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Literature Review of

Why does society pressure us to look our best?

Most people feel to believe beauty is what society tells us. We let our opinions be based on what we’ve

learned beauty is. We feel peer pressure when people start giving us looks and comments about how we

look in the public eye. Society pressures us to look our best because we pressure ourselves to look

"better" than others to maintain a certain look in the public eye. Why can’t we dress as we want? Why

does society pressure us to look our best?

Most articles I found about this topic critic society for making us feel pressured to look our best. They

talk about studies done in brazil where they discussed body images against students. Twelve out of the

nineteen students told stories about why they have a negative body image. They concluded that negative

body images are rising every day with the rise of social media. It’s important to know that many people

feel and believe social beauty standers are impossible to reach, thus having a negative body image.

They’re many misconceptions surrounding this topic. Some people believe that talking about this is just a

way of getting attention. Susanna Walker wrote a book called Everyone Admires the Woman Who Has

Beautiful Hair which speaks about how society's beauty standers were white people and the black

community felt left out. Walker explained how beauty culture was affecting black women. Her best

selling book brought awareness to beauty in the black community.

Maria Jose Puerta Botero speaks about how society has set a standard of how women should look and act.

She says that we’re expected to be skinny, toned, and tall. Botero provided scientific data from ANAD

saying that every 62 minutes, a person with an eating disorder dies. The idea of how our bodies should

look is a misconception. She concluded that we should all love and respect ourselves.
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Lastly, D’Arcy Lyness wrote an article about how to deal with peer pressure. She defines peer pressure by

stating that our peers influence us so much, that we wanna do things that we normally wouldn’t do so that

they may think we’re cool. She explains that walking away from peer pressure is the best thing one could

do for yourself. Lyness believes talking to someone you trust is the best way to remove yourself from

peer pressure. Talking to a parent, teacher, or school counselor can prepare you for the next time one feels

peer pressure. She concludes that peer pressure is not always a bad thing, positive peer pressure exists

too. With enough people, we can peer pressure someone to do what is right.
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Works Cited*
Augusto de Lima Basto, Pedro. Rossa Pessoa, Rosane. “A Discussion on English Language Students’

Body Image: Beauty Standards and Fatness” Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 2019. https://eds-b-

ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=d7b772c6-7f14-4148-bba6-adf093fa9aeb

%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU

%3d#AN=edsdoj.f1f891fc842808e420d142aa80252&db=edsdoj.

Silvestrini, Molly. “ “It’s not something I can Shake”: The Effect of Racial Stereotypes, Beauty

Standards, and Sexual Racism on Interracial Attraction.” Sexuality & Culture. February 2020. https://eds-

a-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=d7b772c6-7f14-4148-bba6-

adf093fa9aeb%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=141049176&db=a9h.

Walker, Susannah. “ ‘Everyone Admires the Woman Who Has Beautiful Hair’: Mediating African

American Beauty Standards in the 1920s and 1930s.” Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African

American Women. 2007. https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/detail/detail?

vid=7&sid=d7b772c6-7f14-4148-bba6-adf093fa9aeb

%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU

%3d#AN=edsups.9780813124339.003.0003&db=edsups.

Jose Puerta Botero, Maria. “Is There Too Much Pressure On Woman To Have The “Perfect” Body?” The

Discover The Columbus News Portal. February 27, 2019.

https://thediscoverer.columbus.edu.co/opinion/is-there-too-much-pressure-on-women-to-have-the-

perfect-body/.

Burns, Judith. “Pressure to look perfect hits girls’ confidence, say Guides.” BBC News. October 4, 2016.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-37543769.

Riehle, Madison. “Teens feel pressure to be ‘Perfect’” THE BROADVIEW. February 13, 2014.

https://broadview.sacredsf.org/6731/features/perfection-pressures/.
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Goldman, Leslie. “The inescapable pressure of being a woman on Zoom” Vox. May 20, 2020.

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/5/13/21248632/work-from-home-zoom-women-appearance-

beauty-no-makeup.

Fox, Kate. “Mirror, mirror” SIRC Social Issues Research Centre. 1997.

http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html.

Helfert, Susanne. Warschburger, Petra. “The face of appearance-related social pressure: gender, age, and

body mass variations in peer and parental pressure during adolescence” NCBI. May 17, 2013.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662600/.

Lyness, D’Arcy. “Dealing With Peer Pressure” KidsHealth. July 2015.

https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html