Is the Body Beautiful a guarantee for Happiness Essay

Is the Body Beautiful a guarantee for Happiness - Essay Example This ‘ideal’ image is usually defined as someone of a mid-20ish age, slender, with specific measurements and a certain good-looking charm. This limited view of the ideal automatically eliminates anyone who might have been born with a larger bone structure or other ‘defect’ that defies the reshaping of the scalpel from the ranks of the socially acceptable. Through the reality shows, though, those lucky few who are able to fit the ideal in any way, to attain the ‘body beautiful’, much is made of their subsequent happiness and success as a result of their ‘improved’ appearance. ASPS president Rod Rohrich pointed to the various individuals taking part in plastic surgery reality television indicating that many of them have unrealistic and unhealthy expectations for the results.1 It is perceived through these types of presentations that the only way to find happiness and fulfillment is through the construction of the ‘body beautiful ’, causing an extreme focus on the outward appearance many times to the detriment of the inner being. However, the question that must be asked in this scenario is: Does the body beautiful actually guarantee an individual the happiness they seek? From our earliest history, it has been through our outward appearances that we project who and what we are to other people. Studies have continuously shown that people dress a certain way and acquire certain things to try to evince an attitude of belonging to a particular subset of individuals who embody their ideals.2 With these outward appearances in hand, we can walk up to the ‘in crowd’ and proclaim ourselves a member. â€Å"Indeed Smith (1990) believes that women view their bodies as ‘objects of work’ requiring attention and upkeep in order to operate well and promote the desired effect.†3 Yet being a part of this crowd does not necessarily guarantee happiness as is evidenced by the lives of those people who help to set the standards, the movie stars