What is Glamour to the Media?

            Women are conflicted everyday from looking at the media and feeling that they have to be “naturally beautiful” and they have to use many products to become so.  According to most magazines being naturally beautiful does not mean waking up and going to school/work looking beautiful from what genes you were given.  It means waking up at the crack of dawn to put layers and layers of make-up on so that no one can see an inch of real skin.  Not to mention the fact that each layer is another fifty bucks, who has that kind of money to spend?  As a child I believed that I was naturally beautiful.  I believed there was such a thing, but the older I get and the more media corrupts my life I realize that there really isn’t such a thing anymore.  Girls and guys alike are brainwashed into believing that the “too-small-for-a-real-size” girls are what everyday women are “supposed” to look like.  I don’t know about you but a having a unique shape SHOULD make you feel like a real woman.  Even the women who are fake enough to make it on the magazine covers still need “fixing.”  In an article I saw from Glamour magazine a quite glamourous (might I say so myself) girl(model) came in for her photo shoot no make-up, and the make-up artist completely transformed her into looking completely fake.  I personally believe that producers and editors would make quite an effect by using a woman who wasn’t so fake and letting men know that “hey, my girlfriend isn’t so ugly after all!”

            When I read my magazines all I can think of is SIMULATION!  These covers are seen my millions of people whether they want to or not.  Even standing in line at the grocery store I find my eyes (and many others) wander over to the glamorous woman on the cover (most likely in a seductive pose).  I was wondering if this really affected me.  Women and even girls believe that they need make-up to go throughout their everyday routines.  They try so hard to look like a hyper-real depiction of a real woman.  In the 1960’s woman began seeing psychiatrists because they believed their was truly something wrong with themselves for not being happy striving to be this hyper-real woman.  Although a lot of attention has been drawn to the fact that women can be “whoever they want to be,” they still aren’t given the same respect is they don’t “dress the part” (literally).  This problem has not gone away.  Women all over the world feel pressured by these magazines to “go down a couple sizes” or buy the latest product to make them look, in my opinion way too young.  Woman of all ages have different types of beauty.  I feel the natural beauty of looking aged and wise and a full life lived is hidden behind the false advertisement that “no matter how old you are you must look 25.” I believe men must feel disappointed after seeing so many models look the same exact size with all the right proportions and skin and hair perfect when they see the women around them they don’t look the same. Even men are brainwashed into thinking that every woman all the time should be looking “hot.” When the truth of the matter is that the woman they believe to be “perfect” is just a computer’s depiction of the model.  In the end I believe media has a negative on both men and women.  Women are trying too hard to become these hyper-real models while men are constantly disappointed that their woman’s skin isn’t always smooth and blemish free and that real women’s weight fluctuates daily.  If a popular magazine such a Glamour showed real untouched woman, everyday women would feel much better about themselves while their boyfriends know how lucky they are to have such real, beautiful girlfriends.

            I would LIKE to believe that I can overcome this feeling of wanting perfection at anytime I please but I am not sure that is quite possible.  Even people who claim they have “their own style” still are affected by what media deems “in.”  No matter how hard people try to steer clear of these pressuring ads it is quite difficult.  Advertisers at experts at placing luring magazine covers and gigantic billboards in strategic spots that are sure to have its intended consumers: EVERYONE! Sure it’s difficult to avoid these advertisement but even so do they really effect me? Everyone has had an experience when they hear a very convincing voice on the radio or an infomercial where after it was done no matter how useless it is to you, you still beg your mother that its only $19.95! As we get older we realize that the super fast voice, that we could never understand as a child, explains how expensive the item really is and how dangerous and bad quality it may be.  But still no matter how much logic we use and tell ourselves that we don’t need it somewhere we feel like that child and want to buy it so very much.  No matter how much someone tries to use logic these ads of beautiful women is what leads us to have low self confidence and ache for something that we often forget isn’t real.  Is their any hope of the world ever able to rid itself of these negative images or are we just beginning our downfall to hyperrealism?