The concept of beauty standards has been highly contested throughout history due to its arbitrary nature. While certain qualities are universally desirable, such as symmetry, health, youth, and fitness, others vary depending on culture, region, time, class, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Beauty is more than just physical appearance; it encompasses an individual's sense of identity, self-esteem, social status, power dynamics, and consumer habits.
Political manipulation of these ideals can have detrimental consequences for individuals' erotic perception and fulfillment.
Politicians, business leaders, advertisers, entertainers, and artists utilize their platforms to create and promote specific body types, facial features, fashion trends, cosmetic procedures, and grooming techniques that perpetuate unrealistic expectations about beauty. This propaganda exploits insecurities and vulnerabilities to increase profits and influence behavior. The media bombards consumers with images of unattainable bodies and lifestyles, creating a cycle of inadequacy and comparison. Social pressures demand conformity, leading to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse.
Manufactured ideals serve broader objectives, including economic growth, cultural dominance, and social control.
The white supremacist beauty ideal promotes whiteness by excluding non-white bodies, reinforcing racism and imperialism. The heteronormative beauty standard privileges cisgender men and women while marginalizing queer identities, reinforcing misogyny and homophobia. Moreover, sexually explicit imagery objectifies and commodifies the female body, normalizes violence against women, and promotes hypersexualization.
Societal beauty standards shape how individuals view themselves and others, often limiting intimacy and sexual expression. They create feelings of rejection, guilt, shame, and fear, which impede people from exploring their desires and expressing them freely.
They reinforce socially constructed gender roles and power dynamics, undermining equitable relationships and self-determination.
They reinforce consumerism, promoting expensive products and services for personal enhancement, encouraging dependency on external validation.
How does political manipulation of beauty standards influence individuals' erotic self-perception, and how do these manufactured ideals serve broader ideological objectives?
The pervasiveness of beauty standards can be observed within media and society as well as everyday interactions with friends, family members, coworkers, etc. , where certain physical features are constantly being evaluated and ranked based on their perceived attractiveness. The political manipulation of these standards influences individuals' erotic self-perception by suggesting that there is only one way to look, feel, act, and be accepted by others.