OPINION

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BEAUTY OR HEALTH? A PERSONAL VIEW

Haliza Mohd Riji PhD, Department of Community Health, Universiti Putra Malaysia

INTRODUCTION 
Nowadays women are showing more concern for beauty than for health. This tendency is possibly influenced by several factors – social processes, role of advertisements and mass media, local and global trends in the fashion industry, and adoption of foreign cultural practices. This article provides a critique of the obsession for beauty, argues for more research into this phenomenon and calls for the development of health promotion programmes to ameliorate this trend.

CONCEPTS AND MEANINGS OF BEAUTY
The Oxford English Dictionary¹ defines beauty as “excelling in grace or form, charm of colouring, qualities which delight the eye and call forth that admiration of the human face in figure or other objects”. In practice, beauty may be easier to recognise than to define, as exemplified by the remark of the Hollywood producer, Aaron Spelling, who said, “I can’t define it, but when it walks into the room, I know it”.  There is continuing debate as to whether beauty is "in the eye of the beholder" or that there is a universal aesthetic standard in the human body shapes and faces.

There are claims that physical beauty has an evolutionary basis in that beautiful people are more likely to be healthier and  able  to  reproduce.2     Averageness  of  features  (i.e. neither too large or too small), bilateral symmetry and skin free of blemishes not only suggest the absence of inherited or acquired medical disorders, but are also commonly judged to be relatively beautiful. Female faces are judged to be more attractive if they have delicate jaws, full lips, small noses, high cheekbones, and large eyes.²

Feminist writers such as Naomi Wolf³ contended that beauty is but a male-dominated construct. They argue that beauty myths are created through images in magazines, films, and beauty contests; they work in tandem with highly effective marketing of the beauty products and fashion to transmit ideas about how women should look like. 

THE INFLUENCING FACTORS
Whether physical beauty in the females is a biological reality or has evolutionary advantage is difficult to verify. What is obvious and disturbing is the current obsession on beauty by the general population. The factors that bring about this beauty craze are examined below.

The encoding of beauty: the role of advertisements
A survey among seventy female respondents in Kuala Lumpur found that 43.3% of them were attracted to the models in beauty product advertisements.⁴ Nine out of ten of them said that women in beauty advertisements were portrayed as 'beautiful', while three-quarters thought they were 'young and attractive'. One cursory glance at the women’s magazines and one finds page after page of advertisements on beauty products and fashion.  A typical example reads “… night after night, your complexion is perfected and a pure radiance is revealed…” The text of the advertisement highlights that a well known cosmetic manufacturer has discovered a product that can do wonders to the skin while the user sleeps at night – the face brightens for the next 24 hours.  The advertisement reassures that women need not worry about its suitability as the product was specifically made for Asian women. The whole text aims to instil in women readers a fear about melanin production, an element that makes the body age and darken. Advertisements urge women to care for their complexion by recommending products that could help to achieve a perfect complexion without losing their radiance.

Reconstructing the new self in diet products
Another advertisement hinges on the importance of body image and describes the ease and miraculous transformation that can occur by consuming a slimming product or joining a weight loss programme. Among other things, it  proclaimed "…this product shows results in just 8 days!" "…it involves no starvation, no drugs, no injections…"  By using the principles of semiology (the study of signs and symbols and their meanings), advertisers are telling readers that there is an answer to their dreams. The advertisement on weight reduction has these words “Lose fat – not water or muscle – PERMANENTLY” and the visuals that go with it attempt to convince women of how a miracle can be achieved.

Socialisation for womanhood
In our society, boys and girls are brought up differently. Norms and rules exist to ensure that females know their roles in comparison to those of males. Though there is new social role for females (such as women can now be the primary income earner), they are still being pressured to conform to prevailing societal expectations. Although bodily changes are expected and differential effects are experienced by females and males, females are more concerned with aging than males are. Physical appearance, especially for women is heavily subjected to social judgements.  As stated by Abu Laban & McDaniel,⁵ beauty is held out as an intrinsic goal for both girls and women.  In infancy, females are judged by standards of “cuteness” and “prettiness,” that shifts with age into standards of “beauty” and “glamour”. Hence, beauty and health are entwined in the women's socialisation process. Early learning can predispose individuals to accept and enact traditional sex-typed behaviour and attitudes. These may later change with new experiences, which may dramatically alter their perceptions and values.

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