The Alluring But Bombastic Beauty Bondage

With the emergence and the development of American mass media culture,much more strict emphasis is being put on women’s external appearance,which is vividly embodied in American cosmetic advertisements.Although a growing number of U.S.female figures have made lots of top achievements in various areas,women are more or less affected by a particular factor that can be described as the constructed ideal female beauty in advertisements,which keeps constraining women’s self-cognition and self-value.In chapter one,the author will give an overall review of historical American beauty ideals to make a clear understanding of the changing attitude of American females towards cosmetics and of the zealous interaction between celebrities and the ordinary women in the past.In chapter two,the author will analyze the standards and trends of current ideal beauty presented in the cosmetic ads in Vogue to illustrate the four overemphasized typical representations of perfect female beauty in America.In chapter three,the author will focus on the chronic exposure to and the overadaptation to the beauty practices according to those four representations due to the normalization of those so called beauty standards,which indeed bring negative effects to American women and American society.Therefore,it’s the image that is imperfect,not the American women in real life.America is a capitalist country with strong economic power.What behind the modern cosmetic advertisements is just the manipulation of capital.And the overemphasis on the commercial value will inevitably lead to the devaluation of women’s innate worth and even the loss of rational self-recognition.