identity problem most persons face in a world where individuality is constantly being stifled.
British psychotherapist, Susie Orbach in her upcoming documentary, “the Illusionists” states that, “just as English has become the Lingua Franca (predominant language) of the world, the white, blonde, small nosed, pert-breasted, long legged body is coming to stand in for the variety of human bodies that there are.”
This may be true in many instances but the lessons of sexualized beauty, particularly in popular culture, paint a different picture as judgments on beauty broadly vary across societies and cultures.
Contemporary beauty/sex symbols range from the gamine-hipster look as seen in celebrities such as Emma Watson and Kristen Stewart; to the chiseled face with huge eyes and accentuated body parts as seen in celebrities such as Nicki Minaj and Angelina Jolie; to the stark, once ostracized beauty of Lupita Nyongo.
Many persons make unsuccessful attempts to imitate the constantly changing looks of these “flawless” celebrities and models. They fail to realize that the images portrayed are far from realistic and thus fall into a downward spiral trying to achieve the unachievable.
In Ancient Greece, the word “kállos” was used to describe the body as the possessor of beauty as it caused erotic thoughts. According to Aristotle in his book, “poetics”, “To be beautiful, a living creature, and every whole made up of parts must present a certain order in its arrangement of parts.” Here, Aristotle equates beauty with symmetry, further suggesting that true beauty lies in one’s geometric compositions.
This is an idea which appears to have been kept throughout the ages and increasingly those who can afford to undergo appearance changing operations do so while those who cannot try various dangerous products and methods.
I suppose even if we come back to the popular premise that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder we can go further and say that what defines beauty is the multiple lenses through which that eye perceives that beauty-social conditioning, sexuality, cultural practices, other characteristics of the beheld and the direct preconceived prejudices of the beholder.

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