“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is a common lesson taught to children as young as grammar school. Kids are told that what a person may look like on the outside, does not relate to the person they are in on the inside. In the short story, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, this theme is relevant. The two main characters Enn and Vic are both attending the same party, but react differently when it comes to interacting with the girls that are there. Vic feels that women are equal to him and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to how to act around them. He has many girlfriends and finds it easy to talk to females. Enn on the other hand, spends most of the night talking to a few girls, but not making a real connection with them. Enn would rather talk to a woman based on how she looks rather than her personality. The actions displayed by Enn depict how humans act when meeting someone know. He judges women based on their appearance and does not bother to find out deeper factors of them. This is the opposite of what children are taught at a young age. This is important because it reflects how people could be taught one thing, but in reality they will still believe that someones looks outweighs their personality.
In “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, Vic and Enn both display characteristics that are opposite of eachother. The way Vic acts around females is more natural and smooth than how Enn acts. Both Vic and Enn enter the party with the young woman who answers the door. Vic instantly has interest in her and they start to converse. Neil Gaiman states, “She told him it was Stella, and he grinned his crooked white grin and told her that that had to be the prettiest name he had ever heard. Smooth bastard. And what was worse was that h...
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... displays the process a male goes through when meeting a female for the first time and how he is more likely to judge her based on her appearance than her personality. This is common because it takes less effort to judge someone on how they look than to spend time to get to know that person. Children are taught at a young age to not do this, but as humans evolve into adults, they try to do the easiest thing possible. It seems that judging someone based on their appearance is just a natural thing humans do, but needs to not be used in how a person is viewed. The short story opened up one of the hard truths in life that if one does not look their best based on how the person who is viewing them feels the “best” is, they will not get anywhere in life. Unfortunately people do not have time to get to know ones personality if they do not feel an attraction to ones looks.
“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
Everyone dreams of being “perfect”, but what they don’t know is that they are perfect. One just has to see within themselves. Everyone is uniquely and secretly beautiful, but that gets taken away because it is not what society wants. What society wants is for women’s self-esteem to be broken so that they can be morphed into a product of someone else's idea of perfect. In “Barbie Doll” Piercy argues that the pressures put on women by society affect their self-esteem. No one needs to change who they are for anyone. If anyone wants to change, they should change for themselves! Being you is all that really matters. The key to beauty is confidence. Something that everyone should keep in mind is that, don’t let someone change who you are, to become what they need; otherwise you don’t need them in your
Women as a gender have been objectified throughout time. Their bodies and overall usefulness have been viewed as a man’s property alone. The short story “A&P” by John Updike depicts the objectification of young girls specifically. The three girls in the story are objectified by their choice of wearing swimsuits in a convenience store, and how they reacted to being asked to leave the store. Updike’s short story centers around Sammy, the main figure objectifying the young girls. He uses his persona as a young adult male in the 1960’s to assert his dominance over them, as well as to justify how he can think about and talk to them. The concept of the objectification of young girls by men has been normalized in society or is seen as being a woman or girl’s fault because of what clothing they choose to wear or how they act. Sammy is painted as a hero in a way because of his alleged chivalrous act in defense of the girls. Nevertheless, in the view of
Everyday people are judged based on their appearance. We need to learn to look beyond a person’s physical image. In the young adult fiction piece If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson, the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and the realistic fiction novel The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, the authors illustrate how individuals face prejudice based on their appearance, race, gender, and social class.
story points out that beauty has its cost as well, the power of being beautiful holds a great
“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.
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
Society tends to misjudge people base on their appearances instead of their personality. As it’s shown on Cyrano de Bergerac story everyone misjudges people. Cyrano was ashamed of the way he looked, especially with his enormous nose that made him stand out. People didn’t care if Cyrano got his feelings hurt they thought he was a cruel person. Its bad when people tends to misjudge people without even knowing them but they just judge them by their looks instead of their personality. People shouldn’t be ashamed of the way they look and it shouldn’t stop them from accomplishing their goals and express their feelings towards the people they like.
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
As the story continues, Sammy curiously watches the provocative young ladies as they stroll through the store looking for groceries. In this fictional story, Sammy describes all three noticeable ladies, the main girl, "Queenie" he describes her as the leader of the two other girls. The second young lady he described was the chunky one; he fully described the chunky girl from head to toe, because Sammy had more descriptive words regarding her appearance. The third girl was the taller of the two. She was not as striking as the other two young ladies. The girls were barefoot and wore bathing suits, which is why they caught Sammy's attention. The reason being not because of the bathing suits they were wearing, but the way they strolled down the isles with confidence as they walked through the store. These young ladies were, "The kind of girls that other girls think are "Striking" and "Attractive." (48) Updike wants to let the reader know these girls wanted attention and only attention; by the way he described what they were wearing and how they flaunted themselves.
“Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep” (Godfrey, 2013). We hear these sayings all the time, yet we live in a society that seems to constantly contradict this idea (Godfrey, 2013). If looks don’t matter, why is every woman in magazines photoshopped? If looks don’t matter, why are women constantly harming their bodies because they are unhappy with how they look and just want to fit in (Godfrey, 2013)? The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible (Godfrey, 2013). Sociocultural standard of feminine beauty is presented in almost all forms of popular media, forcing women with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal body (Serdar). A majority of the models
The first girl they meet is Stella. She is beautiful with blonde curly hair. Vic immediately claimed her for himself and left Enn to wander the rooms alone.
The perception of the "ideal beauty" is an arbitrary and abstract concept that is constantly being modified as a result of the times. People are influenced by the images they see in the media to determine what the ideal beauty is. The media is manipulative and deceptive in nature, and it continues to carry harmful suggestions about ideal beauty despite the concrete evidence of damaging effects to people of all ages. Fortunately, it seems there may be shifts in the media that are beginning to portray men and women more realistically.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
In today’s society, beauty and perfection is being striven for like never before. Confronted with all the “beautiful” celebrities and photo-shopped magazine pictorials, women are facing an unrealistic expectation of how they should look. If they don’t have a thigh gap or a lean stomach, girls feel commensurate with themselves and try to change how they look just to appeal to society. How often have we been told as children that beauty on the inside is all that matters, yet we see and live by different statements. We live in a shallow culture based on looks. Look at all the celebrities we see. How many of them actually have talent or are worth such a high status if they did not have their looks? I wish I could say that there was a time period where this statement was not true, but it can’t be said, with the key example being Marge Piercy's poem, “Barbie Doll”. She wrote this poem in 1973 and its message on body image can still apply to today's time period.