Take a look at this TED talk from Meaghan Ramsey, about the larger personal and social impacts of making both women and men feel like pressured to conform to arbitrary, cultural standards of physical attractiveness.
She examines the effect this has on girls–they don’t participate in class, or sometimes even come to class, on days when they’re not feeling confident about how they look. They post YouTube videos asking viewers to tell them if they’re “ugly or pretty.” And boys aren’t immune, either. They’re constantly bombarded with unrealistic images of what it supposedly means to be “masculine.”
This needs to change because, she says, it translates into adults who engage in self-destructive behaviors that prevent them from reaching their full potential.