Obsession with beauty: how it parasitizes our minds

The reign of appearances and aesthetics can lead our minds into a trap.

Obsession with beauty is a phenomenon that permeates everything in our lives, regardless of how we see ourselves.regardless of how we see ourselves. In fact, even if we are satisfied with our appearance, it can become limiting and detract from our well-being.

The reason for this is that it has both a social and an emotional component. As a social phenomenon, it makes aesthetics highly relevant in determining what is popular and what is not, what can be attractive from a marketing point of view, and what will be left behind in the market. And as an emotional phenomenon, it influences our self-esteem and the way we judge people.

What is meant by obsession with beauty?

We live in a time in which external image is so important that it has come to condition our lives. The obsession with beauty is nothing new.However, in a hyperconnected world, social networks and television have boosted this preoccupation with maintaining a physical perfectionism that is worrying both for its social and psychological impact.

And in a world in which we are subjected daily to an incredible amount of stimuli (advertising, series, publications on social networks, etc.), the lack of time must be compensated by ways to filter what interests us. And what is the fastest way to do it? Judging aesthetics, appearances. Hence, the obsession with beauty has become a sort of parasite that drives our goals and motivations both individually and collectively; we both feed it.

At Northwestern University they have determined that the obsession with beauty has become a kind of social disease. has become a kind of social diseasesomething akin to a psychological disorder. In particular, they have found that women are under such pressure about their external image that they are statistically more likely to think obsessively about their image, comparing it with that of others.

In the words of Renee Engeln, professor of psychology and director of the Body and Media Lab department, this obsession with beauty causes women to invest all their energies into to appear to be what they are not and pleasing the publicinstead of focusing on other goals such as professional or intellectual development, to cite a few examples.

The image industry and aesthetic products are largely responsible for the obsession with beauty. Feminist groups and organizations, as well as researchers, claim that these types of companies distort women's perception of their physical beauty. distort women's perception of their physical beauty..

Some alarming data

According to sociological studies in which Renee Engeln herself has participated, 82% of teenage women spend a lot of time comparing their bodies to those of models and celebrities. comparing their bodies with those of models and celebrities.. On the other hand, 70% of adult women say they feel better valued and considered when they have made an effort to look like these media models.

Within this same group of women, different conclusions have been drawn. Women obsessed with beauty are much more likely to show symptoms of depression, eating disorders and a strong desire to undergo surgery. and a strong desire to undergo surgery to change their image. to change their image.

Another fact that reinforces concerns about beauty and perfection is that on average, women have up to 35 different beauty products at home, and they spend no less than 50 minutes a day getting ready before going out on the street.

Obsession with beauty: a barrier to equality

Renee Engeln goes further and sharpens the problem to the social sphere. When we take a closer look at how much of a woman's time and financial resources are spent on "looking good" versus how much the male gender spends on the same thing, we find a gender and equality problem between the two sexes. problem of gender and equality between the two.

When the woman of the time spends an hour of her work to get her hair done and have a make-up session and the male partner spends only ten minutes, you have to stop and ask yourself: what's going on here?

Does this problem affect men?

It would be very simplistic and hypocritical to say that beauty issues only affect women. Men are also concerned about their appearance, are pressured to look good and are conditioned by some stereotypes.

Now, if someone thinks of comparing the level of obsession with beauty, he or she will realize that there is a big gap between the two sexes. And this is very easy to measure; it is only necessary to compare the number of plastic surgeries that women undergo with that of men.

When we find that 80-90 percent of women undergo a high-risk operation for life and health, compared to the remaining 20-10 percent of men, there is no doubt that this problem affects women unequally.

Is there a solution to the problem?

It is a difficult question to answer. The real problem is that the obsession with beauty is a cultural problem. is a cultural problem. It is not a physical pathology, nor a simple wrong choice taken individually. Solving this problem is not so much about changing the routines of the person who suffers from this obsession; it is about transforming the culture and rejecting this absurd idea of feminine perfection, of the ideology of the angelic princess. One can "kill" the messenger, but one cannot kill the message.

Clearly there is a solution, but the problem the problem must be fought at its roots, with education and raising awareness in society as a whole. society as a whole. As with other problems of a psychosocial nature, change can be brought about by making a few small gestures, small actions. If many people join in these small changes, a cultural shift can take place, a shift in values and ideas.

How do you start with these changes? Both at the individual level (stop fighting to look less attractive than others, less attractive than the leading actress in the movie) and at the collective level (publicly rejecting the use of the role of "flower woman", for example). It is necessary to change, above all, the way in which we speak, in the type of conversation.

As has been commented from the beginning, the obsession with beauty is exaggerated in social technological media (social networks) such as Instagram, Facebook or Tweeter. Before we post a photo and seek public acceptance, we should ask ourselves why we do it..