Society's Damaging Beauty Standards: A Critique

Barbie Doll Women are expected to fit into the perfect image society has created. In “Barbie Doll, a poem by Marge Piercy, the woman is viewed by her thick legs and fat nose. Eventually the woman cannot take the standards anymore and decides to cut off her legs and nose, committing suicide. Many women today have the same issues as Piercy’s character. Scientists are trying to find the importance of beauty to humans, the workforce treats women differently, before the 20th century women were required to stay home, blacks were granted rights before women, it was not just white women it was all women, every society has a specific view for women. Scientists have been studying why natural beauty is an important aspect to women.

Up until this point the roles of women were inside the home. Women cared for the children and did household chores. Eventually women started getting out and getting their own jobs. It began when the women started taking low paying jobs during World War I. The beauty of women was not necessary, women were having to do the men’s jobs as the men were off fighting in the war. Looking into statistics, women run over half the world now. “According to a recent study by Cornell University economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, American women are about as likely as American men to be company managers” (Hymowitz). Women are still paid a different salary than some men. “Gender wage gaps are a global phenomenon. If you are a woman, or at least if you are a woman with children, chances are you are making less than your average countryman (Hymowitz). However in some countries, women are still viewed as the house

Women were required to stay home, if they did not stay home and care for their children, society judged. Society believed a relationship was not good if the woman was not a “stay-at-home mom”. “Get a good education, because you don't know what's ahead of you. It's not like your husband will take care of you--nowadays it's a fifty-fifty world” (A Century of Women: Hooray). Now, if a girl does not learn to take care of herself, society assumes she is doomed. Women are not required to rely on men like the 20th century. “I had the right to make a choice” (A Century of Women: Hooray). Women were finally allowed to express their own thoughts and feelings, before the right to vote women were known by their husbands, they were not their own people. Women took the right to vote as their chance to become an actual person outside of the home. Women began to get jobs and branch away from the societal views, which took a turn for America’s