The Body Size and Health Debate by Christine L. B. Selby

Author:Christine L. B. Selby
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2017-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

The Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry

Attractiveness is unique to each culture and each era. What is attractive now in the United States was not attractive in this country several decades ago, and would not be considered attractive by other contemporary cultures. As discussed in Chapter 1, history shows us that no matter what the standard people are willing to sacrifice their bodies and their wallets in order to more closely approximate the current ideal. What has changed in the past few decades is the staggering amount of money people are willing to spend to get there. Globally, people purchase gym memberships and individual sessions with personal trainers, cosmetics designed to enhance or cover up what is already there, surgery to do the same, and colognes and perfumes to ensure that we smell good to potential dating partners. The total amount spent each year can be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

In 2003, an article in The Economist reported that human beings across the globe are willing to spend over $160 billion a year to achieve whatever look is deemed attractive by the society in which they live. It is likely that that number is closer to if not over $200 billion at the time of the writing of this book. According to Statista.com, the United States spent over $40 billion in 2002 on cosmetics alone and that number was projected to be over $62 billion in 2016. This site also reported that the amount spent on cosmetic surgery in the United States is also measured in the billions of dollars. In 2015 people in the United States spent over $8 billion on plastic surgery. The weight-loss market specifically was measured at over $60 billion dollars in 2013 and is project to exceed $65 billion as of 2016.

We are spending billions of dollars to temporarily alter our perceived attractiveness by applying perfumes and cosmetics, and by engaging in some kind of weight-loss endeavor with the hopes of losing the weight for good. Some of us are also looking for something more permanent and are willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on elective surgical procedures, again with the hopes of improving our attractiveness. Ultimately, the expectation is not only that our looks will improve but that our lives will improve also. As noted in the previous section, there is some evidence to suggest that being more attractive does have benefits that may include happiness.

One study examining attractiveness or beauty and happiness indicates that these two concepts seem go hand in hand. The researchers reported that the more attractive someone is the more resources and benefits (e.g., popularity, income) they enjoy, and this leads to greater overall happiness. But is there a caveat to the relationship between attractiveness and happiness? That is, why might someone who is objectively attractive be unhappy even if they are receiving the benefits that come with attractiveness? Another line of research offers an answer to this question.

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