Beauty standards are alive and well throughout all societies. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition of beauty standards is “a standard of perfection, beauty, or excellence that is often taken as a model for imitation. It can also refer to the qualities in a person or thing that give pleasure to the senses or mind. Essentially, it’s a set of ideals or norms regarding physical appearance that are considered desirable or attractive within a particular culture or group.” We see this span across time and cultures. As we see in the image below, these are different beauty standards for women across various cultures. This can be seen through piercings, jewelry, hair, makeup, weight, tattoos, clothing, and many other factors.
In the United States there are many standards of beauty that women try to achieve. Being petite, having little to no body hair, having rosy cheeks, looking very young, having no blemishes, having flawless skin, no wrinkles, being short and petite. Now if we describe what a child looks like they have all of these same characteristics. The beauty standards of women in the United States is the same look as children. This creates a culture of normalizing pedophilia and normalizing men finding women many years younger than them as desirable. In one study it was found that women tend to find men most attractive within 2-3 years of their current age. Men in this study consistently found teenagers to young 20-year old’s the most attractive regardless of their own age.
rangeviewnews.org/25683/features/beauty-standards-throughout-culture/
https://shequalityblog.org/2021/08/12/is-pedophilia-present-in-todays-beauty-standard/
Written by: Beth Ganion
