Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women

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Source reference: Hair and Beauty Industry Award [MA000005] clause 4 and schedule A Who the Hair and Beauty Award doesn’t cover My lab (The Body and Media Lab, a.k.a. “BAM”) conducts research exploring issues surrounding women’s body images, with a particular emphasis on cultural practices that create or enforce the frequently contentious relationship women have with their bodies. Descriptions of specific areas of research are below. For a time, toxic criteria of slimness made their rounds on social media, such as millions of netizens sharing photos of eggs being delicately perched on their pronounced collarbones. These bizarre internet trends have further contributed to the social anxiety of young women who fear judgment or strive for perfectionism. And there are the myriad beauty "gurus" who link slimness to self-discipline, and beauty to power. But she doesn't want to become a "stunner" through plastic surgery or intentional weight loss, as many actresses do. "Because that's not me. I am who I am." For 26-year-old Rani Wei, the experience hits close to home. The former actress said in most of the auditions she had attended, she was discriminated against because she was "overweight" and "not that beautiful" by filmmaking standards.

The Hair and Beauty Award also covers labour hire businesses and their employees who are working for a business in the hair and beauty industry. Sladek, M., Engeln, R., & Miller, S.A. (2014). Development and validation of the Male Body Talk Scale: A psychometric investigation. Body Image, 11, 233-244. Source reference: Hair and Beauty Industry Award [MA000005] clause 4 and schedule A Not the right award? Engeln, R., Sladek, M., & Waldron, H. (2013). Body talk among college men: Contexts, correlates, and effects. Body Image, 10, 300-308. Engeln, R., & Salk, R. (2014). The demographics of fat talk in adult women: Age, body size, and ethnicity. Journal of Health Psychology, 19, 1-10.Johnson, S., & Engeln, R. (2020). Gender Discrepancies in Perceptions of the Bodies of Female Fashion Models. Sex Roles, 84, 299-311. Engeln, R., & Imundo, M. N. (2020). I (don’t) love my body: Counter-intuitive effects of body-affirming statements on college women. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 39, 617-639. Foster-Gimbel, O., & Engeln, R. (2016). Fat chance! Experiences and expectations of antifat bias in the gay community. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 3, 63-70. Unsurprisingly, in societies such as China and greater East Asia where the competition to be the best and look the most beautiful is fierce, looking pretty and keeping fit is the feminine ideal. For young women in urban China, body image is a topic that's often discussed, yet not nearly enough.

Rolnik, A., Engeln-Maddox, R., & Miller, S.A. (2010). Here’s looking at you: Self-objectification, body image disturbance, and sorority rush. Sex Roles, 63, 6-17.

I live with that struggle every day. When I was a teenager, I was always doubting whether my face was too big, whether my nose was too wide. And now, I'm afraid of getting old," said Tang Xuemeng. Turning 30, she said she fears the wrinkles creeping onto her face and cheeks sagging due to loss of collagen. Maybe the willingness to talk about body image in public is progress, though tiny, as women try to define their own worth and beauty instead of having others do it for them. As the protagonist in "Magic Mirror" asks near the end of the episode, "Why has beauty, which is supposed to be the most inclusive and diverse, become so narrow?"