Re-defining the concept of Beauty & Masculinity
What comes to your mind when I say “beautiful woman” or “handsome man?”
A woman with flowing hair and skin so fair and smooth on a figure so perfect, like the ones you can only find on the ramps of the best fashions shows. For the males, it isn’t tall dark & handsome anymore. It’s tall, fair, muscular & handsome. Anything apart from the above or rather different from above description is not even considered in the league.
Not many realize this but there is a definition that has been created, not by us though? But it still exists.
Earlier women used to be much more voluptuous and happy about it – Asha Parekh, Zeenat Aman, Bindu or Helen. But as the years passed by the “ideal figure” size started diminishing and “size zero” concept stepped in. And of course, advertising industry evolved too and they started using images in ads instead of plain text. They understood that images are much more powerful to sell their products.
The beauty industry started gaining pace in 90’s. They knew they had to target 2 most important factors of our lives- beauty and ageing. They play with the desires of all, to look attractive & youthful. They are well aware and researched that the demands for products that enhance appearance and make people more youthful will never go down and so will their businesses.
Initially, fairness ads, weight loss ads or ads for a younger skin targeted women. That if a girl won’t be fair she may not get a job or a guy to marry. If she has pimples, she may not have friends because people will not talk to her. Then came up with grooming line of products for men – Fairness creams, face washes, facial kits etc. Hence, even men started getting more conscious about the way they look and their skin and body. Just to let you all in a little secret, I have my own brother who spends almost 20 minutes in front of the mirror just setting his hair.
Everything around us i.e. the televisions, online shopping sites, digital advertisements, hoardings, magazines, newspapers, beauty pageants – all of these are continuously bombarding us with images that have men and women looking absolutely flawless and fabulous. We all know they wear heaps of make-up and most of these images are photo shopped, but, what can we do about it? We humans are visual people and these people play with our psychology to sell their product. They create such impressions on our minds that leave a lasting impact and sometimes even influence our thoughts and choices.
Hence we can say that all the definitions are created by media, advertising & celebrities. But do we really need to fall prey to it?
So, coming to the primary reason of writing this – we all form an image about our physical selves and about our body that is called body-image. I am so huge. I have fat arms. I have huge shoulders. I have narrow legs. I have horrible acne. I am short. I have huge thighs. I am dark. I have a bulging belly? Have you ever thought how did you decide that you are xyz? On what basis did you decide so?
A voluptuous girl is made to think she is FAT i.e. abnormal, and almost stigmatized to such an extent – “you will not get a good job or husband, people will ignore you” because that’s what they show in advertisements. So, obviously her image about her body will go down. She will think – Why is my body like this? Why can’t my body support me? I dislike myself because I am not one of those? Something similar happens with men who are anorexic or obese. This is called a negative body image which is directly related to the person’s self-esteem which is related to self-confidence. If an individual isn’t happy with their own body, they can never be happy with themselves. Anywhere they go, what so ever they do they are always conscious about – how does their body look & if it’s performing correctly?
There is nothing against grooming, weight loss or any other products/ services. Rather with globalization, the world has become smaller. Indians are doing business with different countries and coming in contact with people over the world. So rather, being groomed & well-dressed is important because it’s a proven fact that people make first impressions in 3-5 seconds of meeting a person, especially strangers. But why portray only skinny women and muscular men? Why create stereotypes or rather insert fear in people through advertisements?
Few companies like DOVE have understood the effect of advertising on individuals hence they have begun with the campaign called “Dove Real Beauty” which is very well appreciated. They take different size models and models of different skin colours – which basically promote that human, are of different shape, size, colour to portray that we are all different & unique in our own ways which is perfectly normal. We don’t need to work on changing what we are or how we look and appear to others rather care and strengthen our assets. Simple example of Lata Mangeshkar or Sachin Tendulkar – they aren’t really physically attractive (as per the standard created) but they are well-known and respected for their creativity & competence. At the same time, they take required measures to be presentable with whatever height, body & weight that they have.
To re-define the beauty and masculinity standards, Image Consultants work to uplift self-esteem and self-confidence of people & taking their body image from a low/negative to fresh and positive one. Also, assist people understand their lifestyle, personal style, body type, personal colour and make best of use of available resources to project themselves as whole new being. Because I believe beauty is inside out! When a person feels well from inside, they will be much more confident, radiant. Also Enhanced, Empowered, and Evolved outside.
