This video, in which a women talked about a British survey which revealed that 50% of women in Britain would rather have bigger breasts than a higher IQ, was very interesting. She was much with the same opinion I have-that is, that it is very sad that, nowadays, so much emphasis in the media is put on beauty rather than brains-so much so that women would rather be pretty that smart. This is rather shocking because I think that this puts an unattainable hold on the ‘ideal woman’-making the much aspired to stereotyped woman even further from our reach. For young girls and teenagers, it is not a very good thing that this woman portrayed in the media-the gorgeous, flawless, perfect body supermodel-is to be looked up to. Not only setting unhealthy standards of beauty-many of those shown in the media have plastic surgery, eating disorders or photo shopping before they look like what we see-they lead us to question whether it really is better that we are pretty than intelligent. It seems that the media’s, and society’s answer to this is that we should all be pretty, we should all aim to be perfect. But this is not a healthy idea at all. For one, very few people can reach the standard of beauty so much upheld by the media and, in their struggle to do so, many young girls end up with eating disorders and mental health issues.

 For one, eating disorders, especially in young girls, are so damaging because a young girl is still developing. With an eating disorder, such as anorexia, she starves herself of development and risks affecting her metabolism for years to come and the stress and feelings of worthlessness created are obviously very damaging. If however, the ideal for women in society was to be intelligent, free-thinking individuals, I think that the world would be a better place. It is so much smarter to work towards intelligence than it is to work towards beauty because intelligence, unlike beauty, can be worked towards and can benefit people a lot more. High paying, challenging jobs are, more often than not, the ones which require a decent sense of smarts and women who are intelligent are generally seen as more powerful and more fun to be around. Another bonus, especially for young girls, is that striving to be smarter does not damage them-in fact, it improves them mentally and will help prepare them for their lives. I think, therefore, that a lot has to be explained as to why the media-and, therefore, our current society, values beauty so much more that brains.