In today's society, beauty is seen as the ultimate quality in a person. Media portrays the perfect person as being someone who is beautiful on the outside. Media and society do not seem to care about what is found on the inside of people, meaning what characteristics a person has other than their looks. Society does not seem to care if a person is generous, kind, smart, or honest. The media is constantly found commenting on people's looks, and how you can be the most beautiful person. Media never comments on the generosity of a celebrity or the intelligence of a person.
The importance of beauty and the idea that being beautiful is the ultimate quality a person can have is portrayed in the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray sacrifices his soul so that he can stay young and beautiful his whole life. In result of this sacrifice, the portrait of himself that his friend Basil paints reflects his aging and sins. By the end of the novel, his portrait changes drastically since the time when it was first painted. Dorian's portrait changes more and more as his friend Lord Henry continues to influence him throughout the novel. Lord Henry teaches Dorian that beauty is the ultimate human quality and that it is powerful to be beautiful. Lord Henry also influences Dorian to substitute pleasure for goodness, art, and reality; this influence on Dorian causes him to become evil and hurt the people around him and the people he loves. Lord Henry teaches Dorian that his beauty can take him places that no ordinary looking person could go.
As I said before, this idea that beauty is the ultimate quality in a person connects to society today. This idea that is seen in the novel is also found in today's society and media. Media and society puts so much pressure on people to be beautiful. I can connect to this idea as well. Growing up in a society that treasures and values beauty is hard; it makes everyone insecure about their looks and it makes everyone feel as if they are not good enough for society's standards. My thoughts on the issue are that society and media put too much pressure on beauty. Society's standards for beauty are way too high and unreal. The models that are found in magazines and on billboards are extremely edited; so how can normal people try to look like these models if what they are striving for are false advertisements. In reality each and every person on this planet are beautiful in their own way, and I think society should stop trying to force beauty on us.
