Hulu’s newest body-horror series, The Beauty, focuses on the detrimental ways society perceives beauty and its effects on a person in a brutal sci-fi twist. Understandably, many within the cast and fans alike have opened a discussion on the effects of beauty standards in society and the numerous causes of the problem. US actor Ashton Kutcher, who plays the character Bryan Forst in The Beauty, said in a recent BBC interview that Hollywood was not pushing unreasonably high beauty standards. It’s an opinion that goes against what many people believe about that institution. Instead, Kutcher blames society itself and the pressures it puts on people to obtain perfection.
While there are valid points in that argument, to completely absolve Hollywood from pushing beauty standards is dangerous. Beauty and media go hand in hand; one cannot exist without the other. The media has the power to shape the thoughts and opinions of audiences worldwide. Outside of beauty, films and television have reinforced stereotypes about various groups of people and even demonized the reputations of certain animals like sharks for decades. While social media is the largest modern culprit of pushing harmful beauty standards, prior to its invention, the entertainment industry had that role.
Entertainment companies have often reinforced certain beauty standards by repeatedly casting specific actors who fit the popular beauty trends of a respective society. No matter how damaging it is to a person’s body or how widely it will alter their appearance, Hollywood studios often keep perpetuating these beauty standards because it makes them the most profitable.
Hollywood has an equal responsibility in how beauty standards are made because, despite the rise of social media, the industry still has a massive sway in opinion.
