impact on society. With today's mass media people can be subjected to thousands of

images and messages daily, portraying the "ideal" body image. The people most often

portrayed and effected by these messages are young women. Females can feel constant

pressure to live up to these ideals which are most often unattainable. This pressure can

cause detrimental physical and mental states.

To fully understand this problem we must first ask ourselves, "Why?" Why has

the female body been pushed to the forefront of society and media? It is undeniable that

it is merely a marketing ploy. The beauty sector is a multibillion dollar a year industry.

Companies such as Revlon, Cover Girl, Maybelline, L'Oreal insist that girls must look a

certain way if they want to be anything. These corporations are only concerned with the

bottom line. They take no responsibility for the negative image that they portray, in fact,

that is what they thrive on. The worse self-image a woman has, the more beauty products

What are the effects of all this? Major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, social

your man will love you!" sprawled across the cover of the latest issue. Occasionally

she is ugly than to subject her to thousands of unrealistic, airbrushed pictures of models

there is plenty of blame to go around. And so we look to Hollywood. The cardinal rule

said for virtually all mainstream shows on television. It is a constant barrage of beautiful

like embedded into their minds. The evidence is in the fact that every year cases of

"improve" her looks. And there is no better way to make her think

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cosmopolitan Vogue, , Maybelline L'Oreal, beauty industry, body image, image portray, bottom line, fat ugly,
Approximate Word count = 750
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)