The Voice in the Mirror

In the modern world we live in, media consumes our life. Before we even get out of bed in the morning, we unlock our phone and the world is in our hands as we check social media and read the news headlines of the day. Hours are spent watching television and searching the web; we flip through fashion magazines and watch music videos from all of our favorite artists. While all of this is happening, we are being influenced by the media around us. Whether is it subconscious or not, we are absorbing the media’s view on things such as success, happiness, and beauty and comparing these standards to ourselves. This is where things can get dangerous, when we are brainwashed by the media to believe that we are not good enough and have to change ourselves to fit the standards that they present to society. This is a common occurrence when it comes to women and their looks. When we are young girls, often times confidence is easy to find as we receive acceptance from those around us and feel secure about how we look and behave. As teens mature and spend more time exposed to the media, many begin to believe they are not good enough because they don’t look like the girls on the cover of the magazine. The media’s view of women demonstrates a standard of beauty that is unrealistic, yet through its power and influence, women are left searching for the perfection they see so they, too can be proclaimed beautiful.
As the standards of feminine beauty are constantly presented in popular media, these unattainable images can lead to low self-esteem. The key to not letting the media break down a woman’s self-confidence is to understand what happens behind the scenes. The Dove “Evolution” video shows how the media distorts our perception of beauty as it highlights the steps between when the model sits behind the camera and when the photograph is released for the world to see. The video begins, and the model sits down while a bright light shines on her face which automatically enhances her skin. Then, many makeup artists and hairdressers come and transform her appearance. Afterwards, editing software is used to change the size of her lips, lengthen her neck, make her eyes bigger and brighter and her frame thinner. The model becomes unrecognizable compared to how she looked originally. When the Dove Self-Esteem project team was asked why they created this video, they said, “It’s all too common for women to compare themselves to images of models, actresses and singers in the media-but are these images even real? With clever lighting, make-up and Photoshop, it is possible to completely transform an image so that it no longer reflects the shape, size or features of the original model. No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” (selfesteem.dove.us). Even when this model’s image is completely distorted, women will still aspire to look like her. The media photo shops models to make them perfect, and then real-life females aspire to look like one who has been changed by a computer. With that, the race for unattainable perfection begins.
As women, it is our job to understand what happens behind the scenes and help others understand the misconceptions of beauty in the media. In a world where media overpowers us, we need to have the strength and knowledge to see through the superficiality and empower women to have confidence in themselves. The only way to stop the race for unattainable perfection is to start with ourselves and those around us. When women look in the mirror, they should be confident in who they are and not hear the voices of society echoing in their head with every glance. Make sure the voice in your mirror is one worth listening to.