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. We can see the bitterness dripping off Akst’s words throughout his entire writing. He states, “Everyone knows looks shouldn’t matter. Beauty after all, is only skin deep, and no right-thinking …show more content…
By doing this, Akst is preying on the seeds of doubt that may be already planted into the reader’s mind. For example, Akst implements the baby argument into his writing to sway reader’s opinions. He states, “Mother’s pay more attention to good-looking babies, for example, but, by the same token, babies pay more attention to prettier adults who wander into their fields of vision” (330). The key section that displays Akst’s bitterness is when he states “mother’s pay-more attention to good-looking babies”. By saying this, Akst is manipulating readers into believing that mothers pay less attention to their less beautiful children, without any solid evidence to support his claim. By Akst placing emphasis on only mothers rather than both mothers and fathers, he is exposing his predisposed bitterness to the …show more content…
Akst disguises his bitter nature by turning superficial into scientific. Akst states, on a scale from 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1.50 to 2.11. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0.94 to 1.67. In other words, women in 1989 considered a man look’s more important than men considered women’s looks 50 years earlier Akst emphasizes how women take superficial looks more into an account than men which reveals his bitter emotions directed towards women. Akst also provides no evidence for the circumstances of this research study which leaves readers with no evidence to back up his claim. He is so bitter towards women’s obsession with beauty that he tries make a correlation that may not even be
“What Meets the Eye”, this topic absolutely caught my full attention in personalized reading list for "Psychology and Human Behavior" members. It was by Daniel Akst and it can be found in our textbook “The Writer’s Presence A Pool of Readings Eighth Edition” page three hundred twenty nine. Its topic has completely reflecting the main idea of this expository writing, my interpretation of it is what caught your attention? We are humans and we are much on the visualization basis. Almost everyone, we have to admit that we judge people at the first sight. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with it, but we also have to accept the fact that it is our prejudice; our perception cannot be always right and accurate. In the essay, author was trying to examine the value of physical attractiveness, its
think of their looks in the same way that men do"(4). Barry illuminates this discrepancy by
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart” (Kahlil). People focus more on the outward appearance instead of the inward appearance. One’s inward appearance is comprised of their character, values, morals, and the true nature of their heart. On the other hand, the outward appearance is composed of one’s dress and grooming. The inward and outward appearance determines whether or not a person is ugly or beautiful. The choices that we make also define whether or not one is ugly or beautiful; choices made in the past can sometimes be repeated in the future.
Quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 925-935.
“The problem is that women generally do not think of their looks in the same way that men do” (4).
The satirical article by Dave Barry “The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” exposes the idea that, when it comes to appearance women thinks less of themselves, when compared to men.
In Dave Barry’s piece “The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” he claims that most men tend to “think of themselves as average-looking.” One can see Barry’s point because it is not often that a man fusses over the way his hair falls or the highness of his cheekbones. Men are not as caught up in society’s idea of how one should look, something that women are often consumed by. This unattainable standard is one that plagues women from adolescence, all the way into adulthood. Young men, as Barry says, often form an opinion of their looks at a young age and stick with it forever. So what is it about the teenage years that plummets the self-esteem of females but leaves the males unaffected? The common belief is that the media plays an enormous role in this destruction of the idea of beauty. Leggy blondes with slim waists cloud the minds of the world’s youth. This is eye candy to the little boys and an impossible goal for the girls.
In the essay “What Meets the Eye”, Daniel Akst explains scientific facts about the beauty of men and women matters to people. He argues that attractive individuals receive attention, great social status, marries, and gets paid more on a job. One can disagree with Akst’s argument because anyone with the skills and knowledge, despite the appearance, can gain a decent relationship and can get paid well. Akst looks at beauty as if it can lead individuals to an amazing and successful life, but he is wrong. Nancy Mairs’ and Alice Walker’s views on beauty are explained internally and through self-confidence. Both women’s and Akst’s arguments on beauty share some similarities and differences in many ways, and an
In a growing world, relying on education and intelligence, judgments in a social environment are still continuously based off of appearance. A study of the importance of outer looks was produced through a TV game show. Contestants fought to answer questions correctly to improve their personal score. At the end of the game, the player with the highest score was asked to eliminate a team member. Although many times an unattractive player would have higher scores and could be more beneficial than another teammate, only 27% of unattractive members were chosen to advance to the next round (Belot, Bhaskar, and van de Ven 852-853). When society overlooks qualities and characteristics of high value for looks, discrimination conquers.
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
An elevation of beauty is treated as a form of improvement, both for men and for women. Simply put, women emphasize their differences in order to gain a sense of equality and avoid comparison from men. However women are limited in the sense that beauty in itself is very restricting. And the fact that women direct their beauty towards men shows us that men are the basis and the end means of beauty. In which this beautification is not really a form of self-improvement; there is no real flourishing...
According to the article be Dave Barry, “The Ugly Truth about Beauty”, the article compares men and women. Barry illustrates that men think of themselves as average looking, an average is fine for men. On the contrary, women always think that they are not good enough. Barry thinks this difference is because those women when they were young used to play with a Barbie, which made them feel that they have to be perfect just, like she and that generated low self-esteem. On the other hand, men used to play with their action figures when they were young, which are not good looking. This made boys grow up with the concept that looks do not matter. The author’s overall point is that women have more interest in appearance than men. In this article,
First, women spend huge amounts of money to improve their looks. So here we are unable to escape the reality that we can never be flawless or blemish free; moreover, as long as women have the belief that all greatness de...