The end of the book the Beauty Myth did not bring me closure. Wolfe says in the last chapter that we, as women, should just learn to love our bodies. I understand where she is coming from but throughout the whole book she told us how it is so hard to love our bodies because of society. If it were really as simple as learning to love our bodies then we would not have this problem in the first place. I wasn't the biggest fan of the book in general because I felt that Wolfe rambled on about what point she was trying to make, when she had already made it five sentences earlier. It just makes me lost in the book and forgetting what her original point was. In comparing Valenti and Wolfe, I think I would much rather read Valenti. Wolfe makes great arguments and some of them are really interesting, but the language she uses is like reading a report because of all the cases and statistics that she uses. Although Valenti used lots of foul language (which was very unnecessary) it was easier to read as a whole. On of the most interesting Body Outlaws stories I have read recently is "Sizing myself up: tales of a plus size model" by Kate Dillion. I think that it was interesting because it tells of how a women is so un-confident with the way she looks because that is what people tell her. She was a victim to what society told her was beautiful. Although she fell a little harder because she was in the fashion industry, but I think every women goes through a part in their life where you just can never look pretty enough or never be skinny enough. In reality nobody is that skinny and it is all just computerized. She went from being a totally underweight model to a plus size model and was never so happy with her self. I think that is very inspiring to show that being that skinny is not always happy.
(The top picture is Whitney from America's Next Top Model- the first plus size woman to win the contest. The bottom picture is of Kate Dillon herself)
An eating disorder is a condition which affects an individuals eating habits, either as a result of their own doing or their bodies reaction to the food that they intake. The three major types of eating disorders are anorexia, bulemia and binge eating. I believe that the fashion industry and the media has had the biggest infulence on eating disorders. The media portrays that if you want to be accepted and popular, you are supposed to be thin and beautiful. In the article, Breaking the Model, by Graciela (Chely) H. Rodriguez in the book the Body Outlaws, describes a young latino girl who suffers with an eating disorder. She wants to be skinny because that is what the modeling agencies told her she had to be to be a model. She says that, "I feel the media's and society's images of women were more responsible. Like they do for so many girls, these images promised acceptance and happiness if I could only look like them." This quote was from a real teenager and just reinforces the media's influence on eating disorders. I do believe that food, appearance preoccupation and diet have become our societies new sacred rituals. That is the obsession right now. You can not watch 5 mins of commercials without seeing at least one to two ads on either weightloss, make-up or how to look tone. Society is teaching women everywhere that to be considered beautiful, you have to be thin. This is just corrupting women and their perception of beauty. That is why so many people decide that starving themselves and binging and purging is the best way to lose the weight and lose it fast. Because of the abundant economic climate eating disorders have rose. It used to be that to wear make-up you had money, or to be on a weight loss you had money. But now things are becoming less expensive and more readily available to the public. This is adding to women obsession that to be beautiful you need make-up and to be on weight loss pill. Again just adding to the obsession of eating disorders. Also women women can not control how pretty they are but they can control their weight, so that is why they turn to eating disorders like anorexia and bulemia.
In Debra Gimlin's essay, "Cometic Surgery: Paying for Your Beauty", she informs the readers that plastic and cosmetic surgery did not have the same purpose as it does today. It used to be used on soldiers that had got injured in war and in battles. It would help cover up the scars and try to maintain their looks from before their injury. Women caught on to this and wanted to start chaning the way they looked to the ideal women. This is increasingly growing into an acceptable norm now and many women are turning to plastic and cosmetic surgery. I have mixed feelings about cosmetic surgery. There are some people who were born with a deformity of some kind, there are those who have had an accident and something on their body was altered. I think that if these individuals feel so unconfident about themselves and have a low self esteem then they should get the surgery. I will never judge those who have had cosmetic surgery because I will never know their true intentions for having it. That being said, i feel like not everyone needs surgery for things they can ultimately fix themselves, or reasons of just wanting to do to look like someone else or to be skinny when they are clearly not overweight. I think that physical beauty is too much of a focus in our society. So many people are trying to conform to what our society says is acceptable. Whether it be weight, breasts or flawless skin. i think that everybody was made how they were supposed to be made. If you want to be skinner, go to the gym and work out a little more. There is nothing wrong with curves. I think that it is an individual opinion on the idea. Women feel horrible about themselves because society feeds into us that we are supposed to look like the perfect women (Which only like 5%, or something ridiculous like that, of the women actually fit into that category), so we get the plastic surgery which just reinforces society that that is the way we are supposed to look. Its like which came first the chicken or the egg.
Walt Disney Princess movies are wonderful and enjoyable at any age.Even with their predictable plots of forbidden romance, a trial that a princess has to overcome to be with their one true love, or a villain trying to destroy the princess, children of all ages, as well as adults, are able to watch these movies countless times with a joy brought to their hearts.One thing that every Disney Princess movie has in common is that the princesses are always beautiful women and their villains/enemies are always portrayed as ugly.Why is it the ugly or average girls always finish last?Why do the beautiful princesses always get the prince?These are questions that nobody thinks about asking, because that is just the ways it is.By analyzing three Disney Princess movies, the reader will see the comparison and contrast between the beautiful princess and ugly villain and why society has these physical features for such roles.
In general all Disney Princesses are beautiful.With their perfect hair, like Belle, flawless face, like Snow White and ideal physical shape like Cinderella.They remind audiences of Barbie and show that beauty “become[s] the defining criteria for our status and out worth” (Gilman 16).But why do all the collection Princess and Barbie’s depicts these image?One idea is that this is the way reality truly is.Disney teaches children the harsh reality of life, beauty rules.Movies, commercials and advertisement shows audiences that if you are beautiful then that is all you need to succeed.In The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, she says that “women serve as aspiring beauties” (Wolf 66).Disney reinforces this ideal by making these looked-up-to princesses ideally perfect.Not only do they reinforce the reality of beauty rules, but they show that ugliness will always fail by always portraying the enemies, or villains, as ugly.In Disney’s Cinderella, Cinderella is gorgeous in all her features and her step sisters are considered ugly and annoying.Another layer that Disney uses to emphasize the dislike of the villains is making them be annoying and loud mouthed.Ugliness is not a likable trait in itself, but to add annoyance or being a loud mouth just reinforces the dislike.These ideas about how to treat beauty in society can be linked to Ivan Pavlov’s study with dogs.Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell whenever the bell rang the dogs would be given something to eat. Eventually every time the dogs hear the bell rung, they would start salivating for food.This is similar in the fact that every time a child watches a Disney movie and see’s an ugly person, they are always the villain.So after watching many Disney movies children start seeing every ugly person as bad. This then will not only stay within watching movies but will leak into real life, so that when a child sees an ugly person they automatically think of them as bad, or annoying, or not worth as much as a beautiful person.
In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast the whole story is based on looks and what people think about looks.Beast is not the necessarily the villain but is considered the ugly on in this story.Belle of course beautiful, as that is why she is named Belle, and the Beast named specifically because of his looks.The movie is depicting that the worst punishment is being something ugly.And Disney is also saying that if you are ugly and you know it, it would be best if you lock yourself away in a castle until you look good again.Again this proves that, in society, the harsh truth is that, if you are ugly you are not pleasant to look at, so you should just stay out of sight from the public eye.The movie gives the hard truth that if you are ugly, you do not belong in society.In the movie the Beast sorrowfully says, “She's so beautiful, and I'm... Well, look at me!”This just drives it home even more that ugly people do not think that they can even be loved solely based on their looks.This also adds to the idea that ugly people are un-rescuable.Society says that ugly people are almost not worth saving because beauty is the number one thing to offer and that is what they are lacking the most.Of course everybody knows that Belle eventually overlooks the Beasts physical features and falls in love with his personality, but the main plot is still that the Beast is ugly and an outsider because of it. The movie also gives the idea that if you are ugly, you do not belong in society, and you should stay out of sight.
Disney movies portrayal of ugly people being villains and the beautiful people as the wonderful princesses is really a matter of which came first, the chicken or the egg.Is the society the ones that say that ugly people are bad, so Disney just mocks it?Or do movies, like Disney Princess movies, put forth the action of disliking ugly people and tagging them as bad.Either way it is how society works, and even though children might not realize then, they are being programmed to think that beauty rules and ugliness fails.
The Definition of Beauty
Different Ages and Genders
Beauty is such a difficult subject to tackle because everybody has their own opinion of what is beautiful and rarely does someone have the exact same ideas as the next.With this statement alone, it is hard to understand how society has marked a certain kind of person as beautiful and others as not.Just because the magazines and television do not concede that these “non-beauties” do not fall in the category of beautiful, does not mean that they are ugly or not beautiful.I think that every women and man is beautiful in somebody’s eye.Just because I might not think they are beautiful, does not mean they are not.Who am I and the media to put a ranking on beauty?The formal definition of beauty is:
The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
With that being in mind of the different aspects of beauty, I interviewed five people and asked their own opinion on what they thought beautiful was and why.Also I asked them to name a person who they considered beautiful.The first person I asked was Hannah, a 10 year old female fifth grader.Hannah thought that what makes a person beautiful is, “The ways their hair is. Their make-up matching their outfits.Their outfits.”(Six).The people she said were beautiful were Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, because these girls fit into her category of her perception of beauty.Taler, a 19 year old female college student, said that characteristics of someone beautiful is, “Nice, caring, pretty smile, a positive attitude, and a pretty face”(Tiger).The person she picked that is beautiful is Carrie Underwood, because of her smile, face, and always looking happy.Zach a 23 year old male college student said that a person is beautiful is they, “love Jesus, pretty face, pretty smile and hair, and someone who doesn’t wear too much make-up. Someone who has a natural beauty”(Freeman).The person he said was beautiful was Jennifer Gardner.Leanne, a 44 year old female, says that beautiful to her, “is someone has inner beauty.There are a lot of pretty girls out there but to really be beautiful you have to be beautiful on the inside.Physical beauty can fade but inner beauty will last forever”(L. VanOrsdol).The person she thought was beautiful is Meg Ryan because she is not the most beautiful person but she has true inner beauty.Reid, a 42 year old male, said what he thinks beauty is, “someone who has a good attitude about themselves, keeps up with their appearance, and someone who has a good heart”(R. VanOrsdol).The person he thought about as a beautiful person is Julia Roberts, because of her upbeat attitude.
By interviewing these individuals or different ages and genders the reader is able to see some similarities and differences.Hannah, 9, sees just physical characteristics as being beautiful, probably because that is what television says is beautiful and the comprehension of inner beauty is above her head right now.Taler and Zach, both in college, were able to look in a little deeper and see physical features but also some inner beauty.For both of them, personality characteristics were first listed, which shows that physical features are not the first things that attracts them to the other person.Physical features were still important in both of their interviews.Leanne and Reid, both in their forties, went straight for personality and physical features were not as important.By looking at these interviewees and comparing their answers, there are similarities within genders of the same age group and differences between age groups. Younger children are not able to see the inner beauty of people yet and solely see the physical features like hair, make-up, outfits.This is probably because lack of experience dealing with people and getting their source of beauty from watching television.The college age adults were able to see more inner beauty, because they know that just have the physical looks, is not always attractive.Although they did have personality answers, physical looks were still important, because they felt that you still have to be attractive to be beautiful.The older individuals focused more on personality and inner beauty than outer.Most likely because they know that outer beauty will fade and that their personality is what will carry on with them forever.One similarity is that every one of the interviewees all chose women as the person they thought was beautiful.Most likely because the word beautiful is more of a feminine word and associated more with women.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is no way of ranking beauty.That being said, women still constantly look to television and magazines to see how to become more beautiful to society. In Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth she says that, “women […] admitted to knowing, from the time they could first consciously think, that the ideal was someone tall, thin, white, and blond, a face without pores, asymmetry, or flaws, someone wholly perfect” (Wolf 1).Who says that those characteristics are beautiful? There are many people who do not like blondes, does not see thin people as attractive, and wants somebody who is short.I believe that confidence is a beautiful characteristic and I believe that, “women want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it” (Wolf 12).I think that if women are confident in their appearance then that’s just makes them even more beautiful than they already are.There is not set guidelines on beauty, everyone is different, so realize that you are beautiful without adding or subtracting.
Bibliography
Gilman, Susan Jane. "Klaus Barbie, and Other Dolls I'd Like to See." Body Outlaws. Emeryville: Seal Press, 2003. 14-21.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
was in the fashion industry, but I think every women goes through a part in their life where you just can never look pretty enough or never be skinny enough. In reality nobody is that skinny and it is all just computerized. She went from being a totally underweight model to a plus size model and was never so happy with her self. I think that is very inspiring to show that being that skinny is not always happy.