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It seems like society has become too obsessed with beauty. Everywhere you look, there are advertisements for new weight loss equipment and dieting programs. Commercials about products designed to make us look thinner, or make our teeth look whiter and brighter, fill the airwaves. And magazine headlines promise to give us ten ways to make our noses look smaller or our breasts look bigger.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best, lose a little weight, or have a brighter smile. But society's obsession with beauty comes with a high price.
Low-Self Esteem
We see beautiful, close to perfect men and women every day. They are everywhere. On television, on movie screens, and in magazines.
Being constantly exposed to these nearly perfect people, it can be hard not to compare yourself to them, or think you are lacking somehow if you don't look like them.
In fact, constant exposure to these celebrities has some people convinced that, because they don't look like that, there is something terribly wrong with them. As a result, they have major self-esteem issues. Not only might they think they are unattractive when they are far from it, they might also feel they are worthless.
What many of us forget is that, for celebrities, looking nearly perfect is a large part of their job. They spend several hours every day exercising, spend much of their lives on rigorous diets, and spend a large portion of their salaries fixing their "imperfections." Given that, they aren't really a standard by which normal, natural beauty should be judged. Yet both the public and the media do it all of the time.
What Are the Consequences?
Society's obsession with beauty can have a negative affect on a person's self-esteem. As a result, they can end up going to extremes as they strive to meet very unrealistic standards of beauty.
It's common knowledge that eating disorders are a major problem with many teenaged girls. But teen-aged boys can also suffer from this condition. And so can older adults. In fact, people of any age or walk of life can fall prey to society's obsession with being thin.
Also, while there is nothing inherently wrong with cosmetic surgery, for some it can become an addiction. Some spend large amounts of money, even go into debt, in order to fix every "imperfection" or "flaw," no matter how minor it might be, with plastic surgery. And, with every surgery, they are risking their health.
So, have we become too obsessed with beauty? It's a fact that would be hard to argue. And the negative consequences of this beauty obsession are impossible to ignore.
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