I am writing in response to the editor’s request that I analyze and make a recommendation for or against publication in The Shorthorn over Raina Kelley’s “Beauty is Defined, and Not By You.” After analyzing the rhetorical aspects of this piece, I have come to the conclusion that the idea of woman being pressured to fit societies standard of “beauty” will hit home with many Shorthorn readers, therefore it should be published. The main target audience in this case is women, but nearly all UTA community can relate to this article in a certain way. After reading this women or men will develop a different perspective on beauty and self-appreciation. Beauty isn’t what will allow you to succeed; it is the amount of hard work and dedication that you give to accomplish your goals. Kelley gives three main reasons to support this claim; the standard will change, the opportunities for women are growing without the help of beauty, and that it is important to not let yourself get to a vulnerable state. The reasons may seem a little vague but the author gives enough evidence to support them, which gives the reader the opportunity to develop a new meaning of beauty. For the last reason Kelley is presenting an argumentative idea that contradicts what she has said, but still ties in with what she has to say about the “standard”. For the first reason the author states that the beauty standard will change, but what does society consider being the “standard”. Currently in this culture “namely white, young, thing with long, straight hair” is the definition of beautiful. According to a research done by Newsweek, the workplace values looks over education, so most people are at a disadvantage. The author proves this research to be wrong when she describ... ... middle of paper ... ... everyone deals with the same problems. Kelley’s use of pathos is not represented well, if readers really pay attention to what she is saying they will feel emotion, but there isn’t anything major that would actually cause the reader to express feeling. Raina Kelley’s article has enough evidence and personal experiences that it makes it easy for readers to relate and keep reading. Even though this isn’t a topic that most people would be interested in, it definitely is worth reading. I believe it should be published in The Shorthorn because there are enough reasons that the girls of the UTA community can take into consideration. Kelley will make women come to the realization that intelligence triumphs beauty. As the author states, “when I’m on my deathbed, I hope to be smiling in satisfaction about all I accomplished, not that I made it to 102 without any cellulite.”
Women are told that in order to get anywhere in life they must constantly worry about their outer appearance. In Jennifer Weiner’s article, “When Can Women Stop Trying to Look Perfect?” she delves deeply into how today’s society women’s worth is based on how they look. Weiner believes that women who do not meet the standards of beauty do not have as many opportunities.
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
In the article “Beating Anorexia and Ganing Feminism,” Marni Grossman shares her experiance of how she overcame her struggle with anorexia through understanding the feminist movement. Marni objectafies the ways in which society’s expectations and ideas of what it means to have “beauty” is having and negitaive impact. I had a very similar experiance to Marni, in fact the first time I hated my apperance was in the seventh grade. I have olive skin and bold brows, features which i was often complamented on, yet hated. Shawn and Lee argue that “there is no fixed idea of beauty”, suggesting how social ideals from society differs depending on the culture (183). I remember A male student was bullying all the females in the class by Inscribing Gender
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
The definition of beauty has significantly changed through the ages. Women went from wanting to be seen as a survival partner to perfect sexual symbols. To succeed, they would experience insane health risks and body altering pain. Though many women have fallen to the pressures of media, not everyone has given into today’s obscene standards. There are still women that know beauty does not come only from the outside. This truth shines through the wise words of Amanda Peet: “Beauty is only skin deep. If you go after someone just because she's beautiful but don't have anything to talk about, it's going to get boring fast.” External beauty will vanish and no amount of surgery, chemicals, or exercise can change the toll of old age. If a woman is beautiful on the inside, however, her beauty will remain even when she is gone.
For centuries mankind has unsuccessfully attempted to define beauty. Greek philosophers, including Plato, tried to define beauty as if it were as simple as any other law in nature. However this cannot be so because the idea of what is beautiful has varied throughout cultures and the ages. In the 1800s women who were pale and rather plump were considered objects of desire; but in today’s society, desirable women are slender and tan, among other things. The fact is that today, beauty is as unobtainable as it is indefinable. All of today’s supermodels, as seen in millions of advertisements, have been modified, airbrushed, and photoshopped. Women desiring this beauty have turned to various sources of false remedies, spending thousands of dollars, in hope that they too can be beautiful. The media has twisted and warped our ideal definition of beauty into something that does not exist naturally and is simply inaccessible.
According to author’s claim in “The Body” reading cluster, she expressed the beauty standard at workplace as totally unimportance, invaluable and she doesn’t care about the beauty standard at all at the workplace. But, the author point of view toward the experience and confident as well as education is more worthiness and meaningful than the good looking appears at the workplace. Then, she supported her claim appearing as there are many opportunities for all of us even though we aren’t attractive or beautiful and as a today, women have equal opportunity as men. Moreover, the author supported her claim along with the teen and women are spending less money on beauty products than before. These reasons suggested the students not to worry about the beauty standard at workplace and to focus on accomplishment with thoughtful mind. In addition, UTA seems to have equal gender student, mostly single and dating relationship, working students and limited income as well as diversity related to Kelley’s point of view reasons. Most o...
The concept of beauty can be hard to define, as it is an ever-evolving notion. What people perceive as beauty has varied through time, across cultures (Fallon 1990) and can also vary based on individuals. To a culture, beauty can be its customs and traditions, and to an individual it can include physical appearance (outer beauty) or personality (inner beauty). However the word beauty can also defer according to gender, Ambrose Bierce (1958) once wrote, “To men, a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But a woman’s body is the woman.” Despite the societal changes achieved since Bierce’s time, this statement still holds true. Attractiveness is a prerequisite for femininity but not for masculinity (Freedman, 1986).
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
Over the years, America has become a society that judges beauty based mainly on appearance. Throughout the course of a day, men and women are bombarded with grotesque images of malnourished supermodels selling their own bodies; claiming that they are somehow beautiful. What does it mean to be beautiful? Can self-worth be measured by body weight, clothing size, or shade of lipstick?. “Sometime ago I came across an article in a beauty magazine in which a man said that there were no more ugly women in the world because make-up, weaves, false eyelashes among other beauty treatments have evened out the playing field and has resulted in all women looking the same” ( Gale 1). At the same time, misinformed judgements have caused women to change their physical appearance in order to become more beautiful rather than embracing their own true beauty. To measure beauty effectively one must remember that beauty cannot be determined by physical attributes, but is found in the personality and uniqueness of each individual.
Beauty, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is the qualities in a person, or a thing that give pleasure to the senses or the mind. If asked to describe beauty, there’s no doubt that a great number of minds would fly straight to the images of the countless women whose elegant faces and long, slender bodies have been plastered everywhere from Times Square to the fashion magazines on their coffee tables. So what does that really mean and why is it that everyone’s perception of beauty is the same? It means that image of beauty has been altered in the minds of not only today’s youth, but in every generation. The improbable ideals that have been engrained into the minds of people worldwide have left the human race feeling like they will never be good enough. The culprit is the advertising industry, and Photoshop is their weapon. Many activists have begun to take a stand and make it their mission to stop this phenomenon before the damage spreads.
Beauty, how do we define it? Why is beauty so important among us? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this paper, leaving a clear understanding of what “beauty” is and the many qualities which define “beauty”. We are regularly challenged with “beauty”, trying to define what it is and what it’s supposed to be, who is and who is not, and what is and what is not?