The Ideology of Beauty

It is quite safe to say that within our society, we are constantly bombarded with media and advertisements. It is not so obvious until one truly begins to observe and analyze his or her surroundings. Which is what I have begun to do. Just the other day, I was walking to my job and I noticed a new ad that the dollar store two doors down had posted on their window. It was a brand of colored contact lenses that they recently started selling. the colors consisted of blue, gray, green, yellow, and hazel. The cashier from the dollar store happened to step out as I was walking by and I noticed she was wearing the blue eye-colored contacts. It was quite strange to see her with those on since I was so accustomed to her dark brown eyes. This made me question the ideology of beauty in our society. Why do women with black or dark brown colored eyes go out of their way in purchasing products for lighter eyes? Why are dark brown-eyed contacts never sold? Why don't women with blue eyes seek to have dark eyes? With these thoughts in mind, I began realizing the ideology of beauty being portrayed in our everyday media and advertising. The ideal beauty shown in magazines, fashion ads, and in clothing departments are features of Anglo Saxon women. Yes, it is true that more diverse women are shown than ever before, but at a closer glance even the colored women displayed resemble the features of white women. The fact that only light colored contacts are found in the market, that almost all my female friends own a straightening iron to maintain their hair straight, the fact that women undergo surgery to "thin' their noses out. All these white features are naturally seen as ideally better looking and more beautiful, but most of us, including myself, have never questioned why we feel this way. Ideologically, this type of beauty is continuously being portrayed in our culture and mass media, yet we have come to accept it as the definition of beauty; with no questions asked and without a doubt in our minds that that is what beauty looks like. This acceptance of what is considered pretty and how it is routinely and unconsciously fed and passed on is quite astonishing. I should have told the cashier next door that she looked much better with her natural dark brown eyes.