Most beautiful people...

Lately I have seen a lot of articles on the internet about electing people as the year's "most beautiful". To me, these contests seem useless. For example, Beyonce Knowles was recently named the "World's Most Beautiful Woman" by People magazine. Now to be honest, I have no idea what that title means. Does it mean most physically attractive or spiritually attractive? Whatever it is, most young girls will take it as meaning physical beauty. Is the media focusing too much on physical beauty? Everywhere you look, there is always someone being praised on being physically attractive, and not enough people being appreciated for things that really contribute to the world like medical findings and humanitarians. Here is a picture of the issue of People magazine with Beyonce on the cover:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJZpqr__J5GRzEYr-CdusxITzwCw?docId=fda03b2fd2e645a0b7326b97c9d3877f

 

The whole magazine is about physical appearance. The media is obsessing too much on physical appearance and women are suffering because of it. With beauty being so emphasized, it's like women (and men) feel that it is all they're worth. This makes me sad because your appearance is a roulette. You don't know how big your nose is going to turn out, or how tall you will be. I think praising people for something like big eyes or big boobs is useless because they didn't do anything to accomplish that (unless you include plastic surgery).  A study done by the National Institute on Media and the Family  shows that "53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies"[1] and that "40% of 9-10 year old American girls have tried dieting"[2]. This is ridiculous because 9-10 year old girls shouldn't be focused on their bodies. When I was 9, I wasn't remotely self conscious of by body, and felt no pressure to be thin and pretty. That was about ten years ago now, and it's shocking how things have changed. 

 Citations:


[1]  http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts


 [2] http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts