The beauty standard for men has stood unchanged for nearly all of human history with tall, strong and muscular with a minimum of flab being the near-universal standard. But for women, the ideal of beautiful has changed drastically. Women, that by today's standards might be considered "plump," were the ideal in Michelangelo's time, for instance. If you were a rich, elite woman this was the body type you desired to have. This was during a time of relative food scarcity.
But today, with relative food plenty (at least in wealthy countries) the standard for rich, elite women is almost anorexic (look at all the high-end fashion magazines or fashion models). Why do you think the standard for women has changed, but for men it has not? Why are women pressured to be thin in a time of plenty and plump in a time of scarcity? Which theoretical perspective (conflict, functionalism or symbolic interactionist) can give us the best answer to these questions?
One of the most important things about physical features for men and women is that it depended on the role they played. While men were expected to provide for the family, women were expected to stay at home, thus, women were expected to take care of their physical features which was not applicable to men as their demand depended on their ability to provide and accumulate wealth. Women’s demand was determined by their physical beauty. Today, mass media has played a huge role in forcing women to be beauty queens through celebrity role models. Thus, even the rich women wish to look thin as thinness was attached to pride and acceptance. In my opinion, it’s part of the male dominance that treats women as sexual pleasure center and subordinate beings. Conflict theory suggests that the society is in a perpetual conflict over the limited resources available where social order is maintained not through consensus but through domination. Thus, continuous oppression and dominance force women to remain beautiful by starving and through other means such as diet plans.
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The beauty standard for men has stood unchanged for nearly all of human history with tall,...
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