In America, beauty is in the eye of our society or better yet, the mass media. Beauty has always been a universal concept with no definite meaning. Because of the lack of a definition, many people define beauty according to the "ideal image often emphasized in commercials, magazines, and TV shows etc. These images generally consist of glamorous, "flawless females who resemble malnourished mannequins. These females are often unrealistically thin, with long hair, and light in skin tone. The problem with this is most women do not have this "ideal body image. Due to this many women have low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction when they are unable to meet the media standers of beauty. As seen when reading magazines, watching television, and perusing websites, women are constantly bombarded with airbrushed images of thinness and perfect beauty. Of course these messages generate the mind-set that the beauty being portrayed is the norm and it can only be achievable if one alters his/her body. For example, designer Calvin Klein uses the slogan "Just Be to create a sense of individuality and uniqueness, but ironically Klein along with other famous designers do not use overweight or "everyday women on the runways, advertisements or magazines. Is that really what individuality consists of? American women are living in a society where ultra-thin bodies are applauded and worshipped. As women flip through pages in certain magazines, they are solely devoted to diet and exercise ideas that make them question the wellness of their current being. As these abnormally thin female bodies are seen there is more of an increase in eating disorders and the dreaded thought of becoming fat. Women constantly try to live up to the society's thin ideals and when that particular weight or look cannot be achieved, they resort to drastic measures such as binge eating and extreme dieting. Before modern times, being voluptuous and curvaceous was an ideal that dominated the female body image because it showed a sign of wealth, proper nourishment, and fertility. With time, there has been a shift from desiring a full figure to viciously starving for a shapeless frame. Sharlene Hesse-Biber, author of Am I Thin Enough Yet? identifies the change to have gone from Marilyn Monroe, who was once idolized for her bosomy beauty to models who are less curvaceous (Hesse-Biber 4). Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 which compared to the standard of ultra-thin bodies would be considered morbidly obese. Hesse-Biber explains that women compare themselves to the unrealistic and unattainable bodies seen on television or in magazines (Hesse-Biber 4). The market continues to make this issue a trend thereby making women self-conscious about their appearance. The mass media continues to support unattainable standards of beauty and bodily perfection that causes women to undergo bodily dissatisfaction. Women's magazines are full of articles that advocate the notion that if woman loses more than twenty pounds they can have "it all. What exactly does "it consist of, one might ask. Starting from the perfect marriage to a good job, this ideal image is falsely presented in a light that it produces nothing but enjoyment. In the article, Image of Ultra-Thin Ralph Lauren Model Sparks Outrage, author Brett Michael Dykes states that there has been debate over how advertisers and fashion magazines use photographs of women. It was said that advertisers usually alter and retouch the image by airbrushing and photo editing on software called Photoshop. For instance, a Ralph Lauren advertisement featured the model Filippa Hamilton whose waist was so shrunken that it actually appeared to be smaller than her head. Dykes give another example of the 59 year-old wrinkle-free star Twiggy in the Olay advertisements in the UK. Although some people are blessed, it is a rare case for a 59 year old to have such flawless skin. This became such an issue that the British parliament recently proposed outlawing advertisements aimed at teenagers (Dykes). The nation's liberal democrat, Jo Swinson, who initiated the proposal, stated: "Today's unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago. Airbrushing means that adverts contain completely unattainable images that no one can live up to in real life. We need to help protect children from these pressures and we need to make a start by banning airbrushing in adverts aimed at them. The focus on women's appearance has got out of hand - no one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure, but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do" (qtd. In Dykes) Many unspoken promises from advertisements in the media are presented to young women. Jean Kilbourne, author of, Beaut