...Both authors believe that male dominance is present,jobs ,salary inequality persist and that they use “the beauty myth” against women to make money.Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty myth is not about women,it is something that men use to obtain absolute power.It’s a system that keeps male dominance present.Wolf discussed that the beauty myth is a result of nothing more superior than the need of today’s power structure, economy, and culture to rise neutralization against women.For example,powerful industry make about $33 billion a year diet industry, $20 billion cosmetics industries, and $300 million cosmetic surgery industry.Wolf also discuss how women held back by having to work two shifts compared with the single shift worked...
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...JoAnn Ross Mr. Shaw Sociology 11 March 2014 The Origin of the Beauty Myth The origin of the beauty myth is an age old question. Some have said that it was around the 1830’s that this myth came to fruition. Some will argue that it has been around since the beginning of time. The beauty myth as we know is predicate around several sociological behaviors; work, culture, and religion to name a few. The main reason as we will see is that the beauty myth is not about how a woman looks, but man’ institution and power. So if the beauty myth is not based on evolution, sex, gender, aesthetics or God on what is it based? It claims to be about intimacy and sex and life a celebration of women. It is actually composed of emotion distance, politics, finance and sexual repression. The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called “beauty” objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it. This embodiment is an imperative for women and not for men, which situation is necessary and natural because it is biological, sexual, and evolutionary: Strong men battle for beautiful women, and beautiful women are more reproductively successful. Women’s beauty must correlate to their fertility, and since this system is based on sexual selection, it is inevitable and Changeless. None of this is true. “Beauty” is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West...
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...Nila Tavangarian Women Studies 30 January 30th, 2017 WS Midterm Exam Winter 2017 Part 1: Brief Essays – the Beauty Myth 1) In Wolf’s “Chapter 6: Hunger” in the Beauty Myth she argues that anorexia and bulimia is taking over women in the West. She claims that, “Women must claim anorexia as political damage done to us by a social order that considers our destruction insignificant because of what we are-less,” (Wolf, 208). I agree with the feminist perspective in “Hunger” that women are affected by pop culture and media to starve themselves until the point where they are unstable. Unfortunately, many women in the US are influenced to look like women in pop culture, however this has caused millions of suicides and health issues that...
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...their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny or their clothes are outdated. Today these are the thoughts of many women who feel they’re not beautiful. Naomi Wolf’s essay “The Beauty Myth” explores, why women feel they don’t measure up. Meanwhile Helena Maria Viramontes’ short story “Miss Clairol” examines the life of Arlene, who is a product of “The Beauty Myth”. Each author shows the power exerted by beauty ideals over women’s identities and goals, including the anxieties produced in women by these beauty ideals. The basis of Wolf’s essay was to show as time progresses it seems, the standards of physical beauty have grown stronger for women as they gained power in other social arenas. “The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us” (120) Women have accomplished so much over the past few decades yet, as you watch television or walk around the city, images of pencil thin women are shown to basically tell you that what you see is beautiful and if you don’t look like that you’re not. Wolf states that women today feel a need to purchase cosmetics to make them feel a sense of beauty, this is actually evident in “Miss Clairol” when Arlene is getting ready for her date, “She has painted her eyebrows so that the two are arched and even, pencil thin and high.” (90) This is showing that something so simple such as...
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...Alicia A. Smith October 29, 2014 Eng.4705/Essay #2 Beauty Complex The word beauty has many negative connotations for African American women. Over the years African American women have been subjected, misrepresented and also dehumanized by the exemplification of beauty and identity. This pattern of internalizing the perception of beauty to coincide with European standards have caused many African American women in the process to alter their physical appearances and personify a culture that has disregarded the uniqueness of being “ black and beautiful”. The cultural aesthetics of being “black and beautiful” has been distorted in literature, movies and television shows to appease an acceptable standard of beauty that in reality is unrealistic....
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...Media Literacy I have advocated for 30 years that, in order to preserve our democracy and protect ourselves against demagogues, we should have courses in schools on how to watch TV, how to read newspapers, how to analyze a speech – how to understand the limitations of each medium and make a judgment as to the accuracy or the motives involved. (Cronkite) Media’s influence on society is powerful and far-reaching because they introduce us to new and different images that affect our personalities and perceptions of the world we live in. A report by the Free Expression Policy Project has shown that media glamorize violence, sex, drugs, and alcohol; reinforce stereotypes about race, gender, and class; and prescribe the lifestyle to which one should aspire, and the products one must buy to attain it (Hines and Cho 2). If society wants to correct these negative influences of media, Walter Cronkite’s message on the need for media literacy is therefore imperative. Media literacy, defined by AMLA as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of forms, will empower us to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of a wide range of messages using image, language, and sound (Center for Media Literacy). By becoming media literate, it is hope that we will have a better understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our diverse culture. To showcase the importance of media literacy, analyses of news and commercial media are...
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...The standards of beauty incessantly change decade after decade. Today, society portrays beauty as having flawless skin, long hair and exquisite tans. Women try to mirror this “ideal” image of beauty by using tanning beds, hair extensions and pounds of expensive makeup. However, in the Elizabethan era, being beautiful was declared as having distinct pale skin, bright eyes, colorful lips and cheeks and hair in a mesmeric up do. Having a colorless tint of the skin was said to show nobility and power. The more pale a person’s skin was, the more accepted they were in the Elizabethan society. Women often functioned behind the scenes of their husbands. They were urged to be obedient and virginal. Women were often accessories to the men in every aspect...
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..."The pursuit of beauty and of its attendant features, fashion and dress, has more than any other factor bound together women of different classes, regions, and ethnic groups and constituted a key element in women's separate experience of life."-Lois W. Banner. The world lives in a generation where the image that society places upon women is crucial. The image of perfection is based on the coke bottle appearance and gorgeous plastic face. Women already feel the need to gain as much power as they can due to the lack of gender equality. Body image is very hard to ignore in this barbaric and self indulgent culture. An easy solution to fulfill the empowerment thrive, is to compete in beauty pageants. Our society teaches both women, those who compete and those who do not, that being tenaciously empowered is by looking good and appealing to the eye of the human male. The purpose of this paper is to explore the objectification of women in general; with an emphasis on beauty pageants and how the media interpretation of beauty has changed the woman's body image. Finding an exact definition of beauty is highly impossible, considering beauty is said to be have seen in the eye of the beholder. Unfortunately, in this metaphoric glass fish bowl life style; media, men, art, and fashion are the foremost most important holder. As customs, traditions and American habits expand, so does the true meaning of the word beauty. According to webster dictionary, beauty is defined as the quality or aggregate...
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...My "Eight Cow" Bracelet "Beauty is only skin deep" was a phrase I heard quite often during my awkward childhood. When I was a baby, I had two chins, Michelin Tire legs, and hair that stuck straight up even though it was easily over two inches long. My mom would often dress me in only a diaper on hot days inspiring my uncle to label me with the name of "Marshmallow Butt." It was a name he was quite fond of calling me, even years later. As I grew, the double chin turned into one and a half, the legs stretched into colonial columns, and the hair eventually lay flat. This all happened just in time for puberty-acne and my first training bra when I was only ten. It was during this transitional point in my life that my father began to teach me a valuable and significant lesson regarding beauty and the power of words. During my childhood, my family indulged in a weekly ritual we called family night. We used this time for various activities. We would hold family councils where we truly believed we had a say in important subjects. We would play games and have lessons such as "being kind to your family" or some other moral issue of the time. Sometimes we would sing songs, hear stories from Dad who could rival Mark Twain any day, or spend an hour to two eating ice cream and playing at the park. I am the second child and oldest daughter in a family of ten children, so these weekly "get-togethers" rarely went without some type of fiasco. These fiascoes varied from kicking at...
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...Beauty Overlooked Priscilla Sisneros Central New Mexico Community College Beauty is often associated with wealth, good looks, a nice body or some physical characteristic that is attractive. From the minute you turn on your TV you see into a world that admires fame and wealth. Commercials portray a picture of sexy men and women with big smiles on their faces living it up. Billboards throughout any city I have ever passed through have attractive people on them in hopes that their “beauty” will gain your attention long enough to read what they are selling. Is this the true beauty that brings happiness to people? As a society we have become so superficial that we forget about what really matters, the beauty that people possess on the inside. The story “A very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez depicts a story of a fallen angel that is molting, ugly, burdensome, and considered a circus freak. However, the deeper you read into the story you soon began to realize that this anomaly of nature is there for a reason. He was Pelayo and Elisenda’s child’s guardian angel that they assumed was there to take their child. “Frightened by the nightmare, Pelayo ran to get Elisenda, his wife, who was putting compresses on the sick child.” “He’s an angel,” she told them. “He must have been coming for the child but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down.” Garcia wrote (2013). However, as you continue to read into the story you see that the angel’s inner beauty...
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...A Matter of Beauty “Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” – Saint Augustine. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines beauty as “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the sense or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit”. However, what do we as society define beauty as? Doesn’t beauty depend on our own personal opinion? The media has convinced many people in society that beauty is only skin deep, but there is more to the matter. There are two main types of beauty, inner and outer beauty. In my opinion, inner beauty is more important than outer beauty because it is lasting instead of transient. Outer beauty is the easiest kind of beauty a person can notice. When meeting a person we don’t know for the first time, we often find ourselves intrigued at the sight of them. In this case, however, we are only analyzing his/her outer beauty. While physical beauty is alluring and possibly the drive behind why most people choose to interact with each other, many times someone considered “beautiful” can also have a malicious personality. A well known English classic, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, gives a perfect example of why inner beauty is lasting and outer beauty is transient. The story is about a group of school boys stranded on an uninhabited island. They must create their own “adult free” society. The sophisticated novel reflects the nature of human beings through the boys’ makeshift...
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...S******* Engl 1201 – 17 Chapter Four Paper October 11, 2013 Beauty Lies Within The Eyes Of The Beholder The year is now 2010 and as we enter this new decade, we encounter so many new trends, fashion and styles. No matter what your budget might be, it seems like everyone has the same goal in mind. They want to be beautiful and look “beautiful.” Grace Suh’s essay, “Eye of the Beholder,” details her struggle as a Korean girl to conform to a Western ideal of beauty. After her makeover, Suh felt negated and also felt like a stranger was staring back at her when she looked at herself in the mirror. Finally, she realizes that she was content with the way she naturally looked, which causes her to leave the makeup behind her on the commuter train. To me, beauty is not only something that pleases the eyes, but also pleases the other senses and the mind. I think true beauty makes you see beyond the lovely sight. It will give you insight or realization of something interesting beyond just the outward appearance. Think about the word beautiful for a moment, when we talk about beauty in people, we often refer to their physical attractiveness. Of course, a beautiful or handsome face is pleasant to look at. But I find that the most memorable "beautiful people" are the ones who have captivating personalities behind the beautiful faces. In my high school graduating class, there were two girls whose beauty just stood out among the rest, Chelsea and Tressa. Both had almost...
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...“Phenomenal Woman” uses various literary effects to express to women that it isn’t genetic beauty which is important; rather, it is inner beauty and confidence which makes a woman beautiful and the poem’s repetition of the phrase “phenomenal woman” creates an effect in the poem which emphasizes what it means to be a woman. The first stanza in “Phenomenal Woman” begins with Angelou expressing the curiosity which “pretty women” (1) have with her “beauty.” Pretty women don’t see physical beauty in her, yet they see another type of beauty portrayed and question her as to what it may be. Angelou tells them, “It’s in the reach of my arms/the span of my hips/the stride of my step/the curl of my lip/I’m a woman/phenomenally/phenomenal woman” (6-12). Through the use of metaphorical phrases, the author is expressing to the women that she has confidence and it is displayed in how she expresses her femininity. For example, in the way she walks and talks. These things make her beautiful, or a phenomenal woman. In the second stanza of the poem, Angelou depicts herself walking into a room full of men, who all bow to her upon her entrance. “I walk into a room/just as cool as you please/and to a man/the fellows stand or/fall down to their knees/then they swarm around me/a hive of honey bees” (14-20). Angelou describes how when she enters a room, she does not have to do much to show her beauty, yet it is expressed in her confidence and her overall...
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... what motivates our feelings of affection for someone else. Specifically, it's about finding love in spite of (or maybe even because of) physical flaws. Appearances "Appearances" is a major theme in Sonnet 130, since our speaker spends a lot of the poem talking about what's wrong with his mistress's looks. He does a pretty complete dissection of her face, her body, and her smell. He doesn't say anything at all about her personality, but instead sticks to his laundry list of problems with her appearance. This gives Shakespeare a chance to poke fun at our obsession with looks and to show how ridiculous it is to ask any person to live up to some ideal of perfect beauty. Women and Femininity In Sonnet 130, the theme "Women and Femininity" is connected to the idea of appearances. This poem is all about female beauty and our expectations and stereotypes about the way women ought to look. You know how in magazines women pretty much tend to look the same? They all fit into a very narrow definition of what is beautiful. Essentially, the speaker in this poem is pointing out that love poetry does the same thing. It makes women into goddesses, not real human beings. He insists that his idea of beautiful femininity doesn't depend on fitting an abstract, unrealistic fantasy. Essay on theme of love in Sonnet 130 First of all I will be talking about William Shakespere’s Sonnet 130. Now this poem has a rather odd element to the other poems. Some may say this is romantic but others...
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...Sydney Roberts Mrs. Williams English IV- 1 10 November 2011 Beauty Within Throughout history, emotions, and events have been reflected in the arts. No matter the time period artists have used their works to convey a meaning to the audience. The arts are used to communicate feelings in a way that impacts the viewer. Literature, music, and artwork are all genres that artists use to express their feelings and thoughts. Beauty is often used as a theme in each of these genres. Beauty can be illustrated in many different ways, and not everyone sees beauty the same way. Poets use their works to express a mental state. By using specific literary elements and words the reader can determine what they are feeling. Musicians use musical notes and beats as well as words, which allow them to express themselves. Artists use visual elements to represent a particular theme or emotion. Although all of these genres are different, they each contain a message and a theme. Beauty as a theme can be found in the eighteenth century poem “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron, in the twentieth century song “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” by Prince, and in the fifteenth century painting The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Lord Byron is famous for his works in literature, especially his poetry. His journey to fame was full of obstacles. “Byron was born in London to a poor but noble family” (“Prepare to Read”). He used his writing as a way to express his feelings. At first his works were not accepted...
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