BEAUTY MYTH: A VISUAL CULTURE

BEAUTY MYTH: A VISUAL 

CULTURE

Do i look good today? Have i attained some weight? How are my clothes? Will i be able to attract others from my this clothing? These are some of the many questions we all ask from ourselves whenever we stand in front of mirror or when we are going out somewhere. But if we 21st century people think same, then there is no difference between us and rest of the society, it doesnt matters what's outside but what's inside that counts. Cant we have this as our new quote?

so what is beauty? Is it our outer appearance only?No, we people forgot what actually beauty is , its the way you interact with others, good nature and a good smile and behaviour which would be praisable and would win hearts of people would be known as actuaal beauty. But, at present not only teenagers but also people of all age groups forgot what actually beauty is and are around artificial beauty. The most trending is 'barbie doll figure' where one goes for a surgery to have barbie figure and its evident too as a Ukrainian model valeria lukyanova did spent dollars to transform into a barbie doll by sacrificing her natural body. The beauty myth has become an obsession with physical perfection that has trapped all women in an endless cycle of hopelessness, selfconsciousness and self hatred as she tries to be flawless as society wants her to be. They even start dieting which leads to various disorders such as annorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and leads them to be weak and trapped with menstrual disorders. People are getting attracted towards artificial makeup a lot more and according to a recent survey, people spend around 1-2 billion dollars on makeup and its not a new disease but since ancient time. Earlier people used 'red dye' as lipsticks, they used to wear large neck pieces to have a longer neck(common in Rajasthan). People used to wear extra tight dresses so that they can look more graceful (common in European countries) people even used to burn breasts with coal so that they don't grow up so much (common in South Africa). So these all cases focuses on how society forgot about natural beauty. Now a days beauty has become as important as currency of a country. Though there has been one or the other beauty myth in the socierty unless and untill patriarchy completely ends from the society.People of all age groups be it girl,woman or senior citizens all prefer to look hot and showcase themselves as a trophy. Men have always used women's beauty as currency as most beautiful is used as human trafficking or for prostitution and one with highest amount is sold in auction.

Even women have to follow certain measures to be a part of a firm(company) such as they must have a flawless beauty and are supposed to go for certain makeovers like applying kajal,maskara,lipshade and dresscodes etc. If any applicant does not knows then he is not applicable for the job.

In case of beauty paegants they prefer a skinny girl,fair skin and 6feet tall. No one bothers which sort of nature she has unless and util she is fair nothing else matters and being focused towards artificial beauty. Women are even commodified either as docile homemaker at the beck or as sex symbol and trying to convince public to buy certain products. Do you even know, these lead to street harassments and even indian cinemas add fuel to this by adding women in item songs to commodify and titillate the men. They promote being fairer and discrimates dusky women by launching fair and lovely creams, BB+ etc.even some songs such as blue eyes of honey singh too does same.

I know external beauty do matters but in this race of being a fairer person, society have been deviated from natural beauty. One must idealise Shahnaz Hussain as the natural beauty icon. BEAUTY is power, smile is its sword.so say yes to natural beauty and no to artificial beauty. Since men have used women 's beauty as a form of currency in circulation in society it would be better to mention we are no longer a trophy to take with them, to take with them at parties, but we women are humans too. Women are getting legal rights , feminists are working to uplift their status but still certain sections of society are being hegemonic over women as the moment she crosses her twenties she is forced to marry with certain beauty qualifications to be followed such as height being six , fair complection , skinny,etc and if she qualifies these parameters she is considered as a marriage material . Living in twenty first century we women must be respected, there she is commodified and this is promoted by bollywood movies, songs, web series and even mentioning an ideal female figure as 36,24,36. The situation of women in television simultaneously symbolizes and reinforces the professional beauty qualifications in general as she is supposed to come up herself entirely with makeup and erasing up her natural beauty. To this a scholar named as Wolf argues that " beauty is the last , best belief system that keeps male dominance intact ". Even female magazines are playing a pivotal role in selling of beauty myths and preparing what an ideal woman should be and in the nutshell she should be like - promoting diets , skin care , surgery features and this all sells women's deadliest version of beauty myths money can buy.

This all scenario is not turned up today but is since ancient time as scriptures , epics or folktales describe that a good character is always portrayed as being fair in complexion because dark complexion has evil intentions . India was and is still obsessed with fair and lighter skin shades . In short , human body has become a product , a product to sell themselves constantly remaking their bodies and this became a commercial exploitation of body which is a norm in the society. Women are trying to live in such a fantasy world which really does not exists , they even portray and edit themselves through various editing apps by slimming themselves , reducing their fats , lightening their skin shades etc . So why are we doing this ? This is because we do live in selling a myth - a beauty myth . The fake western image of beauty has been successfully enforced all across globe from poisonous skin whitening to surgical nose , waist , lips , breasts , etc . This all have become identity markers , framing our streets , our imaginations , our looks and providing a sense of flooding and fast,changing environment. This visual culture is in short, contaminated with massive advertisements of women in lingerie , in sexualised poses as where men being in suits and women half naked .

Argentina is also a country which has the second highest rating of eating disorders , where cosmteic surgery is often covered by health insurance and even seventy percent of them cant find clothes of their sizes.

Has body become our only asset ? Why are so obsessed with beauty ? The best thing about beauty myth is, that its, only a myth , only a myth!! 

kashish chaudhary