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In her essay, “Why Women Smile,” Amy Cunningham discusses women’s smile in society. Cunningham states because of the pressure and gender expectations placed on women in modern society, women have to use false emotions and smiles to portray this preferred archetype. The purpose of the essay is to argue whether a woman’s smile should truly her own, to be smiled or not, according to hoe the women felt, rather than according to what someone else needed. She explains the evolution about women’s smile from 15th century Italy to America today, and also some research by psychologists and psychiatrists related the topic of smile. Amy Cunningham has been a magazine writer for 30 years, a website editor, producer, and blogger since 2003. She has lots
Amy Cunningham, an editor and author from New York, wrote an article “Why Women Smile” to emphasize on how women are no longer smiling because it is a natural thing, but rather an everyday habit. Coupled with Cunningham’s supported reasons by using logos and ethos, she also uniquely brings in her personal experience by having ethos, making her argument more relatable. A long side with that, societies’ past and present impact on today’s world about women was also included as Cunningham put her own take into proving her point. Although this may be true, there were some fallacies found in her argument leading it to lack of fully portraying the audience.
Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.
In the essay Why Happiness, Why Now? Sara Ahmed talks about how one’s goal in life is to find happiness. Ahmed begins her essay with skepticism and her disbeliefs in happiness. She shows her interest in how happiness is linked to a person’s life choices. Ahmed also tries to dig deeper, and instead of asking an unanswerable question, “what is Happiness?” she asks questions about the role of happiness in one’s life.
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
Because young girls and women around the world are beginning to alter themselves to fit a certain mold, people are starting to realize that a pretty face and one’s youth is a factor that has been hurting the world for many years. So much so that a person is willing to kill to obtain beauty. This is truly and amazing yet sickening fact and the more we emphasize on one’s appearance the more catastrophes like this will happen.
For a woman, looking her best is incredibly important. Whether just a friendly outing or a formal school dance, women utilize makeup and various hair-care products to give off a strong, beautiful, and confident image. The excremental poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” by Jonathan Swift describes several of the ways women try to “hide themselves” to give off a more positive and attractive appearance. While there are many ways a woman can beautify herself, some of the procedures are, depending on the type of girl, used in certain situations only.
In “Beauty and the Beast,” Dave Barry broaches the topic of self-image by telling readers you have to be careful when a woman asks how she looks. Barry feels that women are never satisfied with their looks, while most men consider themselves average and do not allow it to bother them. From Barbie dolls to Cindy Crawford, women have an unattainable beauty standard they feel they have to meet to please men. Men, on the other hand, settle with average because the influences they have, like the action figure Buzz Off, are not inherently attractive. So, if a woman asks you how she looks you have to be careful; no matter what you say she is unlikely to believe you.
Misogyny is not the result of the physical state of womanhood; it is the product of the conventions that a society has established for how a woman should compose herself (Rey). These societal rules were created with the intent of perpetuating a patriarchal system in which women cannot express themselves freely. Misogyny is an attempt at enforcing these rules, and misogynistic behaviors can be performed by anyone. While The Gender Knot discusses how the limitation of female sexual expression and the enforcement of gender roles are forms of misogyny, “Girl” and “Mona Lisa Smile” indicate how these practices affect women.
Many of the girls, when walking up to the counter, would smile and greet the employee. After they would order, they would generally smile and say “thank you.” In contrast, the boys would walk up to the counter, greet the employee without smiling, and then leave the counter when they were done with their order. It is assumed that girls have to be nice and polite to fit into the typical female role that society requires of them. With men, they are perceived as less of a man if they show too much emotion. Emotion is a feeling that seems to be “allowed for women and discouraged in men… [and the] patriarchal culture puts a low value on it compared with appearing to be tough and always being in control” (Johnson, 2006, p. 33). Even this small series of actions demonstrates that this culture
Jain, Meera. "The Cultural Implications of Beauty." The Cultural Implications of Beauty. 23 May 2000. Serendip .Web. 12 Jan. 2014. .
The topic of gender is always a heart-wrenching debacle, but when authors like Kilbourne and Kimmel displays the topics, it shows they are fully aware of the audience, matching it with the correct purpose and stance. They know which types of appeals are most appropriate for captivating the audience’s attention as well. All these elements combined together create an article that surely compels the reader to think twice about women in ads, or regular men, hiding their emotions.
In my essay I’ve analyzed Amy Cunningham’s writing on the article “Why Women Smile” and how she deals with the issue of gender, the objectification of women within our society by using the act of smiling as an example through metaphors, elegant lexicon and even sarcasm. She presents it boldly by sharing her experience and supporting it with recent studies and statistics. Finally, Cunningham reflects on the fact that something made beautiful, like a smile, has become a threat to women themselves.
In "A Woman's Beauty: Put-down or Power Source," Susan Sontag portrays how a woman's beauty has been degraded while being called beautiful and how that conceives their true identity as it seems to portray innocence and honesty while hiding the ugliness of the truth. Over the years, women have being classified as the gentler sex and regarded as the fairer gender. Sontag uses narrative structure to express the conventional attitude, which defines beauty as a concept applied today only to women and their outward appearance. She accomplishes this by using the technique of contrast to distinguish the beauty between men and women and establishing a variation in her essay, by using effective language.
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...
"Quote: A smile is the best make up any girl can wear :)." Board of Wisdom. 24 Apr. 2014 http://boardofwisdom.com/togo/Quotes/ShowQuote?msgid=406733#.U1m-D8fUVpF