Beauty is an abstract idea because it exists everywhere, and every human is beautiful. Real beauty cannot be defined because it cannot be restricted under one criterion. However, beauty has now become a standard or a limiting factor in many people’s lives. The products that supposedly ‘enhance’ our beauty are being sold to us by taking our insecurities and trying to lure us into desiring society’s definition of beauty. We waste our money and time by putting in effort to look the way people want us to look. In our society, we gain opportunities when we are physically attractive. Society tells us that we will be noticed and acknowledged when our physical appearance is “beautiful.”

Lisa Amans, department chair of Advertising and Fashion and Retail Management at The Art Institution of Washington, stated that, “People have been conditioned over the years to believe that achieving a certain level of success is only possible if you attain a certain level of beauty and physical attractiveness.” Adding on to this point, she said, “Many advertisers play on consumer insecurities in beauty advertising. The advertisers work off the premise that all consumers believe they must achieve the level of perfection shown by models in the ads.” These ads use models with “flawless” bodies and faces that promote products that appeal to ordinary people by persuasively saying that the products can change our appearance. These products can give us a six-pack, shiny hair, slim legs, or the “perfect bikini body”. We, the consumers,
unconsciously change our perspective of beauty to the one society tells us is beautiful. Because we want to be praised and successful
in today’s world, we believe the messages around us and try to mold ourselves into what media claims is true beauty.

In order to avoid being manipulated by the ads that we see everyday, the only major step we can take is to love ourselves nevertheless. Gail Dines, professor, activist, and author, said, “If tomorrow woman all over the world looked in the mirror and if they liked what they saw reflected back at them, then we would have to reshape capitalism as we know it. If you take away that self-loathing that woman have, then you will see industries all over the globe go bankrupt.” The current problem is that huge global companies are surviving mainly on the insecurities of consumers. But rather than the survival of these companies, the most important thing is for people to be self-confident and loving towards themselves.

No matter what messages we hear around us or the images that we see daily, if we are able to love our appearance, then we become bigger than superficial beauty. We become beautiful, confident, and intelligent. In a world that shames self-confidence, fighting against that can change the minds of people. The love we grow for ourselves is so difficult to save. It is hard to ever be satisfied with our physical appearance, but it is essential to realize that no matter what we look like, we are all so beautiful. Out of the 7 billion people that live in this world, no one looks, thinks, or is alike. Everyone is different, and that special quality in every individual is beauty.