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the necessity of perfect grooming and etiquette
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Time spent on personal grooming is an investment into one’s appearance. Both men and women spent time and money in looking better. However, more women compared to men are concern about their physical appearance. In this study, we observed whether there was a significant difference between gender and the time spent on personal grooming. Seventeen undergraduate students from an experimental psychology course (6 males, 11 females) volunteered to participate in this study. A survey was given to the participants. The survey consisted of questions regarding the time participants allotted for grooming on a daily basis. They were asked to provide approximations of time they took to groom in minutes. Using an independent t test significant differences were observed between times spent on personal grooming and gender. Results for female grooming were t (14) =2.45, p=.027and for male grooming t (14) = 3.14, p=.008.Therefore, the results did support our hypotheses that women take a much longer time to groom themselves than men. Based on previous research women are more concern about their physical appearance because being young and beautiful is essential for attracting the opposite sex.
Altering one’s Physical Looks: A Study Based on Gender and Time Spent on Personal Grooming
Personal grooming habits such as showering, bathing, selecting clothes, dressing, applying make-up and shaving is both time consuming and socially valuable. Wax (1957) defines grooming as the “manipulation of one’s superficial physical structure so as to make a desired impression upon others.” (Wax, 1957, p.588) Time spent on personal grooming is an investment into one’s appearance. Both men and women spent time and money in looking better.
It is a popular belief tha...
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...gh our hypothesis was supported, some factors may have limited our results. First, our sample size was too small and may have affected the data. When our sample size is small, there will be a lack of representation of subjects in our data and results. A second factor that may have affected the results was the wording of the questionnaire. Some students didn’t understand what was being asked of them. Many participants may have known the correct answer to the questions, but they didn’t give us the correct answers. This is known as the social desirability bias. Participants don’t give the experimenter the correct information because in many cases many topics are sensitive to many participants.
A promising direction for future research could be to explore biases in the work place, we could see if better looking persons are treated better than less attractive persons.
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
The reading assigned titled “The Socially Constructed Body” by Judith Lorber and Yancey Martin dives into the sociology of gender with a specific focus on how the male and female body is compromised by social ideals in the Western culture. She introduces the phenomenon of body ideals pressed on men and women by introducing the shift in cosmetic surgery toward body modifications.
Reed, J., & Blunk, E. M. (1990). The influence of facial hair on impression formation. Social Behavior and Personality, 18(1), 169-175. doi:10.2224/sbp.1990.18.1.169
Shaving, applying makeup, and curling hair are a few practices that if a female does not partake in, society, and the social norm are stunned. Those are just a few disciplinary body practices in today’s society. Disciplinary body practices “Are practices because they involve taken-for-granted routinized behaviors and they are disciplinary because they involve social control in the sense that we spend time, money, and effort, and imbue meaning in these practices that regulate our lives” (Shaw 193). These practices can extend way beyond the basic beauty routine of a female as well. Plastic surgery plays a huge role in these body practices. Even men have practices that they are expected to partake in. They are less extreme in terms of price and just simpler in general. But for example, men are expected to have shaved necks, large muscles, and a broad upper body. These standards are causing body and beauty shaming around the world. Disciplinary body practices relate to the adamant consumer culture, constant media advertisements, widespread globalization, persuasive colonialism, and powerful imperialism.
The alternative cause of having an idealized body is women want to increase their attractiveness. Women seem very critic about their own beauty. In a commercial, “ Dove Real Beauty Sketches,” there is a lack of self-esteem on how the women describe themselves from behind the curtain. Dove published survey data asserting, “Only 4% of women globally consider themselves beautiful and 54% agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic.” The body images of women in which how women see themselves in the minor or in their mind have become so dramatic. Women are
Rierdan, J., Koff, E., Stubbs, M. (1987). A Longitudinal Analysis of Body Image as a
Each sex is treated differently for a naturally occurring body process. As discussed, body hair is viewed as masculine, leading to the assumption that women should be hairless and men should wear their body hair with pride. It is clear that society uses hair to label individuals as either male or female (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). In addition, male hair is associated with strength and power (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). So how come when women display body hair they are shamed, but men are encouraged to grow it? Hope (1982) elaborates that the term, “feminine, when applied to lack of body hair, implies a child-like status, as opposed to the adult status afforded men” (as cited in Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being said, body hair is another way in which society ranks men as the superior gender by making women conform to the hairless normative. A study conducted by Tiggemann and Hodgson (2008), asked women why they practice hair removal. After completing a questionnaire with different statements to evaluate different factors such as normativity, sexual attractiveness, femininity and self-enhancement, they found significant support in all four types of factors for hair removal of the underarm, leg and pubic area. Additionally, they can found that one item pertaining to males preferring a hairless body, was the only one linked to two factors: normativity and sexual attractiveness. It is evident with their findings that women tend to follow the socially constructed normative for many reason, including to please men. The idea is that women have to change their bodies not only to be accepted by society, but they also do so to be accepted by men. Nonetheless, the must make is seem natural and effortless to uphold the beauty allure. In recent years, depletion of male body hair has become popular. In a study performed by Boroughs, et al. (2005), they found that men removed
In every society, people use their appearance as a way to express their social relationships. Applying makeup, adding or removing clothing, building muscles, or piercing various parts of the body are examples of how people try to change their appearance in order to fit in, or in some cases, to stick out. In suburban America, girls struggle to reach the goal of a Barbie-doll figure, whereas in Jamaica, it is more desirable, and socially accepted, to be fat. American women use makeup to express feelings and moods while Bedouin women use tattoos as a means to reveal their personalities. Contemporary Western culture sees the body as an object that is separate from the self, while many other societies see a person as an integration of the mind, body, and spirit. By studying the effects of body image in a few different cultures, a new understanding is given to the reasons why people describe, perceive, appreciate, and alter their bodies as they do.
Good grooming is essential in fostering good impressions. Good grooming includes a bath or shower daily, use of deodorant, and good oral hygiene. Hair should be clean, neatly styled, and above the collar. Shoes should be comfortable. Laces in shoes needs to be washed often.
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...
This study hopes to gain a more in depth view of a demographic that is believed to put a great amount of focus on body image in the way the...
Evidently, the use of traditional embellishments such as makeup and hairstyling are not enough for certain groups in today’s society. Many men and women are willing to pay top dollar for permanent changes masked by the belief that it will increase self-confidence, increase visual appeal, or reduce the effects of aging. Regardless of the motives behind undertaking surgical procedures, the cause of this mindset is clear. Modern marketing has distributed a plague of perfect breasts, firm obliques, slender silhouettes and white teeth across a variety of media, infesting a number of communities within North America and the developed world. Vanity and personal image have taken more priority than ever (Sullivan 2001:1) within the cosmetic medicine discipline, evident by the fact that the most common cosmetic surgeries are breast enlargements and/or reductions (Sullivan 2001:1).
Employment discrimination legislation has evolved to include race, disabilities, sexual harassment of either gender, and age. In lieu of this evolution and an increasing trend toward equality for all individuals in the workplace, the time has come for the protective reach of employment discrimination law to cover ugliness. While the proposal may cause titters at first, evidence exists that discrimination based on looks (or physical appearance) occurs in the workplace. An investigation was conducted by ABC’s 20/20 news program in 1994 that sent two men and two women into the workplace to secure the same jobs (Sessions 1). The individuals were coached to act in a similar manner during the interviews and took with them resumes with matching education and experience. The only difference was that one of the men and one of the women was superior in physical attraction to their counterpart. The results demonstrate whether intentional or not, looks discrimination does play a role in the employment process “In five cases out of five, the more attractive woman got the job; in three chances out of three, the more attractive man was hired” (Sessions 1).
In this essay, I will compare people that are obsessed with physical appearance and appearances. It is not strange for individuals to worry about physical appearance. In fact, we could argue that we are living in a culture that weighs the most up-to-date trends or newest fashions more heavily than more pressing issues that affects society. As a result, many people become obsessed with their physical appearance in order to keep up with trends and fashions.
How many times have we heard or said the clique “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” yet we focus so much of our attention on our physically appearance. Everyday we encounter images in the media that make us believe we have to look a certain way. Physical beauty is portrayed as important and essential in order to find love and acceptance. Although physical beauty is moderately important, it is less than inner beauty for it diminishes with age.