Within women's studies, scholars posit that the Beauty Myth is a powerful force that keeps women focused on and distracted by body image and that provides both men and women with a way to judge and limit women due to their physical appearance. Magazines, posters, television ads and social media sites are, in this hypothesis, among the many platforms today that perpetuate beauty standards for both men and women. The daily presence and circulation of these platforms, it is argued, makes escaping these ideals almost impossible. Women and men alike are faced with ideal bodies, bodies that are marketed as attainable through diets and gym memberships. However, for most people these beauty standards are neither healthy nor achievable through diet or exercise. Women often place a greater importance on weight loss than on maintaining a healthy average weight, and they commonly make great financial and physical sacrifices to reach these goals. Yet failing to embody these ideals makes women targets of criticism and societal scrutiny.
Perfectionistic, unattainable goals are cited as an explanation for the increasing rates of plastic surgery and anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is one of the most prevalent eating disorders in Western countries "affecting an estimated 2.5 million people in the United States alone."[8] Of this number, more than 90 percent of anorexics are girls and young women. They suffer from a "serious mental health disease that involves compulsive dieting and drastic weight loss". This weight loss is the result of deliberate self-starvation to achieve a thinner appearance, and it is frequently associated with the disorder bulimia. Anorexia's deep psychological roots make it difficult to treat and often extend the recovery process into a life-long journey.
Some feminists believe the beauty myth is part of a system that reinforces male dominance. According to Naomi Wolf, as women increasingly focus their attention on their physical appearance, their focus on equal rights and treatment takes a lower priority. The same is argued in Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, in which she recounts the effects of societies that condition adolescent girls and young women to behave in feminine ways. According to Beauvoir, these changes encompass a "huge array of social expectations including physical appearance, but unlike the social expectations on boys, the social expectations on girls and women usually inhibit them from acting freely".[9] In her argument, Beauvoir cites things such as clothing, make-up, diction and manners as subjects of scrutiny that women face but men do not.
According to Dr. Vivian Diller's book Face It: What Women Really Feel as their Looks Change and What to Do About It, "most women agree, reporting the good looks continue to be associated with respect, legitimacy, and power in their relationships".[10] Diller writes that in the commercial world, hiring, evaluations and promotions based on physical appearance push women to place the importance of beauty above that of their work and skills.
Over the course of history, beauty ideals for women have changed drastically to represent societal views.[11] Women with fair skin were idealized and segregated and used to justify the unfair treatment of dark-skinned women. In the early 1900s, the ideal female body was represented by a pale complexion and cinched-waist; freckles, sun spots, and/or skin imperfections led to scrutiny by others. In 1920, women with a thinner frame and small bust were seen as beautiful, while the ideal body type of full-chested, hourglass figures began in the early 1950s, leading to a spike in plastic surgery and eating disorders. Society is continually shifting the socially constructed ideals of beauty imposed on women.
