HOW FAR IS ENOUGH? A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF BEAUTY STANDARDS ON YOUNG WOMEN

Abstract

In the past few years beauty standards have changed rapidly and young women are expected to follow these beauty standards. Because of the exponential growth of social media people can see the beauty standards from all over the world and young women also try to follow the beauty standards of our society as well as the beauty standards from west because they are influenced by them. As social media has become an integral part of everyday life for all the people young or old and everyday people especially women are exposed to millions of flawless, edited, attractive pictures of models and celebrities on social media and they are influenced by them and try to be like them. This research study seeks to investigate the influence of beauty standards of young women, how society wants them to look like and what are the ways they use to fit in the box of beauty which is created by society and on social media as well. Particular attention is given to various websites about beauty and changing beauty standards. While there has been multitude of literature regarding the effect of beauty standards and how it can impact young women negatively as well as positively sometimes by boosting their self esteem and making them more confident. This particular study seeks to fill gaps in the literature by investigating the phenomenon of how beauty standards in the age of social media can influence young women. Because now everybody can see what is trending with just few taps and everybody can change the way they look by either doing makeup or opting for cosmetic procedure. But this is something which is creating an insecure self-hating/ doubting society. A qualitative method was chosen in the form of in-depth interviews with the aim to obtain a deeper understanding of the research study. 17 participants were interviewed in which 10 of them were young women, 2 beauticians, 1 aesthetic doctor and 4 gym trainers. Furthermore, thematic analysis was done in order to obtain themes which were relevant to the research objective. Based on the analysis of themes which were presented from the interview procedure in which the data was collected, it was found that women were influenced by what they see on social media and by the beauty standards of Pakistani society as well as from western society, and wanted to be like them they also wanted perfect flawless skin and good bodily figures. It was also revealed that they were bullied because of the way they look by their own families or friends too and most of them use various ways to look beautiful and attractive. Key term: - Beauty standards, body goals, cosmetic surgery, fair skin, dissatisfaction, mental health, stereotypes.