Beauty, Obesity, and the Modern Society

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Beauty, Obesity, and the Modern Society
In a world where the society where beauty is becoming increasingly revered and maintaining a healthy weight is a problem, many men and women, young and old, struggle to reconcile these two issues. In their article “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” Derenne and Beresin make it quite clear that increased obesity rates, sedentary lifestyles, negative advertising, and negative body image continue to affect the lives of millions in profoundly negative ways (Derenne and Beresin 258). To combat this, the authors posit that families, led by parents, “have a responsibility to talk with children about media messages and healthy life styles (Derenne and Beresin 260).” In essence, parents need to practice better eating habits, engaging in exercise, and limiting child exposure to television and negative advertising. In a separate article by Franke-Ruta titled “The Natural Beauty Myth” the author argues that natural beauty in its advertised form is a myth and does not exist because “there is no such thing as ‘natural beauty’ (Franke-Ruta 68). She opposes the fact that eating healthier and leading a more ‘natural’ life will lead to natural beauty (Franke-Ruta 69). Instead, she asserts that attaining beauty (as described in modern media) for the vast majority of men and women is in itself a time-consuming, lengthy, expensive, and often unachievable goal.
It is important to note that while these two article are different, they both address the issues surrounding beauty and body image in a modern society. From their analyses of the situations, it is quite apparent that the consistent pursuit of the beauty ideals presented in modern media is unnecessary and is only pursued due to the endless advertisements of food, health, and fashion products that bombard people on a daily basis. In essence, both articles reveal that the advertisements and media forms that people are exposed to on a regular basis do little to present viewers with the whole truth insofar as beauty, health, and body image are concerned.
In her critique against natural beauty, Franke-Ruta points out that pursuing such a form of beauty is impossible in the modern world. To her, human beings today are exposed to environments that are so different from what the natural environment of human beings should be that it is “virtually impossible to say what we might be like in a natural state (Franke-Ruta 69).” In a nutshell, this argument demonstrates that beauty in itself is affected by many interconnected and complex issues such as advertising, technology, and food. Because of this, attempting to achieve natural beauty only by living more naturally is impossible. On the other hand, Derenne and Beresin establish that the media and its presentation of men and women has contribu...