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Furthermore, advertising helps in this possesses by creating the notion that individuals have to pursuit and adopt a critical attitude towards body, self and lifestyle; make them emotionally vulnerable constantly reminding them about body imperfections which have no longer could be seen as normal. (Ewen, 1976) Body maintenance cannot be seen as something new and typical for our age as it exists in traditional societies in the past but was often associated with subordination of ‘higher’ spiritual level. Moreover, our age creates the connection between dietary control, exercise and the achievement of better desired effect about sex (Hepworth& Featherstone, 1982). As Angela McRobbie (1991) puts it, magazines and advertisements largely define girls and women through their sexual attractiveness and femininity; they encourage young females to strive to achieve “the ultimate outlook” through images, beauty tips; advice on how to attract boys, how to keep their partners or how to surprise them; whilst male magazines` topics are concentrated on leisure activities. Advertising campaigns` concepts of beauty products and procedures, plastic surgery, diet products, revolve around the idea that women are expected to desire getting rid of their bodily imperfections, in order to be attractive and consequently, happy. This, even nowadays, McRobbie argues, puts women into a subordinate position to men and encourages patriarchal values and social behaviour.

Today’s world looks like a constant competition between individuals. They compete for attention, promotions and possibilities be it professional, academic or personal. People feel the urge to give their best in all aspects of their lives and to do so; they need to improve the way they look, as appearance is what makes first impression. However, the desire to impress others has turned into a desire to please ourselves: we are critical about the way we look and our self-esteem depends on whether we succeed to look as good as the models from the covers of the magazines.

As our self perception is influenced by the demanding social standards, our own perception of the world depends on them. Individuals become critical about others’ appearance, so we constantly strive for more and require more in each social and personal sphere: as relationship partners, friends, parents, employers. This, I argue, has largely turned traditional social values into consumers’ matrix, as goods and ultimate body image are the factors for the assessment, perception and understanding of personal skills and qualities. Perhaps the world has become more superficial now than before, as we pay more attention at objects and appearance and “judge a book by its cover”. These social values might have turned the bodies into material objects, into goods to be assessed, bought and consumed. However, we still have the freedom to decide whether we want to live up to such norms and values, and whether conform to consumers’ social behaviour.

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