{"title":"Blossoming for Whom? Social Approval and Body Image","authors":"W. Mu, Fan Wu","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.94503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94503","url":null,"abstract":"Body image is a multidimensional construct that reflects the way we perceive and feel about our physical appearance. This inside view of our body heavily influences our self-esteem, mental health, and overall well-being. Under the influence of mass media, peers and family, individuals, especially women, may feel pressured to conform to the societal standards of beauty, engage in upward social comparison, and consequently experience negative body image. While our sociocultural surroundings plays a role in the internalization process, other intrapersonal factors, such as appearance-based rejection sensitivity and lack of self-concept clarity, may heighten the risk for some individuals. Body image disturbances can be manifested in forms of avoidance behaviors, monitoring, eating restraints, and body modification. In order to promote body acceptance, we ought to gain insights into the formation of our body image and challenge the commonly held belief on who defines beauty.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116617562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Media and Its Effects on Beauty","authors":"M. Henriques, D. Patnaik","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.93322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.93322","url":null,"abstract":"Beauty is concerned with physical and mental health as both are intimately related. Short-term decisions to alter one’s body structure irrespective of genetic, environmental, occupational and nutritional needs can leave medium- and long-term effects. This chapter analyzes the role of social media and its effects on the standards of beauty. The researchers have summarized the literature on how social media plays a role in affecting beauty trends, body image and self-esteem concerns. There is support that social media affects individuals negatively, in pushing them to engage in life threatening beauty trends due to social compliance and acceptance in society. The aim was to review social networking sites’ impact on perception of standards of beauty and newer unrealistic trends gaining popularity that could alter opinions and also cause harm to individuals in the long run. This is an emerging area of research that is of high importance to the physical and mental health in the beauty, health and hospitality industry with the latter being manifested in depression, anxiety and fear of non-acceptability and being seen as a social gauche.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121061402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sense of Beauty and Creativity","authors":"L. Torosian","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.92980","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92980","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the impact of natural beauty on the human consciousness and the ability to be creative. The stages of formation and the sequence of the abilities that allow for the emergence of a creative life path and the development of inventiveness are described. A vision of how the sense of beauty develops in the childhood period, as well as how this feeling affects the ability to be inventive in various ways, is discussed. The relationship between the sense of beauty and such human properties as contemplation, observation, and ingenuity is defined. An analysis is made of what impacts our ability to see beauty. Some ideas about how structural changes in technology influence a person’s technical environment and his ability to see natural beauty are provided as well.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126724760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decoding the Signals of Facial Attractiveness: A Communication Theory Perspective","authors":"Daniel Gill","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.92343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92343","url":null,"abstract":"The human face is an elaborate communication tool that transmits a large variety of signals such as: identity, gender, ethnicity, age, emotional state, health, and more. Of particular importance is the tendency of human observers to infer social traits (e.g., attractiveness, dominance or trustworthiness) rapidly from faces which, in turn, can lead to a specific action from a wide spectrum of possibilities ranging from mating to violent clashes. Among the social trait signals that are transmitted by the face, the attractiveness signal is outstanding in its robustness against manipulation initiated by the transmitter or interference caused by the physical environment’s many aspects. Among these aspects are the robustness of attractiveness to manipulations caused by the physical environment (e.g., viewing distance) or manipulations made by the signaler (e.g., facial movements). To understand what makes a face attractive and the unique role that attractiveness plays as a communication signal, this chapter will use the universal framework of communication systems. Every communication system consists of three key elements: a transmitter, a receiver, and a communication channel. All these three components affect the semantic meaning of every message transmitted in the system and thus shape the outcome following the message reception.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126648199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental Art and Wilderness: The Stakes of Beauty","authors":"Pascale Weber","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.91943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91943","url":null,"abstract":"In the field of environmental art, the concept of beauty is linked to the history of wilderness and Romantism. The beautiful and the sublime arouse a debate that opposes the defenders of a pragmatic ecological commitment against the partisans of a subjective and sensitive creation. In reality, these debates are nothing but old quarrels over the engagement of art, the recognition or rejection of its autonomy towards other disciplines, especially regarding scientific expertise. Approaching creation from the angle of beauty is a way of updating our principles of taste, the ability to judge and also to raise once again what is considered a risk for the individual and for the collective, the exacerbation of the senses, the passions and seduction. Finally, it is about subjecting art to principle of utility that neglects all subjective creation when we are collectively and daily subjected to a regime of guilt and anxiety which orchestrates in turn a form of political and existential resignation. But what remains of aesthetic and artistic experience in such conditions? Does not the rationality of this approach confuse art and communication, denying the emotional connect of art and the fact that beauty is defined by emotional reactions?","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134579887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identity, Self-Identity and Beauty in Chinese Female Worker","authors":"L. Yun, Rong Rong","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.92108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92108","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, we leave “the Cultural Study” in the contemporary researches on beauty, claiming economico-political matters in our self-acceptance and image projection. Rather than studying the standard set for the middle class, we examine the middle-class dream in the self-acceptance of contemporary Chinese female migrant workers. We take “The Sundress”, a poem written by Wuxia, a migrant worker in Shenzhen, as an example, arguing that it is mainly the political and economic ideologies that function in the overdetermination of the contemporary working class’ projection of beauty in China. In the poem, the “I” speaker, a steam press operator working late in the night, (mis)identifies herself with a middle-class girl who buys and puts on the dress that she irons. She takes great pleasure and tranquillity in picturing the beauty and the leisure time that the idealized “you-I” in the dress enjoys. What’s more, our linguistic study testifies that she, as the speaker in the poem, is subjectified by the (mis)identification. Her self-acceptance, activeness and sense of control arise when she overlaps herself with that idealized body image. A great loss, however, is engendered by her having to leave that body and the fantasy world.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"198 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121232513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beauty in Mathematics: Symmetry and Fractality","authors":"V. Testov","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.92082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92082","url":null,"abstract":"The most important concepts underlying beauty are the concepts of symmetry and fractality, but the relationship of these concepts has not yet remained clear. For centuries, beauty was understood only as a stable order and symmetry. Synergetic worldview allows us to give a new assessment: beauty can be seen as an attractor, the result of self-organization of nature, or the flight of human thought. On the one hand, fractality can be considered one of the manifestations of symmetry in an expansive sense. On the other hand, symmetry can be considered a manifestation of fractality with a finite number of iterations. Thus, the concepts of symmetry and fractality are closely interrelated. Symmetry reveals in beauty a stable order, and fractality reflects in beauty the result of the self-organization of the chaos of nature or the freedom of human thought. Symmetry and fractality are two opposites, mutually complementing each other, aesthetically and mathematically mutually passing into each other. Thus, symmetry and fractals are the most important concepts for the disclosure of the beauty of the universe, which determine their importance for learning. The concept of self-similarity can serve as a basis for acquaintance with fractals.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121141498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Valdicléia Massilon de Abreu, Maria da Glória Batista de Azevedo, J. Falcão
{"title":"Cosmetovigilance in Hair Straighteners: Determination of Formaldehyde Content by Spectrophotometry and Label Evaluation","authors":"Valdicléia Massilon de Abreu, Maria da Glória Batista de Azevedo, J. Falcão","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.82842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.82842","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this work was to identify and quantify formaldehyde present in commercial hair straightening formulations, the application of cosmetovigilance from organoleptic/physicochemical tests and label analysis being approached. Samples A1, A3, A5, and A8 had a formaldehyde concentration ranging from 1.5 to 3.83% (w/v), corresponding to concentrations of 7.5, 16.45, 7.9, and 19.15 times higher than that allowed by the National Agency of Sanitary Monitoring (ANVISA), resulting in strong odor characteristic of this active substance. Of these samples, A3 and A5 did not indicate the presence of formaldehyde on the label besides ignoring the warning information and restrictions of use. The absence of the registration number granted by ANVISA for sample A5, which may be an indication of a clandestine product, was also verified. As to the organoleptic and physicochemical properties, only the A2 sample presented different viscosity and centrifugation results. In view of these results, it was concluded that 50% of the analyzed products were reproved because of the presence of formaldehyde out of the allowed concentration, being evident the importance of the implantation of cosmetovigilance system to guarantee the final quality of the cosmetic products, mainly in view of the safety and efficacy of these products.","PeriodicalId":406971,"journal":{"name":"Beauty - Cosmetic Science, Cultural Issues and Creative Developments","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126420245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}