A recent study shows that 50%+ women prefer to be run over by a truck than to look fat and ugly. To women, looking fat and ugly is not only hurtful but also traumatic. If you happen to say someone, "hey, you have gained weight or you got a pimple," it is like spilling acid on that person. Female body image is constantly constructed and maneuvered by the society. Body image is crucially picked, distorted and twisted by social commentary.

The word self-image has lost its essence. Most of us are unaware how our self-image is twisted and turned by the society. Conscious societal pressure forces us to think that we are ugly and not in-accordance to the living standard of beauty. We are maneuvered to look pretty and are implicitly pressurized to beautify ourselves. Almond eyes, flashy eye lashes, sharp nose, bow like lips and fair and glowing skin are the set standard that we all are tricked to adhere to. Any sort of skin imperfection is stigmatized by our society. A woman is made to believe that she is ugly and ugliness is intolerable by societal standards.

Beauty is socially constructed and marketed. If you are fat then you are supposed to be on endless cruel diet regime. You are supposed to exist on salads, fat and sugar free foods. You will hear "fat talks", things like how beautiful you would have looked had you lost some weight. And, finally comes in the magic of capitalism, I would prefer calling it 'prodicti-fication.' Market strategists make full use of socially created ugliness. There are endless list of products that you can use to reduce your weight and enhance your beauty. Not only weight reducing belts or machines, you can read fitness magazines, opt for fitness related DVD's and also hire some personal trainer. This stream of things might help you reduce your weight but at the same time you will be highly dependent on these products. Your self-image is nothing but a market strategy from which the society gains some sort of pleasure and capitalists get their profits.

Women are nothing but a medium via which sexual appetizing bar is kept high. Beauty is associated with fairness. If you are not fair then you need to thank the advertisement that pops up every two minutes. You are supposed to use the fairness cream which will definitely make you look fair. The acid test does not stop right there. If you don't have almond shaped eyes then you can make it look like almonds. Kajal, eye liners and other cosmetic products are flooded in the market and you have to pick one, rather the right one that suits your eye-type. Trust me it is as complicated as it sounds here. You can correct the fines of your nose and lips only by expensive cosmetic surgeries. The more ugly you are made to look the more is the stake of profits.
From hair to your toe a women needs to maintain and beautify her so that she is not stigmatized among her peers. From birth starts the beautification process. Girls are made to wear floral pink dresses, fancy accessories, sparkly shoes etc. With adolescence she is supposed to use all those products that will enhance her beauty and after 25 you are forced to look like 15. If I chose not to go for a diet and happily eat cheese and mayonnaise, I would question, "How society has the right to judge on how I look?" Beautification and producti-fication are all interlined to societal norms; self- image is no longer what we perceive of ourselves but what society perceives us to be.