TOPICS OF CULTURAL STUDIES ASSIGNMENT ESSAY FOR PROF ELUID P ONLY

Taboo: Beauty Documentary Essay

Student Example 1

American InterContinental University

The documentary “Taboo: Beauty”, introduced the audience with different perspectives as to what beauty means to the people that were in the film. To them beauty is defined by looking great externally and going through dangerous procedures to obtain a certain look. For instance, in the documentary a woman did various breast enhancements or surgeries to look better. As a result, she had an infection in one of her breasts and she could have died if not treated by a doctor. A young woman from Russia, endured pain and had her legs broken in order to look taller. Another example is a man who went to Indonesia to receive a plastic surgery to look more feminine. Lastly, a woman from France who was battling an eating disorder called anorexia died due to her wanting to be thin. All four of these people went to extremes to achieve their idea of what beauty is and this may be influenced by advertisements or the media.

The American culture advertising has affected the perception of what American beauty is but in a negative way. Many magazine covers have portrayed women to look unrealistically by using photo shop. The women that model in these advertisements are manipulated to have a certain body type. In return this causes people to idealize and to look exactly like the models. For this reason, plastic surgery has become common in the United States. As a result, people go to extremes to look beautiful no matter what the consequences are afterwards.

In conclusion, this documentary demonstrates the ugly reality of how people think about beauty and the sacrifices they are willing to take. As mentioned in the documentary people who have distorted view of beauty might suffer from a mental disorder such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Unfortunately, the American culture is not the only culture that perceives beauty in a negative way but cultures from around the world do as well. In reality, going to extremes to look a certain way is not worth it because it might lead to negative consequences later on in life. People should be content with how they look and this was the message that this documentary is portraying.

References

Lewman, L. (Narrator). (May 2, 2011). Taboo: Beauty [Television series]. In T. Hardy, R. Scott, L. Marshall, K. Crowe, D. Baker, & S. Knight. Los Angeles, CA:Scott Free Production.