Every year, PEOPLE Magazine awards a celebrity man and woman the title of "Sexiest Man or Woman Alive." The Thor star, Chris Hemsworth, easily swept the title in 2014 and was soon accompanied by a female counterpart: Kate Upton.  Twenty-three year old Upton began her modeling career in 2008 with Elite Model Management. She quickly became a public fascination, posing in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Edition, and dabbling with an acting career. Her most famous accomplishments are her 2012 and 2013 covers of Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Edition. Upton is a striking woman, standing at five feet and ten inches tall, with long blonde hair, and a body that is envied by millions around the world. Upon winning the award, Upton said of her accomplishment, "This is such an honor to me because sexy to me means someone who's confident and happy, and that's the person I always strive to be" (Steiner). This is exactly the problem. The modern woman strives to be "sexy" not "beautiful" because the terms have grown to be equivalent. There are numerous other celebrity women whom, quite frankly, are much more beautiful than Upton. Strong, experienced, accomplished, and beautiful women like Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston were almost as qualified as Upton to win the award. Just a single aspect was missing: extreme advertised sex appeal. Kate Upton is one of today's society's many sex icons, a trait that allowed her to be recognized as the world's sexiest woman. This is not a personal fault of Upton's, but it is a societal fault by either equivocating or replacing beauty with sexuality. But how did this replacement take place? Why did it take place? 

The relevance of a topic such as beauty is so important that it should not be ignored. The shift has become apparent through the advancement in technology and medical practices in the modern era and affects the women and girls of today's society in more ways than meets the eye. Being blessed with advancements such as cameras, video cameras, recording studios, cell phones, and many others, enable human beings to make a profit or entertain others by giving them what is desirable. And what is desirable to the modern eye is whatever appeals to the base desires. Hence the creation of pornography, strip clubs, and adult rated videos and films. The advancement in medicine allows the modern woman to alter her natural body type into one that is seen as outwardly attractive. They are constantly told by society and the media that in order to be perceived as "beautiful" they must look like x, y, or z.

A strong definition of beauty is given by Thomas Aquinas, a famous 13th century theologian and philosopher. When referring to beauty that is called "enjoyable", Aquinas states that, "The beautiful is that which pleases upon being seen...As persons differ in their tastes, so they differ with respect to what affords them pleasure when they apprehend it." Essentially, Aquinas is pointing out that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it is different to all people (Adler 104-110). When speaking on the topic of admiral beauty, Aquinas gives the definition: the beautiful thing is one that has unity, which means similarity between elements, proportion, which is the dissimilarity between elements, and clarity, which is expression (Adler 113). Immediate enjoyable beauty and beauty that comes by mediation of the mind, which is admirable beauty, are both heavily prevalent in today's society.  For instance, enjoyable beauty is exemplified in a waterfall, which is an object that is immediately perceived as appealing upon meeting the eye, whereas admirable beauty is in a poem, something that requires deeper thought and interpretation to uncover its beauty. From a religious standpoint, Peter talks on the topic of beauty in I Peter 3:3-4 by saying, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." Mankind today often seems to forget or overlook this definition of beauty that Peter provides. Mankind today typically equivocates beauty with sexy and with strictly outward appearances. The term sexy is defined as something that is sexually attractive or exciting and often times when this word is used, it is accompanied by words such as "sexualize" and "provocative." To sexualize something means to make it sexual, to attribute sex or a sex role to it. When something is provocative that means that it arouses sexual desire or interest, especially deliberately. 

Pointing out the change in beauty is simply an attempt to make the point that the idea "beautiful" has been lost aware to all because it is a growing issue that is faced in everyday life that affects the girls, young women, and grown women of today. The idea that social media portrays an unrealistic idea of beauty, and yet if women do not look like that unrealistic idea, they become insecure, desiring to be seen as "beautiful", does not just affect women, but in some cases, harms them. For example, researchers Stice, Neuberg, Shaw, Stein, and Godofsky did a study in the 1990's with 238 undergraduate women as the subjects. Researchers saw the negative consequences that stemmed from the portrayal of women in media, the most severe of which was eating disorders (Nemeroff 168). Another instance of the false ideas of beauty portrayed in media affecting today's women is the documentary Misrepresentation. Written by Jennifer Siebel, the movie emphasizes that a powerful woman without sexuality is few and far between (M Anthony). These "powerful women" are who the everyday woman sees, who the everyday woman wants to be like, and quite frankly, who media tells the everyday woman to be like. Beauty has been lost through the modern portrayal of woman in social media, more specifically, music, film, and photography. 

Turn on a television or radio in any modern day home. What do you see or hear? Networks like MTV, or BET, broadcasted in any household with cable TV, and stations like 103.1, 100.1 and many others, put on display the provocativeness of modern day musicians and performers. Artists such as Beyonce- a young, extremely physically appealing woman, the pinnacle of attractiveness, are dressed in scandalous clothing, making them even more physically appealing by the standards that have been set by todays culture. Their beauty has been transformed into sexuality, sending the message to the viewers that sexual is what they should strive to look like if they wish to been seen as physically attractive. GQ magazine voted Beyonce "Sexiest woman of the 21st century" because of her "curvy hips and slim waist" (Wilson). The key word in this title is "sexy." Notice Beyonce was not awarded "Most beautiful woman of the 21st century." Because of the shape of her body, she attained the title of sexy. Sexy focuses simply on the outward physique, while beauty focuses on the person as a whole, and because of her scandalous performances, scantily clad photos, and provocative song lyrics, Beyonce won sexiest woman of the 21st century.

Regarding today's music industry as a whole, Martha Bayles said it best. American popular music has disintegrated to "perverse modernism" (Epstein 118). In his review of Bayles' book, Hole in Our Soul: the Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music, Jonathon Epstein harps on a huge realization: the fact that music still has meaning is what the author, and all of the novel's readers, should find most upsetting. The meaning has been warped into what the modern man finds desirable. It has been twisted and grown uglier, which is a known point due to its readily availableness through social and cultural media (Epstein 119). The review of this novel ends with Epstein urging his readers to read Bayles' book. He points out that whether or not a reader agrees with the author's stance, it should be read and taken seriously. Bayles' position is refreshing and something about which everyone should be educated, the place at which the restoration of beauty begins (Epstein 120). 

The movie industry, similar to the music industry, has a high rate of sexualizing women. An article written by Molly Mirhashem for the New Republic magazine lays out the conclusions of a study done about women in film. Stacey Smith, the lead researcher on the study commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, describes the female's thoughts and complaints about their appearance. It is five times more likely for an emphasis on looks or desirability to be targeted towards women than men; as researchers wrote, "No matter the territory, female characters cannot escape the emphasis on appearance." The research team took it a step further and surveyed the amount of nudity, thinness, and revealing clothing for different age groups of women in films. They found that in German films, 40% of female characters wore revealing clothing, which is defined as "tight and alluring." They found that in American films, however, only 29% of female characters were scantily clad. Perhaps the most uneasy finding was that girls as young as thirteen years of age were as likely to be sexualized as women in their thirties (Mirhashem). The directors, writers, and producers of these movies are voicing an opinion on beauty. They are saying that a beautiful woman is essentially equal to a woman who is portrayed as a sex symbol. 

However, pornography, which is technically considered film, is another negative aspect that social media has to offer. Pornography is consumerism. It is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual satisfaction. The objectification of women that occurs in such a practice is anything but honorable. Pornography is simply based on sex and replaces the idea of beauty all together with the term sexy. This type of film is for the sole purpose of satisfaction and in doing so, portrays its actors in a negative light. Noami Wolf, an acclaimed writer, most famous for her novel The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, outwardly emphasizes that society is intensely focused on the most powerful industries that control media, one of which is the seven million dollar pornography industry (Wolf). The mere fact that today's culture can escalate such a negative industry to the level of seven million dollars shows just how much modern consumerism is focused not on beauty, but on sexuality. 

The final area of media in which beauty has been lost is photography. In 1977, perhaps the most famous high-end lingerie store came into existence. Roy Raymond, who was a Stanford MBA, wanted to buy his wife some lingerie but did not want to feel like a pervert while shopping for it in a department store. So, he got a $40,000 bank loan, borrowed another $40,000 from his in-laws, opened a store, and called it Victoria's Secret (Barr). Since it's opening, the company has soared to new heights, producing some of the most attractive models worldwide. Models like Adrianna Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Heidi Klum, and Alessandra Ambrosio epitomize the idea of sexy. There is no debate on whether these women are beautiful, but the photo shoots that they take part in are not about their beauty, they are about their sexuality. 

Like with film, Naomi Wolf points out that the diet industry, cosmetic industry, and the three hundred million dollar cosmetic surgery industry, are a huge focus of today's society (Wolf). Many models contribute to these industries in order to succeed in their careers. These models make millions of dollars because of what they look like. Without the diet industry or the cosmetic industry, many of these women's looks would not be achievable, yet again setting an unrealistic standard of beauty in the mind of the modern woman. 

Most importantly, however, the shift of beauty in photography is prevalent in the social media of today's youth. Pornography accounts exist in all forms of social media, specifically Twitter and Instagram. Celebrity accounts also portray the focus of "sexy". For example, Kylie Jenner, a seventeen-year-old reality star and stepsister to the famous Kardashian sisters, is famous for her scandalous instagram posts. Jenner's media followed lip transformation over the past few years also strengthens the argument for the loss of beauty. Jenner, a naturally beautiful girl must have thought: what can I do to make myself more attractive to the public ...  to make myself sexier? Thoughts like these lead to actions like ridiculous amounts of lip injections, and countless other things that people will do to be perceived as outwardly attractive. 

There are those, however, that say that there are traits seen as inherently beautiful to all people, therefore, shedding light on the fact that beauty will always be around. The first of these traits is symmetry; symmetry not meaning proportional, but meaning similarity between the left and right sides. Victor Johnston of New Mexico State University, as of 2002, utilized a program called FacePrints in order to prove that symmetry is attractive to the human eye. Viewers are shown pictures of facial images that differ in attractiveness and they then rate the pictures on a beauty scale from one to nine. In the program, which is essentially "digital Darwinism," the pictures with the best ratings are merged together while the pictures with the lower ratings are discarded. The trial comes to an end when a viewer deems the merged picture as a ten. Johnston proved that symmetry is appealing to the human eye because each picture that had been rated with a ten was extremely symmetrical. Other traits that have been recognized by the human biology department at Stanford University are the "baby face" and low hips-to-waist ratios. A "baby face" is not as much the desire to look like an infant, as it is to simply look youthful and unaffected by age. A low hip-to-waist-ratio is a term for the preference of fat being deposited in the hips and buttocks rather than the waist (Feng). 

Unfortunately, these "inherently desirable traits" have been morphed and twisted by modern culture.  A want for a symmetrical face leads to cosmetic procedures such as nose jobs, lip injections, and eye lifts. A want for a symmetrical face leads to artificially creating something that will please the human eye. These same procedures are also ways to create the desired "baby face." The want for a low hip-to-waist ratio results often times in painful and long-term recovery surgeries like breast and buttock implants, liposuction, and tummy tucks. The extents to which people go to reach that "desired look" is a warped perception of how beauty has always been interpreted. 

Opponents also say that it is not so much social media that has destroyed beauty, but feminism that has done away with the ancient idea. For example, Mallory Millett, a sister to the American Feminist writer, Kate Millett, lays out her experience with this idea of feminism overtaking beauty in an article written in Frontpage Mag. In 1969, as a young, single mother divorcee, Millett relocated to New York to be with her sister. At a dinner party, Mallory was shocked to hear of her sister's views about women. "What are we here for?", Mallory asked her sister Kate. "To start a revolution ...  a cultural revolution ...  by destroying the American family ...  by destroying the American patriarch ...  by taking away his power ...  by destroying monogamy ...  by promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, and homosexuality!" Stunned, trying to understand what her sister was saying, Mallory began to asks questions, from which the conclusion that she drew was that this early idea of "feminism" that her sister held lost "so much grace, femininity, and beauty ...  that it destroyed so many lives" (Millett). Millett's experience may have been slightly more dramatic than the experiences that people have today with encounters of feminists. However, these views are not quickly circulated or widely available in the way that social media is. Certain people hold pro-feminist views, and there are articles, movies, books, interviews, statements, and so much more with these certain people sharing their views with the world. The ability for these opinions to be voiced to as many people as they are is made possible through social media. Social media shows the side of how feminism has destroyed beauty, but it also shows the other countless ways that beauty has been lost. Therefore, making it the primary reason for the loss of beauty in modern society. 

As a young equestrian who attended school at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, Florida, Katherine Elizabeth Upton was seen as an everyday schoolgirl. No one could have seen what was coming next. After being called flat chested and nerdy, Upton decided to pursue a modeling career (Kate Upton). At every picture she takes, jaws around the world quickly drop. Her long torso and perfect curves are her strong points but it is her large chest that has grown to be known as her trademark. Did Upton, like so many other women of today, participate in a surgical procedure to enlarge her breasts? The answer to this question is unknown. Many speculate that yes she did undergo the cosmetic surgery but there are also those who deny Upton's going under the knife. Either way, her looks are coveted in such a way to boost her to the point of the world's sexiest woman. However, it is not just Upton, but the majority of women in today's music industry, that confidently portray the lust for sex in the modern human mind. Provocative song lyrics, scandalous attire, inappropriate performances, and emphasis on the body and facial structure, has completely conquered the modern music industry. And yet these artists are seen as "beautiful," but not beautiful in the traditional sense of the word, beautiful meaning attractive due to extreme sexuality. The film industry is just the same. The high rate of sexualizing women clearly suggests that beauty is a matter of sex. Some of the world's most beautiful women in the acting community, stripped down to show off their shear sexuality is what the modern eye wants to see and finds appealing. It is what breaks box office records and brings the industry millions and millions of dollars. Finally, the art of photography has generally been tainted by the focus on sexuality. An invention, whose primary function at the time of creation was to capture photos of wartime to be sent back to the hometown of the soldiers, has quickly evolved from a hobby that captures moments in order to be remembered forever into an art form, an art form that has been overtaken by sexy subject matters. The majority of magazine covers and spreads, commercial ads, and social media posts of today dealing with beauty, fashion, and even sometimes health contain photographs that are all about the sexuality of its models. Beauty has been lost through the modern portrayal of women in media, a statement that is indeed upsetting, but also a fierce reality. 

