Are people too obsessed with their looks these days?

Roadtrippin

I'm sure similar topics have been covered before but I thought it is still a current issue.

Are we (ladies) and people in general too obsessed with our appearance these days? To a point where we risk health (botox, laser, plastic surgery) and sanity over that obsession?

I don't want to just discuss the female disposition to be a bit more conscious of our looks but also people's general change in attitude towards what's needed to feel good about ourselves.

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-society-obsessed-looks-happened-natural-530036.html

Discuss ladies

sambuka41

I think its safe to say we are! Also like you said I don't think its just women, men too, children as well. It's because in todays society we are told all the time to BUY, I think we focus more on how we look because there is massive profits to be made from it. From clothes, beauty products, surgery, fitness classes.

So many people stand to profit from you looking in the mirror every morning and criticizing yourself. I think that's the main reason why we have become obsessed with looks.

Roadtrippin

sambuka41 wrote: »

So many people stand to profit from you looking in the mirror every morning and criticizing yourself. I think that's the main reason why we have become obsessed with looks.

The point about the profit is a very good one. I totally agree.
When you look at how many children/teens and men are also consciously "targeted" now with ads on TV/online etc. regarding their appearance- clothes, body, etc., it seems the main reason this is being done by media and companies in general is because they are potential consumers to be exploited.

I for one totally disagree with the selling of "sexy" clothes and makeup to children under the age of 12. when I was that age (that makes me sound so old but that's the way it is...), my mum still bought a lot of my clothes and never ever would I have bee allowed to put on makeup, let alone leave the house with it.
What has happened to the world? No morals... I think children should be left to be children as long as they can! Being an adult having to give a sh*t about your looks is hard enough and starts way too early as it is!!!

I don't think it's a "we" issue. I definitely think some people are too obsessed with looks, but I know plenty of people (which I'd hopefully also belong to) who care about their appearance a healthy amount, nothing more.

To be honest, I think it's that the media is too looks obsessed. The majority of people on the street aren't. But with the media being looks obsessed it does seem to be trickling down the younger people out there, both girls and boys. Hopefully as they grow older they'll detach from the medias images and become more realistic in terms of what a human is supposed to look like.

Roadtrippin

Roadtrippin wrote: »

I for one totally disagree with the selling of "sexy" clothes and makeup to children under the age of 12. when I was that age (that makes me sound so old but that's the way it is...), my mum still bought a lot of my clothes and never ever would I have bee allowed to put on makeup, let alone leave the house with it.
What has happened to the world? No morals... I think children should be left to be children as long as they can! Being an adult having to give a sh*t about your looks is hard enough and starts way too early as it is!!!

Kids have been raiding their mothers' closets for high heels and makeup since forever
When I was 12 my mother put a bit of makeup on me for some big family function, and I wore it once or twice at the gaeltacht camps
I was surprised when the girl next door already had a bag of leftover makeup bits as well.
There's nothing "no morals" about it. Kids will be kids, but remember that kids also like to try emulating adults sometimes too. My 2 year old baby cousin likes running around with a tube of lip balm - my aunt removed the actual balm. She mimics putting it on people. And trust me, there's no bad influences there, she's just being a kid.

cynder

Some people do obsess over looks, others dont give a s**t, they go out in PJS.


Personally I care about how i look but im not obsessed with my looks.

Roadtrippin

bluewolf wrote: »

Kids have been raiding their mothers' closets for high heels and makeup since forever
When I was 12 my mother put a bit of makeup on me for some big family function, and I wore it once or twice at the gaeltacht camps
I was surprised when the girl next door already had a bag of leftover makeup bits as well.
There's nothing "no morals" about it. Kids will be kids, but remember that kids also like to try emulating adults sometimes too. My 2 year old baby cousin likes running around with a tube of lip balm - my aunt removed the actual balm. She mimics putting it on people. And trust me, there's no bad influences there, she's just being a kid.

Fair enough, you're entitled to your opinion. I have no issue with the occassional lipgloss or nail polish at a family function. Little girls like copying their mums. That's normal.
Let me be more specific what I mean with this - I do NOT agree with little girls wearing tracksuit bottoms with "Juicy" spelled across their bum. I DO NOT AGREE with girls spending more money than their mother on makeup in Boots and looking like a goth when walking to the shop. There's a line. And I think it has been crossed a long time ago.

People don't think there's anything wrong with it these days. I do. We just have become so desensitised to the fact that children are made into little adults these days and have to grow up way too fast in some ways.

I am not saying everyone still has to wear no makeup or should not allow their kids to buy their own clothes. Things change. I would have preferred buying myself my own clothes by the time I was 13/14 but my mum was strict about it and didn't want me to spend too much money on clothes.
I am only in my late twenties and I don't consider myself a prude by any means. But there has to be a line somewhere - and that line has been blurred.
As a parent, it is clear you need to keep a balance between allowing your kids to do what makes them happy and protecting them. Overprotection doesn't work either in the long run.

That's just my own opinion - sorry if people don't agree.

Abi

Roadtrippin wrote: »

I'm sure similar topics have been covered before but I thought it is still a current issue.

Are we (ladies) and people in general too obsessed with our appearance these days? To a point where we risk health (botox, laser, plastic surgery) and sanity over that obsession?

I don't want to just discuss the female disposition to be a bit more conscious of our looks but also people's general change in attitude towards what's needed to feel good about ourselves.

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-society-obsessed-looks-happened-natural-530036.html

Discuss ladies

My own opinion, I think a lot of women can be alright. I'm not really too fussed, not to say that I love everything about my appearance, but I'm happy enough with my lot I guess. There isn't really anything that can sway me tbh.


Though I was listening to radio one this morning, and I managed to catch a snippet of the news where a recovering anorexic was calling for a ban on air-brushing. She said it had a direct effect on her, and constantly obsessed and compared herself to these women. I can see how that would happen.

I had a look there for a source, here it is:

A 20-year-old recovering anorexic has launched an online campaign for a ban on the airbrushing of photos to make models and celebrities look thinner than they are.

Rachael Johnston is hoping to collect 100,000 signatures for her petition calling for a ban, or failing that, putting health warnings alongside airbrushed photos.

Ms Johnston became anorexic at 13, and at one point was given just 48 hours to live after her weight plummeted to just 4.5 stone.

In a debate with columnist Carole Malone on BBC Breakfast, she said that her illness was not helped by an obsession with the thin images of her favourite celebrities in the media.

Vid for it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17904837

Abi

Abi wrote: »

Though I was listening to radio one this morning, and I managed to catch a snippet of the news where a recovering anorexic was calling for a ban on air-brushing. She said it had a direct effect on her, and constantly obsessed and compared herself to these women. I can see how that would happen.

My instinctive reaction to this is that they would just use skinnier models in the first place, I'm not sure how the whole thing works of course but surely if they want skinnier, and they can't airbrush them, they'll just hire skinnier women - that'll hardly help the situation.

I think the media are obsessed with the way we look. They will post pictures of celebs having "piled on the weight" and two weeks later saying they're too skinny. That's why I don't buy any of those Heat magazines or likes (struggling to think of another one??), I'm not going to support that. I think people in the public eye are obsessed with their looks, but can you blame them?

Normal everyday people, in my experience, are generally not obsessed, looking good is something most people want, spending a little time on that is healthy and I love to see people looking good - men and women alike. There will always people who go to major extremes but that applies to everything in life and those people are usually in the minority.

jammy roger

OP, I think you'll find that people will tend to answer "no" to this question, as they've been culturally programmed to believe that physical attractiveness is very important, when really it's not. Advertisements have been playing on people's unconscious minds for nearly a century. Women are especially susceptible to subconscious imagery and marketers use this to make money by exploiting their need to feel attractive.

Make-up does not even look good, at all. Yes seemingly every single woman in this country wears at least some of it.

Sindri

Yes.

We're told happiness these days is in your looks. We glorify the good looking, and we want the good looking to like us, as it gives our self esteem a little boost. By like I mean even a random good looking stranger just being nice to us in passing.

Looks, and the validation of them, are seen as the first gratification towards love and meaningful relationships which we all want for cultural and biological reasons. Our looks enable our ability for happiness in that regard, as a secondary motivation and as a primary motivation for ourselves and our own assessment of our self efficacy to attain love.

MJOR

I think its ok to care about how you look. I also would agree that kids should be kids and they should not be allowed dress like adults.I object to dressing them like mini adults, but equally I understand that they like to play dress up. I know my little niece wears nail polish and a bit of glitter, No more than I did as a child. I don't think it left any lasting damage with me in fact its now what I make a career out of( I am a make up artist).

As long as the caring doesn't lead to damaging obsessive behaviour then its pretty ok!

dearg lady

Deleted User wrote: »

My instinctive reaction to this is that they would just use skinnier models in the first place, I'm not sure how the whole thing works of course but surely if they want skinnier, and they can't airbrush them, they'll just hire skinnier women - that'll hardly help the situation.

I think they would try to use skinnier models, but it wouldn't go down well, because realistically they'd have to use many anorexic models, and I think there would be a massive backlash against that.

I would like to see airbrushing banned, it does create impossible targets for young women (and men too I'm sure). I'm not obsessed with my looks by any stretch, but I still see pictures online or in magazines and wish I could look more like that. I have to constantly remind myself that what I'm looking at is probably not real.

saa

It's okay to have beauty procedures, its okay not to but in practice sometimes its not and im not sure if that comes down to what other women expect of each other regarding how we act/dress/look or image/age range an employer is looking for/the image of beauty/ or what men will find desirable.

Anywho I personally don't feel like the underweight model issue affects me within this context but today weight definitely seems to equal looks which is kind of messed up, if you are a healthy weight then your value decreases as a woman (I know..) if you dare to have wrinkles, stretch marks, uneven skin tone, larger nose, small breasts, a minuscule amount of fat on your arms or inner thighs, no wonder women are getting the procedures done because they suffer the consequences for having these prescribed flaws (imo wrinkles should never be a flaw), So are really getting some of these beauty procedures done to make others more comfortable or are we truly doing them in an attempt to be more comfortable with ourselves a bit from both sides but I feel that what others expect from my body disconnects me from truly feeling comfortable with my body. A lot of flaws are sold to us to make us buy products but its the fact that everyone else buys into it that makes it hard to opt out of without suffering peoples judgments and talking about you if you break one of the rules.

No one expects me to be thin but I lose out and get overlooked for looking overweight, professionally and personally. Yes I am working on it I've lost two stone over the last year but need to lose another two (or maybe one) to be seen as a normal person and then another one or two to be seen as an attractive person not that I care about that and yes I will keep going to the gym and I don't care if my calfs get too big to be sexy or If I am sweating buckets around other god forbid men, I feel good and im going to do my own thing.Saying that I always focus on how I feel, I feel uncomfortable with the extra weight regardless of the "looks" issue and I know a lot of people would feel like if you're overweight you darn well should be overlooked shame on you for that. So at the moment I'm just trying to climb up to the basic standard, its such a rat race for women because of the rewards or punishment for being or not being a woman who looks after herself which goes beyond being healthy and well presented. It is having the current hair do and trends, products and whatnot oh and lest we not forget the "you don't look good unless you have a tan". I'm happy for each woman to decide for herself if she likes getting a tan or doesnt but if she doesnt she shouldnt have to put up with people talking about her behind her back about how she looked awful pale and ruined the photograph or would you not wear anything a bit nicer.

Hmm I suppose what I'm saying is no wonder we seem to be obsessed the pressure from all corners is immense!

PrincessLola

I was reading a play recently by Christopher Marlowe where the male characters were complaining about how fake women were, and so obsessed with their make-up and clothes.
This was written in the 1600s. We have ALWAYS been absessed.

analucija

PrincessLola wrote: »

I was reading a play recently by Christopher Marlowe where the male characters were complaining about how fake women were, and so obsessed with their make-up and clothes.
This was written in the 1600s. We have ALWAYS been absessed.

Exactly, the difference is that more people can afford to be obsessed with looks nowadays. When you can barley feed yourself the breast implants probably are not on top of the list of priorities.

fits

The fake tan, fake eyelashes, bodycon, platform heels loook which prevails in provincial towns on a Saturday night is CRAZY!

I was in a local pub a few weeks ago and a friend of mine asked how I didnt feel self conscious about not being dressed up. She wasnt being bitchy, just genuinely curious. I was wearing skinny trousers, ankle boots and a fairly respectalbe top at the time! (and make up!)

Roadtrippin

PrincessLola wrote: »

I was reading a play recently by Christopher Marlowe where the male characters were complaining about how fake women were, and so obsessed with their make-up and clothes.
This was written in the 1600s. We have ALWAYS been absessed.

That's true but I think the difference to back then is the amount of people that spend obscene amounts of money on clothes and makeup etc these days. Back in the 17th century the majority of people were quite poor and had to worry about other more important things in life such as food.
Thankfully our standard of living, at least in the "Western" world has gone up dramatically since then. But that also means people spend a lot more money on "luxury items" and become more obsessed with their looks.
I mean, whatever about women (and men by the way), always caring about their appearances. I think we can all agree that phenomena such as the increase of people getting plastic surgery are much more common place nowadays.
I feel sorry for people that have nothing better to spend their money on than getting a boob job or a nose job, for example. Unless there are serious underlying reasons for it (accident, someone that feels too self-conscious about one part of their anatomy to leave the house..), I really don't get it!

Roadtrippin

fits wrote: »

The fake tan, fake eyelashes, bodycon, platform heels loook which prevails in provincial towns on a Saturday night is CRAZY!

I was in a local pub a few weeks ago and a friend of mine asked how I didnt feel self conscious about not being dressed up. She wasnt being bitchy, just genuinely curious. I was wearing skinny trousers, ankle boots and a fairly respectalbe top at the time! (and make up!)

I don't see anything wrong with the way you dressed for a night out. I think it's all down to how comfortable you feel in your own skin. If you are confident enough about how you look (and I'm not talking about thinking you are the hottest but just being happy with yourself), you don't need all the dresses, short skirts, fake tan, fake eyelashes etc.
I like dressing up every now and then but I also like just wearing a nice top, a pair of jeans and nice shoes on a night out.
Different strokes for different folks, as they say!

Logical Fallacy

Roadtrippin wrote: »

I'm sure similar topics have been covered before but I thought it is still a current issue.

Are we (ladies) and people in general too obsessed with our appearance these days? To a point where we risk health (botox, laser, plastic surgery) and sanity over that obsession?

I don't want to just discuss the female disposition to be a bit more conscious of our looks but also people's general change in attitude towards what's needed to feel good about ourselves.

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-society-obsessed-looks-happened-natural-530036.html

Discuss ladies

I don't think so, or at least I don't think there was ever a time when people were not obsessed with looking well in line with societal norms.

All throughout history people have engaged in very unhealthy practices in an effort to "look better".

I think the main difference now is a large consumer base, murkier class divides and a general commercialization of all things appearance related. Basically the machine got bigger and more inclusive but people remained the same.

SprintST

It depends on the person. For example I take pride in my appearance, workout, eat healthy, and enjoy an active lifestyle. For me, this is healthy living.

At the same time I know people obsessed with their looks who take it to an extreme in what I feel is an unhealthy manner.

Most "consumerism" activists argue that big corporations feed consumers the lifestyle they should desire. I argue that big corporations are only giving the consumers what they want.

Since this is the "Ladies Lounge" I will pose this question. Would you want to live in a world without makeup, lipstick, high heels, push up bras, a sexy black dress, and jewelry? I think most agree the answer is no. Why? Because those things make you look/feel more attractive.

One could argue that makeup is obsessing about your looks (I'm not). I'm just making a point and hope that ladies continue to look great when they go out.

Babybuff

SprintST wrote: »

Since this is the "Ladies Lounge" I will pose this question. Would you want to live in a world without makeup, lipstick, high heels, push up bras, a sexy black dress, and jewelry? I think most agree the answer is no. Why? Because those things make you look/feel more attractive.

One could argue that makeup is obsessing about your looks (I'm not). I'm just making a point and hope that ladies continue to look great when they go out.

I fantasize about living in a clandestine monastery in the French Alps where everyone has to wear white robes and take a vow of silence.
*dreams*