Body Aesthetics In The Consumer Era

The rapid development of post-industrial economy and society has transformed us from a production based society to a consumer based society.Consumer demands have gradually evolved from basic commodity needs in necessities to a greater focus on beauty and branding.Much attention are now on the branding of a product and the social value it carries.According to Baudrillard's domain of analysis,the human body has become the iconic value of a product,an object of contemporary beauty and fashion.The works of our business media sees a woman's body as an object which can be continuously and progressively improved,a representation model of beauty,a symbolic representation of fashion,status,fame,etc.The body of the women in fashion magazine covers nowadays has become a landscape of beauty that sets a standard how women portrays of societal image and perfection.Symbols and visual representations stimulates the human desires.In order to be seen and also see oneself as beautiful,more and more women are using this logic of beauty to attain the ideal image of beauty.If we remove the philosophy essence of Plato which takes the soul and religious belief over the body,the body seems to be emancipated and gain more recognition and appreciation as itself.However,if we think carefully,does a woman's body really belong to the woman?A woman's capability to beautify oneself does reflects her control and ownership of her body,but that does not mean it is truly free.The physical development and changes of a woman's body are often bounded by the sociological,cultural,and other environmental factors and influences.The woman's body is also often influenced and controlled by a man's perceptions.We live in a male dominated society and patriarchal culture where the woman's body is being "gazed",and is viewed to be mild and submissive.From all aspect and levels of societal norms,man has demonstrated controls and boundaries of how a woman should carry her body and outlook.In the world of consumers,the woman's body has become the key medium to business profits.As a matter of fact,the woman's body is often an object of manipulated aesthetic desire,an abused subject in contemporary fashion by the world of consumers,often unbeknownst to herself as well.In pursuit of an ideal body and beauty,and a desired image of herself,not only a woman may lost her true self and her own unique identity,but may also have let in a new binding.This pursuit of beauty leads to emerging of never-ending line of beauty products,the ideal image one desires,a subject to create beauty satisfaction which forever bound the consumers of contemporary fashion.Women should reflect on the aesthetic trend,and choose to draw a balance between natural healthy beauty,and the societal expectations,without compromising own sense of beauty and the identity by the desired image expected in the man subjected fashion trends.Only the woman herself should be the one who paved her own path towards her true confident desired sense of beauty.From the perspective through "VOGUE" female fashion magazine,this thesis aims to understand the female consumer activities in terms of body beauty.It also analyzes the challenges females' face and females' status in the society.