I understand where Dave Barry’s points and assertions on how women view themselves in a different and perhaps a problematic way. However, I believe there is a fine line between dressing up for someone else and looking good for your own enjoyment. If I wanted to dress up and look good, I wouldn’t be doing it for another person or to ‘fish for some man’s compliments’. I would be dressing up because I felt good on that day and my outfit should demonstrate that. Additionally, perhaps the reason many women, and some men, like to pay close attention to the way they look is due to fear of being judged and outcasted from our functional society. This fear can be demonstrated by several movies and even comments by celebrities on social media. For instance,
Did you know that about 2.2 million black men are in prison. Daniel Beaty is an african-american poet who was born December 28, 1975 and is 42 years old. In the poem “knock,knock” Beaty uses similes, hyperboles, extended metaphors and more to help develop the meaning. Daniel Beaty uses similes in this poem. “Walk like a god and your goddess will come to you.”
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.
In the article, “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” by Hanna Berry, Berry discusses how for decades women have been told to use certain products and that if they used those products they would be beautiful. Women over the years have believed this idea and would purchase items that promised to make them prettier, thinner, smarter and even more loved. However, in reality it was never what they wore on their bodies that helped them be any of those things; but what it did help with was to empower women to become fearless and bold by what they chose to wear on their bodies as a form of expression.
You’ll never get a job dressed like that. You need to stop acting so ditzy if you want people to take you seriously. Stop running your fingers through your hair—you don’t want people to think you’re a slob. Occasionally, thoughts like these pop up in my mind, probably because I care too much about what others think of me. I get really concerned about how people perceive me and interpret my actions. However, I’m not really concerned about vanity being my great flaw or becoming the next Narcissus, because everyone is a little vain. Unfortunately, some people take their pride a little overboard. For instance, John Proctor was so vain that he would rather die than tarnish his name; the judges that condemned him had an inkling of knowledge that they were killing innocent people, but by the time they realized it, they couldn’t save people without ruining their reputation. Arthur Dimmesdale let the mother of his child suffer years of judgment because he didn’t want to face the shame of revealing his sin. These instances show that humans are naturally vain and that, occasionally, their vanity can rule over their lives.
Women in today’s society seem to be having a very difficult time expressing themselves without dealing with lots of criticism. Common values are standing in the way of women’s drive toward molding themselves into whatever they desire. Our culture has made standards about how should women look, act, and conduct themselves that greatly limits what they can do, and still gain respect. Martin S. Fiebert and Mark W. Meyer state that, “[there are] more negative [gender] stereotypes for men than for women.” This idea doesn’t seem to have a great amount of validity in our present society. Society set certain standards that men are supposed to live up to such as strength and confidence, which are more behavioral characteristics. Women seem to be more trapped than men by societies standards because they are supposed to live up to standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics These specific guidelines have been set by society that are sometimes unattainable for a majority of women. The women that follow the specific criteria are greatly respected, and the ones that try and be innovative usually are criticized if not disliked.
Fashion is a constantly changing industry; what is trendy one day is outdated the next. The 21st century has been a catalyst for a large movement in fashion. Paris, New York, and London are some of the main contributors to the fashion industry (“Fashion Capitals”). Along with being the main influences in fashion, they have significantly connected the world on a global level. Even on a local level, students and young adults indulge in fashion as a way to express themselves. Some people may argue that fashion helps express one’s imagination; however, fashion has become one of the major influences that promotes an unrealistic image of women that is detrimental to their bodies. This unrealistic image can lead to health problems, a negative body image, and a society based on appearances which is disadvantageous to our culture as a whole.
I was flipping through some channels on the television set one day and came across a woman's talk show, "The View." It caught my attention when one of the hostesses asked the audience of mostly women to raise their hand if they thought they were truly beautiful. Much to my surprise the audience did not respond with very many show of hands. The hostess then introduced a study done by Dove, the makers of the body soap. Dove polled over 6,000 women from all over the country and only two percent of the women polled said they feel beautiful. Women are surrounded by images screaming physical beauty is more important than their talents and accomplishments. Women are deriving their self worth from an ideal of how they think they should look and how they think everyone else wants them to look instead of focusing on their sense of who they are, what they know, and where they are going in life. In "Help or Hindrance?: Women's Magazines Offer Readers Little But Fear, Failure," Mary Kay Blakely states, "Instead of encouraging women to grow beyond childish myths and adapt to the changes of life, women's magazines have readers running in place, exhausted." She goes on to say, "This is a world we have 'made up' for women, and it is a perilous place to exist." One of the biggest culprits feeding women's insecurities are the popular women's magazine that line the book shelves of grocery stores, gas stations, and waiting rooms. They supply readers and the occasional innocent passerby with unrealistic images of what women should be instead of showing diverse age groups and women with natural beauty. Reading through a couple of magazines, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Shape, I found nothing but hidden agendas and...
A lot of the times what women wear is sexualized, just because a girl is dressed a certain way doesn 't mean that she wants to hook-up with someone or that she is “asking for it”. The way a girl dresses doesn 't have to have a hidden meaning behind it, maybe that 's just what she feels comfortable in. Women are expected to dress respectfully at all times while men can wear whatever they want and there would be no problem with it. Pictures that are posted on social media get different reactions depending on which gender posted it, while there are some things that should not be uploaded for everyone to see, it does not change the fact that we cannot control the reaction that is received. “The idea is that women should look nice and well put-together without turning anyone on, or reminding anyone of sex.” (Throwbridge) We can 't control what others think of when they see us, if their thoughts automatically jump to something sexual we are not to blame. If a guy is wearing shorts with no shirt doesn 't mean there is a hidden meaning behind his choice of clothing, it is in they way you interpret it. Even then, you should not act on your thoughts, just because you believe something does not mean that it is right. As a nation, we need to take the step to stop
sure, look your best, by all means do whatever you think is necessary! but don't judge others on it! Some people don't have the money to buy designer brand clothing, and they are deemed losers and tormented for that.
As stated in “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” dressing up like women do is one of “the charms of womankind” (130). We make ourselves look publically presentable, feel more confident about ourselves because we know we look good, and are able to charm and attract men if we simply but a little effort forward. I don’t consider “trying” for my appearance as giving up or being fake; I consider it a choice I make to feel more confident around people. If 30 minutes, on average, a day is what it takes for that, then that is fine with me. While not all of the ways listed above are ok to use in every single scenario, it is up to the women to decide what the situation calls for, and, furthermore, what makes her happy and comfortable.
Life is a form of progress- from one stage to another, from one responsibility to another. Studying, getting good grades, and starting the family are common expectations of human life. In the novel Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer introduced the tragic story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless sold of his possessions and ultimately became a wanderer. He hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness for nearly 4 months. This journey to the 49th state proved fatal for him, and he lost his life while fulfilling his dream. After reading this novel, some readers admired the boy for his courage and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he was an idiot who perished out of arrogance and
Why do girls strive to be what they see in fashion magazines? Magazines send unhealthy signals towards young females by using money, bodies and clothes. In America, magazines send bad signals because it drops young girls self confidence.
If you watch television, see movies, reed newspapers or flip through magazines, you 've probably noticed that beautiful women and men are everywhere. There perfect bodies leave everlasting impacts in our minds and inevitably influence the way we think about our bodies; thus, creating an ideal image. The ideal image causes men and women to do and think unhealthy things about what there bodies should look like. Out of all the women in the US only 5% of women naturally have the body type advertisements portray as beautiful; however, some women work to have this image. Famous people in media who have unrealistic bodies are playing out this image and setting standers of beauty for everyone. Clothing companies often hire models that obtain this
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...
All things considered, I firmly believe that people devoted to fashion clothing could earn self-esteem and make them more confident. Nevertheless, it is significant to be original and capable of deciding what to wear by ourselves instead of following the trends without consider our personality. Needless to say, no one should discriminate someone because of not being in fashion. It is our responsibility to give the right importance to