How does the misconception of beauty affect the public 😕?

Source of YouTube video: Why you should stop bleaching your skin right now | DW Stories

Social media is now one of the most important things that affect an individual's mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Men and women all over the world are influenced by what they see in the media about what is beautiful and how their bodies should look.

        In research from Henriques(2020), social media has had a big effect on how people see, feel, think, and act about body image and beauty by promoting thin body types and sending messages against obesity and black skin. The media always emphasizes the white skin color is the most beautiful and this misconception of beautiful skin tones has a great impact to public.

Source of photo: healthywomen 

Source of photo: Kingonline

Source of photo: giphy

Negative effects of social media on the aspects of beauty

        Women who are thin and have white skin are shown on social media to be more beautiful and successful than women who are overweight. Misperceptions of beauty and dissatisfaction with body weight show a link between being unhappy with your body and your mental health.This will lead to low self-esteem and low self-confidence for people with darker skin. They will try everything to make their skin whiter in order to conform to the aesthetics of this society, and more seriously, it will cause them to suffer from serious mental health problems. This will also m ake their skin thin because they will use skin-whitening creams over and over again. This condition causes severe bruises, broken blood vessels, stretch marks, and other serious skin problems.

        In sub-Saharan Africa, more and more people are using skin bleaching creams and other treatments that are related to them. This has many long-term effects and problems. Also, the misconception of color of skin and image of beauty will slowly shape people mind and have stereotype and racist happened. Nadia et al. (2018) say that racism is common in celebrity culture, music, and the media, where people with light skin are praised and people with dark skin are ignored or made fun of. 

        In March 2021, the International Journal of Women's Dermatology published a review with shocking statistics about how common skin whitening is around the world:

• It is thought that up to 75% of Nigerians regularly use creams to make their skin lighter.
• About 40% of South Koreans use skin-whitening products every day.
• Half of all money spent on skin care products on the Indian subcontinent goes to products that make the skin lighter.
• A recent study found that one in two Filipino women use products to make their skin lighter.

        About 27% of the skin-whitening market is made up of the United States alone, where both brown and black people use skin-whitening products. Even though the ads for these products in the United States might not be as clear, lighter skin is still seen as more beautiful. This preference for people with lighter skin is a form of bias called "colorism."