Beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder. It’s in the eye of the media. At least that’s how it seems in our society today. The media, whether through movies, TV shows, music, or even the news, influences our preferences about what is considered “beautiful” and what we find attractive. For many (or even most) people, the image of the perfect man or woman comes from movies and television. They measure the beauty of others with the standards that they take from the movie stars that they see and hear about every day.

The media propagates this by creating programming which caters to those people who are obsessed with celebrities. These range from specialty news shows like “Entertainment Tonight” or “Extra” to so-called reality shows like “Hogan Knows Best” or “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”. Even the news, which has long been respected for not succumbing to these influences by covering real news stories, has more and more been devoting a large portion of its time to airing stories about the lives of celebrities which so many people seem to find exciting.

This works to implant in people’s heads an image of beauty that few people can actually live up to. One of the effects of this is that it contributes to many people, both men and women, opting to get plastic surgery to improve their image and to try to conform to the image of the celebrities that they see on TV. An even worse effect is that it gives many people who are otherwise healthy mental problems because of their lack of self-image caused by the media. This can also lead to eating disorders and even more extreme conditions.

Not all of television is to blame, though. While daytime television (soap operas) and entertainment coverage contributes a lot to this, other television is attempting to get rid of this standard. Parody television shows like “South Park”, “Family Guy”, or “The Soup” make light of these and other underlying issues in society. These shows act to show people that the standards of beauty in our society are not acceptable in the sense that they contribute to more problems in society than they purport to solve.