The Beauty Backlash
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5074642.stm
More than three in four women are “insecure about the way they look” and more than one in three women think the way women are portrayed in the media “makes them feel overweight”, according to a You Gov survey for The Money Programme.
The beauty industry bombards us with images of perfection - slim, gorgeous creatures offering pots and potions that promise to uplift, de-wrinkle and beautify.
This fuels a sense of insecurity among women, and this drives sales in the beauty industry.
“Sixty-seven per cent of girls think they are overweight and six out of 10 girls say they would be happy if they were slimmer,” says Clare Curtis from the Eating Disorders Association.
Growth in the market for anti-ageing products that promise to make women look younger and firmer is also riding on such insecurities.
A third of British women now buy into it as the pressure increases to stay looking younger.
“You think you’re still young and then you take a glance in the mirror and you realise you’re getting older and bits start to go,” says mum of four Julie McGeehan.
“Eyesight I find a real problem and just constantly looking tired. That’s the worst thing about aging, you just permanently look tired, that freshness goes.”
But signs are emerging that women have had enough of trying to look perfect.
Soap company Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign has been a marketing phenomenon, striking a chord with increasing numbers of women fed up with the unattainable images of beauty they have been sold by the cosmetics giants.
And increasingly women speak out against the pressure on young people to be thin and beautiful, sparking a backlash against some firms.
