POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Are You Beautiful? : A Study About

the Female Millenial’s Current

Beauty standard

Final Requirement for

Practical Research II

RESEARCHERS:

Jeamela Mae C. Boquio

Jannel Angela V. Cabalida
Eunice Joy F. Campos
Angelita L. Irinco
Glenn Kenneth Manapolio

Adviser: Ms. Manansala

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CHAPTER I

Introduction

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, a famous saying which literally means

that beauty is subjective and is defined and created by the beholder or the observer

who sees. Beauty can never be defined as objective for one’s point of view may not

be similar to another. In connection to that, beauty is defined as pleasing or

pleasurable to look at. This definition applies to anything or anyone regardless of

gender.

People have millions and billions of thoughts to characterize beauty. They have

a continuous thinking of creating its definition depending on their individual

perspectives resulting to beauty not having a universal meaning. The thoughts and

opinions for the words may intersect to an idea yet it is still not centralized in a certain

description or terminology for the word.

In history many countries have their own standard of beauty. Just like America,

they valued wavy long hair, bronzed skin, and a face free of wrinkles and blemishes.

And most of the Western countries, the majority still signify the aesthetic of a tall,

slender-but-busty woman with delicate features. But in the other parts of the world,

pale skin, visible scar, face tattoos and etc. are the enviable traits. All of their practices

regarding with their aspect of beauty is related to their culture and belief on how

attractive a person can be. And because colonization occurred in the history, many

Western countries influenced the colonized country about their culture and beliefs

including their standard of beauty to an individual. And as the time pass by, the
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leverage of beauty's criterion is spreading around the world until the generation of

millennials existed.

Milllenials are those who were born between1980-2000+, in this generation

technology is everywhere. The term “Millennial” is usually considered to apply to

individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st Century. The Millenials

will of course have their own thoughts regarding the criterion of beauty which is

probably based on their culture and beliefs that could greatly affect their insights about

the appearance of a person if it talks about their standard of beauty. Since beauty

pertains to what is pleasing to the eye and surely none of us would have the same

thoughts, this will result to various understandings, conceptions, and standards of

beauty.

The society is what molds us to be who we are, Culture rules over a society,

and society rules over the people. This will imply that beauty is being standardized by

a society through what culture rules in it. Since culture changes overtime and can be

easily affected based on what is happening now from the influences drawn over by

technology, this would view the current society to larger, broader, and more unique

concepts of beauty than those of the early times.

The standards and concepts of beauty may vary over places. Since our culture

is easily influenced by technology which we use to reach out with other countries on

what’s new and what’s in, we tend to copy others’ trends of beauty. In conclusion to

this, a culture changing will have the society influenced for trends to take effect.
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Having social norms have made people to do anything to look pleasing and

desirable to everyone. Society dictated what beauty is, how we should look, and

speak, and act. It played the role of a boss to set what is acceptable and unacceptable.

It has set standards on what is beautiful and what is not.

We people try hard to fit and to feel “in” with what’s new or what’s trending. It

became a never-ending cycle till we came to what we are now. We let the society

control us and tell us what to do. In social determinism, a society will give you freedom

of choice but with limited choices. This applies in our current reality, we are

encouraged to be unique of our own style, of our looks, but still, society will always be

the one to tell who’s beautiful and who’s not.

An inspiring quotation from an unknown person states that "Never lose an

opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting. Beauty is

power; a smile is its sword. The best part of beauty is that of which no picture can

express. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even

touched - they must be felt with the heart." Recently, they say no one will notice you

unless you're rich or beautiful. It is also said nowadays that having a good appearance

makes you more popular and cynosure from the crowd, and also being good looking

is a privilege in many aspects of life. But how do the millenials define beauty in their

own standard?

The focus of this paper is to know the current beauty standards of the millenials

and compare it to the standards of the past eras which will prove that the concept of
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beauty changes overtime. This research will solely focus on our country’s selected

millenials.

Background of the study

Beauty is seen as continuously evolving through the ages. It is also defined

differently across cultures resulting to no particular definition or standard of beauty.

Millenials are the sole focus of this study. They are those who were born from

1980- 2000+ making them the current pioneers of the society and the biggest

consumers of the market. Millennials are also known to have the major population

when it comes to social media platforms resulting to them being easily influenced.

Thus, making them the perfect participants for this study.

Students of the Senior High School Curriculum are all a part of the Millenial

group. Their ages range from 16-19 years old. They became part of the Curriculum

due to the Department of Education implementing it to make Filipinos globally

competitive.

The Senior High School students in Polytechnic University of the Philippines

(PUP) is applicable for this study knowing the fact that this university is known for

substantiating the first railway academy in Southeast Asia, having the most sought-

out graduates and student activism in the country.

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Theoretical Framework

Social Comparison Theory

By: Leon Festinger

The Social Comparison Theory was first found in 1954 by Leon Festinger. As

social comparison proves to have a big role on how people’s judgements are made,

the theory was developed because Festinger believed that when a person had

evaluated his/her capabilities, he/she will then proceed to compare himself/herself to

other persons to act as a motivation or a self-esteem booster.

This connects the theory to this study using the millennial as the main

participant. A millennial being deeply engrossed in social media platforms and can be

easily influenced by it, may see a photo of a young woman who is named an ideal girl.

The millennial will then be filled with a need to analyze herself, compare herself, and

imitate the young woman to also feel desirable for others. And since they are the

majority of a society’s population, these actions resulted to having beauty trends and

beauty standards in a society.

Theory of Aesthetic Judgment

By: David Hume

This theory proposed by David Hume was developed in 'of the Standard of

Taste' during 1757.

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In the Earlier theory which is based on Hume's writings in Book two of The

Treatise of Human nature in 1739, he believes that beauty is nothing but a form, which

produces pleasure. He does not claimed it as definition for the term for he believes

that beauty cannot be defined (ibid).He explained that we can discern beauty only by

feeling pleasure. He described beauty as a quality and assumes that if beauty is a

form then it is a quality.

On the Later part of the theory during 1742 to 1757, Hume disposed his early

assumption that beauty is a quality, instead, he reconstructed it into a new belief that

beauty is a sentiment (SC 165, M App. 1.44). Furthermore, it is not a form that

produces pleasure but the pleasure produced. Beauty does not exist until a mind takes

pleasure (M App. 1.15). Instead of perceiving it, you have to feel it more properly (U

12.33). The only plausible alternative given that beauty will be recognized through

sentiment, is that beauty itself a sentiment.

Moreover, we can understand it better by considering the sentiment on how we

define beauty. Hume aforementioned that beauty is mental rather than a bodily

pleasure. Based on his "Terminology of Treatise," he defined beauty as an 'impression

of reflection (ibid)'. It is not a pleasure from the flesh for it is not an impression of

sensation but a pleasure a soul could feel (T 2.1.8.2). Finally, this pleasure is a kind

of approval or evaluation.

Hume do not infer that something/someone is beautiful because it pleases.

Rather, in feeling that it pleases despite of a particular manner, we in effect feel that it

is beautiful (T 3.1.2.3).
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Vitruvius Theory of Beauty

The theory of Vitruvius believes that to be able to give an identity of beauty, it

should follows the "truth of nature," which were based on the universal laws of

proportion and symmetry. The theory explains that the body's proportion could be

used as a model of natural proportional perfection.

It is where the measures of human edges is perfectly defined. Vitruvius wrote

of the way ancient scholars examined many examples of 'well shaped men' and

discovered that these bodies shared certain proportions. He showed that the 'ideal'

human body fitted precisely into both a circle and a square, and he thus illustrated the

link that he believed existed between perfect geometric forms and the perfect body.

In this way, the body was seen as a living rulebook, containing the fixed and faultless

laws set down by nature.

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Conceptual Framework

This conceptual framework represents the relationship between the standard

of beauty and millenials particularly the Grade 12 (female) senior high school in PUP.

MILLENIAL IMPACT OF THE

WOMEN’s STANDARD IN
STANDARD SELF
OF CONSIDERATION
BEAUTY OF BEAUTY

Figure 1. Research Paradigm

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Statement of the Problem

1. What is the demographical background of the people involved in the study?

2. What are the beauty standard of the millenials?

3. What are the variables that contribute to the perception of beauty?

 Environment

 Technology (Mass media and social media)

4. How dos the participant of the study define their selves beautiful in regards of

their idea of beauty? (Or) How does the study participants deal with their idea

of beauty?

Hypothesis

Participants see themselves as a beautiful one in their own special way. And

they might have different ideas of beauty but the participants know that everyone has

their own unique characteristic.

Scope and Delimitation

This research focuses on the perspective of the millennials in regards of their

views toward the word beautiful which is specify to a human. This will not include the

views and opinions of those who are outside the bracket of the subjects who does not

reached the adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. The influences that affects

the idea created by the subjects will be identified in this study and also idea of how

the innovation of technology influences their perceptions.

The participants of the research are the senior high school students particularly

the strands: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science Technology Engineering and
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Mathematics, Accountancy and Business Management, Arts and Designs and

General Academics in the school year 2017 of Polytechnic University of the

Philippines campus in the sector of Sta. Mesa, Manila. The estimated population of

the participants are 100 female grade 12 PUP senior high school.

Significance of the study

Parents:

-This study will serve as a guidance for parents to be able to have a better

understanding of their children’s perception of beauty towards themselves and to

others.

Peers:

-This study will help them to have a broader Ideas about millenials standard of

beauty and how will they approach it.

Guidance counselor:

-This study will help the guidance counselor to gain knowledge about the

current concept of beauty enable to use them in counselling their students.

Students:

-This study will benefit the students, particularly millennial to be aware and

knowledgeable about the dominant standard of one's look.

Women:

-For them to feel appreciated enough, this study will serve as a tool of realizing

their worth as a woman.

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Future Researchers:

-As a researcher themselves, this study will guide and give them ideas when

they conduct a more detailed research about the topic of this study. And also, this

study and can be used as reference for future related studies.

Definition of terms

Appearance- how an individual display themselves presentably in front of others

Millenials- people who are fund of using technologies and tends to fit in.

Social Norms - a behavior that is accepted by majority

Society- group of people who interact to each other to form and share culture and

social institutions.

Standards- people's perception or concept that are being the basis of the judgment
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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Standards of Beauty

According to Freedman, Hatfield, and Spencer (1986), beauty is a result of the

augments of people and can never be evaluated objectively or quantitavely. Having

collated with contradicting ideas, people mentioning qualitative than quantitative

features, the concept of beauty has been difficult to define. Thus, agreeing with the

quote of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, the beholder has the say if a person is

beautiful or not in his eyes and point of view.

Research over the last dozen years revealed that how we evaluate beauty in

the human body appears to be based on a universal set of standards. Hence, some

conceptions of beauty are not culturally determined.

On the other hand, Herman and Polivy (1983) agreed that beauty does not

require any explanation for it is an ideal, which can only be attained by those who can.

Many women being able to meet beauty standards of a certain place and time would

result to the standards changing consecutively to conserve its nature and value of

being momentous, special, and out of the ordinary.

However, Black (2004) and Synnot (1993) pressed that beauty standards are

not only centered on the appreciation or expressions of outside objects but is also

directly applied to one’s own body making it a strong component of normality. In

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support of that, Freedman (1988) ensured that failures and disappointments can never

be avoided because ideals are almost unattainable and unnatural.

Gimlin (2002) related that the female body is a medium of culture where women

all around the globe face pressure and stress to achieve the ideal beauty in their

society. In addition to that, females have also tried to change their bodies to

accommodate a certain timeframe’s beauty standards.

Fallon (1990) stated that thoughts and opinions about beauty can be

differentiated via culture and change over time, while Gimlin (2002) expressed that

the female body is used as a way of culture where pressure is put on women to

achieve ideal beauty standards raised by the society, which is connected to the study

of Kuipers (2009), which implies that beauty standards are suggested to be socially

constructed.

If we based on the Theory of Social Determinism, these standards were made

to control the people living in a society. This theory implies that we are given freedom

to pick and decide but from limited choices only.

Up to now, we are given the right and the freedom to express ourselves, to be

able to do what we want with our bodies, to be confident with our natural beauty, but

what stop us now are the standards made by the society and the people living in it.

Sherrow (2001) believes that beauty standards were made for a culture’s values and

social history to be expressed and symbolized. These standards may be through the

form of a cultural view to a marketing strategy, and since culture varies from one

society to another, beauty standards are also considered to be arbitrary.

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While women have fought for their freedom not to be judged of what they will

express and have actually disagreed of the idea of beauty standards, we tend to be

slapped in the face by the reality that we have a fast, innovated and constantly

changing world of beauty (McCann Truth Central, p.6). In fact, the study of McCann

Truth Central found that 83% of women found that standards today are higher and

harder to meet than the standards in the past.

Darwin wrote, “If all our women were to become as beautiful as the Venus de

Medici we should for a time be charmed but we should soon wish for variety and as

soon as we had obtained variety we should wish to see certain characteristics in our

women a little exaggerated beyond the then existing common standard”, in his literary

work The Descent of Man (p. 375). His statement would support how there became

trends that we hold on to and struggle to achieve.

As Dürer passed it, “There lives on Earth no one beautiful person who could

not be more beautiful.” Being perfect won’t even matter because once a certain

standard is achieved, there will be another one made even unattainable than the last

one. Culture, money, and power status has affected the variety and distinction of

human beauty since what we all crave now is something new, what was left is only for

the human eye to be pleasured (Foo, 2010).

Media-Influenced Millennial

The Internet and Media has become a strong force and tool for people to be

informed, updated, and to stay communicated. The media also has a strong
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persuasive tendency and the power to influence (Grose, 2009), while some still refuse

to accept this, various articles and studies have stated and proven this as true. Potter

& Riddle (2007) stated that the media are channels for sending messages to specific

audiences for repeat exposure. While all people use them, the highest rate of users

belongs to the millennial population, specifically in the use of social media sites.

According to the PEW Research Center, the Millennial Generation refers to

those who were born after 1980 and have seen their own generation as unique in

terms of technological use and how their lives are coalesced with it, the reason why

they are the target population of this research.

Now let us go back on how media affects our concepts of beauty standards.

The idealization of the woman’s body is believed to be the effect of a successful

marketing done in the media (Grogan, 2008). According to Gill (2007) the largest type

of media perhaps is the constitution of women’s bodies being evaluated and critiqued

by men and women resulting to “failing” to achieve what the society really wants

women to be.

The Internet, television, and magazines are all examples of media. All of these

contain advertisements particularly about beauty. According to the research done by

the Dove Company, the reason these standards are still existing is because we are

frequently given repetitive exposure by media that we are not worth anything if we are

not thin and young and beautiful exactly like how they portray beauty through

commercials and shows, the perfect ideal girl being the one with a fair and flawless

skin.
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Statistics also suggest that repetitive media exposure is connected to the

uprising beliefs and opinions on the perfect and ideal body image. These became the

reason why most scholars point at the media as the criminal that caused the diffusion

of beauty standards.

Carreon (2017) noted that young women have been so exposed to and blinded

by the media of these perfect, unnatural bodies to give us the message that our worth

is based on our beauty, which is also based on how they see beauty. She also

suggested that companies and the media should invest on making women feel

confidently beautiful and unique the way they are, if media can just empower women

with confidence and self-worth instead of making women feel helpless

Are you Beautiful?

As a result of the beauty standards made by the media, women have been

more and more bothered by their looks and will attempt to perfect themselves just to

be socially accepted as beautiful, and failing would be a big thrown rock to their self-

esteem (Gimlin, 2002).

On a research by McCann Training Center, 70% of women globally believe that

happiness and beauty is correlated especially in terms of success and 93% felt more

confident when they knew they looked beautiful. It only goes more complicated

because based on the research of the Dove Company, only 2% of women globally

considered themselves beautiful. Their study data also affirmed that women are not

willing to associate themselves with the word “beautiful”. This level of discomfort

shows how women are far more distanced than we think of the idea of female beauty.
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“The idea that women’s empowerment is acquired by fulfilling beauty standards

muddies the conversation between women about what is really important in our lives”-

Dove Company.
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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter explains the methodology used in this study. It focuses on the

description of research method, description of respondent, research instrument, data

collection procedure and statistical treatments of Data.

Research Method

This study acquires a result in accordance with the idea of the millenials in terms

of creating a description of beauty. It will cover the factors that affects the thinking of

the subjects and also viable evidences to support these factors it includes the part

taken by the technology innovation and other aspects in relation with the 21st century

generation. Furthermore, this study will tackle the impact of the gathered standard on

the degree of confidence of the selected participants in their idea of defining

themselves as beautiful.

By means of deductive approach, the researchers will be able to collect and gather

an accurate and precise data regarding the topic. Deductive research is broad to

specific study where the researchers will gather information and will create a

conclusion using logical reasoning to test the hypothesis. It takes advantage of a

method in detecting patterns from the survey and observation on how the chosen

participants of the survey will answer the given questions inside the questionnaire.
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These questionnaires will serve as a guide for the participants to easily identify their

notion in determining beauty.

The objective of the research is to find out if there is a common denominator

between the descriptions of the millenials. The researchers will try to figure out if there

is a relation within the revolution of highly upgraded technology and the aspects of the

subjects. The study will not consider the opinions of those who are outside the bracket

of the chosen respondents and also ideas that are not viable enough to strengthen

the study.

Population, Sample Size, and Sampling Technique

The researchers used the Purposive sampling technique for this study. In this

method it requires a specific respondent, the Researchers select 100 grade 12 female

PUP senior high school students from Accountancy Business and Management,

Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Humanities and Social Science,

Arts and Design and General Academic Strand.

Through the 4,722 Grade 12 students of Accountancy Business and

Management, Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Humanities and

Social Science, Arts and Design and General Academic Strand of the Polytechnic

University of the Philippines, the study only acquired 100 participants, which consists

of random students from each of the six strands offered.

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Population Frame and Sampling Scheme of the Study

STRAND TOTAL SAMPLE %

NUMBER OF
STUDENTS
ABM 1312 20 1.52
(Accountancy,
Business and
Management)

STEM (Science, 1452 20 1.38

Technology,
Engineering,
Mathematics)

HUMSS 1036 20 1.93

(Humanities and
Social Sciences)

AD (Arts and 234 20 8.55

Design)
GAS (General 688 20 2.91
Academic
Strand)

TOTAL 4,722 100 16.29

Description of the Respondents

In this study the researchers chose 100 female Senior High School Students

of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Sta. Mesa, Manila. Each selected

strand has an equal number of 20 participants, these are Humanities and Social

Sciences (HUMSS); Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM) Arts and Design

(ADT) Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM); Information and

Communications Technology (ICT); and General Academic Strand (GAS) . Because

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they are approachable and accessible knowing that the researchers and participants

are in the same grade level.

INSTRUMENTATION

This part of the research shows the kind of method that the researchers used

to collect the information of their respondents. The researchers used a questionnaire

in order to gather the data properly.

In the first part of the survey, the researchers asks permission also greeting for

their respondents. In orders for them to get their consent and also assuring their

participants that all information and data that they will gather will be safe and secured.
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For the second of the survey, the researchers made question to determine the

ideal beauty of the participants. And also to know if which is more important; the

physical appearance or the character of the person.

And for the last part of the survey the researchers create question that will

measure on how they are (the participants) confident with their looks and on how other

people treat them.

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Data Gathering Procedure

These are the steps on how the researchers gather data from their respondents.

1. The researchers prepared the instrument that is needed to gather data.

2. The researchers picked 100 female PUP senior high school students and all 5

strands have an equal number of participants.

3. The searchers explained the content of the questionnaire.

4. When the survey is done the researchers proceed to checking and tabulation of

data.

5. After that the researchers proceed to interpretation and data analysis

Statistical Treatment of Data

Enable to present the numerical results of the study, and to verify the findings

from the gathered data through surveys, the researchers applied the following

methods:

1. Frequency and Percentage Method

In specifying the percentage of observations that exist for each data points,

this is a useful method of expressing the relative frequency of survey responses

and data gathered. The method was utilized in determining the frequency and the

relative distribution of the respondent’s demographic profile.

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a. Age

b. Gender

c. Strand

Formula:

Where:

f= Frequency

N= Number of cases

2. Weighted Mean

This method plays a role in descriptve statistics that usually occurs in a general form

in several other areas of mathematics. It was applied according to their relative

importance by determining the proper weights asssigned to the observed value.

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3. Chi-Square

In investigating whether the distributions of categorical variables differ from

one another, Chi-Square method was used to understand the relationship

between demographic variables and standard of beauty; and demographic

variables and proficiency.