Beauty is in the eyes of…the media?

Scanning a bookstore’s magazine racks one afternoon, I commented to my geeky friend how, fronting a certain technology and gadget magazine cover, there was always a hot, bikini-clad model. Note that the female model actually has nothing to do with the featured gadgets, but she is what catches the consumer’s eye. Besides the fact that the cover girl is the closest that a geek can ever get to a babe, my geeky friend comments, what else can we say? Men look at women. Heck, women look at other women. Female beauty catches attention. But when we scrutinize this modern-day behavior, could this mean that beauty is no longer in the eyes of the beholder? Is it now in the eyes of the media?

Images of female bodies are strewn all over magazine covers, television ads and billboards. Women (and their body parts) sell everything from medicine to soap to food to cars. Publicized beauty pageant winners (and we Pinoys are very fond of beauty pageants) are given badges of honor just for fitting into the mold of what is beautiful. Popular film and television actresses and models are becoming younger, skinnier and slinkier. Wrinkles are considered disasters and love handles have become unlovable.

Why are these standards of beauty being imposed on us women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature-looking than most models and endorsers? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it’s no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. But I think the reason boils down to how mass media has a very powerful influence on how we think, act and perceive things, such as beauty, to be. Whether the media perception of beauty shall the standard depends on public acceptance, culture and society. More often than not, however, we swallow what is given to us, with an inkling of doubt. But doubt can be enlightening because it means that one is thinking for himself or herself.

I stopped watching television years ago because I disliked those ad commercials, which always felt longer than the actual footage of my favorite shows. Since then, I’ve taken to print media, which I love, because I get to read only what I want. If I cross an advertisement on paper, it’s fine because it doesn’t feel so imposing on me. This was ironic for a college student studying Marketing. While my classmates would bob their heads in agreement, I’d be clueless in class whenever our teacher would cite popular fastfood or shampoo commercials.

What both fascinates and abhors me about Marketing as a practice is that it banks on our psychology to want. When we are distraught over dusky skin, a bulging belly or a pug nose, advertisers offer instant relief. Aggressive endorsers assail our vision. Contemporary society supports this and constantly appeals to our insecurities. Sure we love drooling over Ruffa’s snow white skin and Marian’s fit and fresh-looking figure, but deep down inside, don’t their endorsements make us uneasy? Sometimes, media images trigger hidden reserves of self-scrutiny: we are told that it’s not okay to be you. It seems we must shed our skins to produce another version of ourselves. Many of us would cash in thousands of hard-earned money for the promise to look like our favorite celebrities. Don’t want to be tagged as morena? Your friendly facial center can whiten you up and change your life forever! Enterprise is built on our desire to become thinner, whiter, richer, cuter, cooler. In television ads, as it is in real life, it seems what everyone really wants is to look like someone else.

The marketers have defined what is perfect and amid offers of pills, plastic, laser, silicone and tattoos, they tell us that today, people are ugly only if they choose to be.

That is why I decline their offers and switch off the television. I choose to be beautiful.