THE BEAUTY MYTH AND IT’S EFFECTS ON

SOCIETY

GLOBAL CONCERNS: INEQUALITIES AND DISCRIMINATION

CIT 370

RESEARCH PAPER

PH.D. BURCU SARI KARADEMİR

ELİF KOCAMER

18865011446

CANSIN KARAMAN

13882063360
 INTRODUCTION
Beauty and aesthetic has always been a concern for both men and women through history.
Different trends, time and regions have shaped society’s beauty standards. Beauty perception
is always changing. But the pressure it applies to men and women never changes. Especially
in the modern times when technology and social media are big parts of our lives, it is easier to
spread new beauty trends and get them accepted. These trends have the capacity to affect
people in bad ways. Such as causing mental disorders or decreasing self esteem. In this
research, we have applied a survey to 87  participants about their perception of beauty and
how it affects them.   

problem statement
Physical appearence and beauty are subjects that we discuss about a lot. In every historical process
that the world has seen from the existence of human beings to the present, certain understanding of
beauty has taken place in that period. Even in the absence of the present beautification tools, even in
ancient times, people wanted to beautify themselves in various ways in order to feel better, to look
good to the other side and to manifest themselves in society. We can take ancient Egypt as an
example. At that time, women were using make-up materials such as blush and powder, which they
[1]
produced from natural sources and natural dyes, to become beautiful. (Arnold, Green, Allen, 1996)
The interest in care and beauty has always existed and will exist in the future, but the perspective
towards beauty changes as time goes on.

significance of the study

The beauty myth and it’s effects is an important subject because the effects can be mentally and
physically dangerous, or even life threatening. Because the beauty expectation are applying a huge
preassure on both man and woman. As an example, weight is one of the most mentioned beauty
criterations. And people are trying different methods to have the ideal bodies imposed to us by fashion
and cosmetic industry. And one of the methods is using medicine not approved by doctors. It is very
popular because it is cheap and very easy to Access. It also does not require much effort. It ıs
percieved as the easiest method of losing weight. (Alaşehirli, Doğantürk, Smaim, 2019) [2]
And these medicines are being introduced as ‘herbal therefore healthy’. But this is wrong, they are not
safe, and side effects can reach to even death. This pressure of beauty expectations effects people
mentally too. The idealized media images also creates mental disorders such as depression and
anxiety. They also put woman in bad mood and creates dissatissfaction. (Slater, Tiggerman, Firth,
Hawkins, 2012) [3].
relation with our lesson
In our lessons, we have talked about the gender characteristics defined by society and
imposed to everyone as unchangable rules. In these roles women are meant to be fragile and
pretty. As the models fashion industry and media shows us. Very skinny and fragile models,
wearing a lot of makeup all the time and wearing fancy dresses and high heels. Fits perfectly
to the gender characteristics. And the same gender characteristics demands men to be strong
and muscular. And the models we see in media, they all have big jaws and six packs, which
gives the the desired image. The society discriminates genders, but this effects both genders in
a bad way and puts pressure on everyone.

review of literature
A research made in Brazil says that beauty is actually the index of health in many societies. Such as
woman with larger hips defined healthy because they are seen as more fertile and more likely to have a
healthier pregnancy. Or for men, large jaw is an underlying state of health. But beauty is moving away
from health and expectations are becoming less realistic. Also, even the plastic surgeries gives people
the ‘ideal healthy body type’, when it is done by surgery, it is not actually healthy. Plastic surgeries in
Brazil does not have any health benefits, and they are even risky. Some of the surgeries are even life
threatening. But people still have those operations despite all the risks. And the reason behind it is
beauty/aesthetic concerns. There are beauty expectations for both genders but surgeries are
concentrated on women. (Edmonds, 2009) .[4]
Fashion and cosmetic industry used to be existing to meet the needs of society. But it has changed and
they are not selling products, they are selling statues for people. The brands you buy gives you
prestige. So this industry is trying to make one ideal, unattaible and unrealistic body image and base
their marketing on that body type. But this ideal body keeps getting thinner and thinner. And mmoving
far from healthy body standarts. They empose this body type to woman. And this effets women very
bad, both in economical way, and in health area. Beause they are trying to have that ideal body on
fashion industry, which is not healthy. (Ersöz, 2010) [5]
Body and aesthetic concerns and expectations effects both males and females. But the attitude fashio
industry has is harsher to women. Their body expectation are more unrealistic and harder to get. Men
are expected to be muscrular. But women has more beauty expectations. So women get more effected
by aestetic concerns, when there is a comparison. But that does not mean it only effects woman. It
effetcs both of the genders, but women more. (Çiftçi, 2014) [6]
Media uses very skinny and ‘perfect’ models with ideal appereances, but also uses a bunch of
photoshop on them too. Which creates a very unrealistic and unattainable look. And this looks affects
femal adolescents in a bad way, such as creating aesthetic concerns. (Pham, 2018) [7]
Male body image is a big concern too. Study made among 60 male college students shows they either
want more or less body fat and more muscle. Almost all of the students are having dissatisfactions
about their bodies and muscles. This dissatisfaction is associated with depression, lower self esteem
and and life satisfaction. Physical appereance plays a huge role on men’s self concept. (Cafri, Strauss,
Thompson, 2002) [8]

METHODOLOGY
In this research, we aimed to collect data about the beauty/aesthetic perception of people. We
prepared an online survey, including 12 questions. There are 11 mutliple choice questions and
1 short answer question. 2 of the multiple choice questions are about pesonal information
(gender and age), 9 are about the participants’ perspective and thoughts about
beauty/aesthetic. Survey is anonymous, no one can see the identities. It is possible to fill the
survey by a link. It is possible to skip questions.
We have 81 participants. The participants were determined by convenience sampling.
A convenience sample is a type of non-probability sampling method where the sample is
taken from a group of people easy to contact or to reach. We contacted the participants by
different texting applications.

RESULTS
In this part, I am going to present my findings. I had 87 participants for this research survey. 35,6% of
the participants are male and 64,4 of the participants are female. 13,8% of the participants are
between ages 30-60, 86,2% of the participants are between ages 15-30.

Plastic Surgery

%88,5 of the participants says they never had a plastic surgery or operation (filler, botox, surgery…) .
%11, of the participants says that they have had plastic surgeries operations before. %80 of the
participants with plastics surgery are female, %20 are male. So 6,4% of the male participants have had
an plastic operation, while %14 of the female participants have had plastic operations.
 16
14
12
10
all participants
8
males
6 females

4
2
0
percentage of having plastic operations

Weight-Satisfaction

36,8% of the participants says their weight is healthy and they do not want to change it. 40,2% of the
participants says that their weight is healthy but they still want to change it. %19,5 says their weight is
not healthy and they want to change it. 3,4% of the participants says their weight is healthy but they
still do not want to change it.

3.4
my weight is healthy and I do not want to change
19.5 it
36.8
my weight is healthy still want to change it

my weight is not healthy and ı want to change it

my weight is not healthy but ı still do not want to

40.2 change it

39% of the female participants says they want to change their weight even they are healthy.

32,2% of the male participants says they want to change their weight even they are healthy.

Body parts participants do not like - 1

60,9% of the participants says there have body parts they do not like and they would change it if they
had a chance. 20,7% of the participants says they have body parts they do not like but they would not
change it even if they had a chance. 18,4% of the participants says they have no body parts they do
not like.
 18.4

I have and I would change it

I have but I would not change
it
20.7
60.9 ı have not

71,4 of the female participants says they have body parts they do not like and they want to change.
41,9% of the male participants says they have body parts they do not like and they want to change.

Body parts participants do not like – 2

46% of the participants says the parts they do not like of their body are the parts that does not fit
society’s beauty expectations. 54% of the participants says it is not.

Body parts participants do not like – 3

One of the questions was “what is the part you do not like about your body?”. Anwers were varied.
But some of the answers that was given by multiple participants were ‘weight, height, waist, and
nose’.

Beauty-mental disorders relationship

18,8% of the participants says that at one point of their life, they felt that beauty/aesthetic concerns
caused them to have mental disorders such as depression or anxiety. 81,2% of the participants says
they did not. 3.3% of the male participants says they have felt like it did cause mental disorders.
26,7% of the female participants says they have felt like it did cause mental disorders.

female male
3.3 aesthetic
aesthetic concersn did
concersn did cause
cause mental mental
26.7 disorders disorders
aesthetic
concersn did aesthetic
not cause mental concersn did
disorders not cause
73.3 mental
disorders

96.7

Beauty – self love, self esteem relationship

36,8% of the participants says that beauty/aesthetic concerns have decreased their self love and self
confidence. 63,2% of the participants says beauty/aestetic corncerns have ever effected their self love
and self confidence. 44,6% of the female participants says beauty/aesthetic concerns have decreased
their self love and self confidence. 22,5% of the male participants says beauty/aesthetic concerns have
decreased their self love and self confidence.

female male
aesthetic
concerns
aesthetic decreased self
concerns 22.5 love and self
decreased self confidence
love44.6
and self aesthetic
confidence concerns did not
55.4 decrease self
aesthetic love and self
concerns did 77.5 confidence
not decrease
self love and
self confidence

Physical Acceptence
73,6% of the participants agreed with the statement ”I love and accept myself as the way I am”.
26,4% of the participans says they do not agree with this statement. 23,2% of the female participants
says they do not agree with this statement. 32.2 of the male participants says they do not agree with
this statement.

female male
agree with this agree with this
23.2 statement statement
does not agree 32.2 does not agree
with this with this
statement statement
67.8
76.8

Beauty Perception

We asked participants “Which on is more affective while shaping your beauty perception?”, and gave
them options. 66,7% of the participants says ‘what looks good to me is beautiful’. 17,2% of the
participants said ‘social media, social media celebrities’. 11,5% of the participants said ‘my family,
may friends, and my social environment’. 1,1% of the participants says ‘movies, tv series,
advertisements’. 2,2% said ‘all of them above’.

factors effecting beauty percetion

1.1 2.2
what looks god to me is beautiful
11.5
social media, social media celebrities

my family, my friends, and my social

17.2 emviroenment

movies,tv series, advertisements

66.7
all of them above

Photosop – Social Media

41,4% of the participants says they feel like they need to use photoshop and change themselves while
sharing a photo on social media. 58,6% of the participants says they do feel this kind of a need. 48,1%
of the female participants says they feel this need. 29% of the male participants says they feel this
need.

female male

29
feels this need feels this need
does not feel does not feel
48.1 this need this need
51.9

71

CONCLUSION - DISCUSSION

On my literaure review, I have found sources about women’ plastic surgeries. Most of the researches
begin with how beauty is a concerns of both genders, but ends up with talking about women’ plastic
operations. Only plastic surgery for men researches are the medical ones, not social. But my research
show plastic surgery among men is less then women’, but it it still is a frequent application. In this
research while 6,4% of the males have had plastic surgery while %14 of the females have had. There
is a difference but social side of men’ plastic surgeries still worth examining. This can be a
recommendation for further research.
40,2% of the participants, which is a very important part of the participants, says they want to change
their weight even if they are healthy. Researches I have found on the literature review part says the
same. Aesthetic concerns can be dangerous because sometimes it becomes more important than health.

60,9% of participants says they have parts of their body that do not like and they want to change. And
when it is asked, most of the anwers are about their weight, height and nose. These are all areas where
fashion and cosmetic industry focuses on. There are pre-defined criterations for all these areas. 46%
of the participants also says the parts they do not like about themselves are the parts that does not fit
society’s beauty expectations.
Beauty/aesthetic concerns might cause mental disorders such as depressio and anxiety in both genders.
These concerns causing a decrease on self love and self confidence is even more common. Most of the
female participants and a part of male participants are having trouble acccepting and loving
themselves as the way they are.
Most of the participants says their beauty perception is ‘whatever looks good to me’. But we do not
know if other factors affected their perception without even noticing. This can be a new research topic
in psychology area.
41,1% of the participants says they feel like they need to use photoshop before sharing a photo on
social media. This shows that their only cornern is not liking it theirselves. They also want other
people to see them beautiful.
Most of the researches I have found were focused on the effects on women. The researches about the
term ‘aesthetic and beauty’ were generally talking about the effetcs on women. There were seperate
researches about men’s body images but there are less. But there very few researches about the
comparison of male and female astehetic concerns and effetcs. One study ı have found and also my
research shows that both genders get affected from beauty/aesthetic expectations in a bady way.
Women get more affected and it causes more peoblems on women, but it affects men on a serious
level too. İt effects both genders, but women more.
Researches I have found says the media using photoshop on models creates concerns on women. My
research shows not only the models but everyone wants to use photoshop with beauty concerns. So
this can be an idea for further researches. relation between media photosops and regular social media
users photosop habits and psychological Fundamentals.
 REFERENCES

[1]
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[2]
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[3]
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[5]
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[6]
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[7]
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[8]
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