On Tita Chico’s The Arts of Beauty: Women’s Cosmetics and Pope’s Ekphrasis
In “The Arts of Beauty: Women’s Cosmetics and Pope’s Ekphrasis,” Tita Chico contends that ekphrastic representations of women in The Rape of the Lock and Epistle to a Lady indicate Pope’s privileging poetic artistry over the art of cosmetics. In both poems, Pope exploits the humiliation of a “cosmetically constructed woman” in an effort to assert the supremacy of his own artistic authority (Chico 4). Chico uses other scholars―Laura Brown, Christa Knellwolf, and Felicity Naussbaum chief among them―to anchor the origins of her argument, but she immediately addresses their respective limitations. She gently criticizes other scholars for privileging the purely social aspects of Rape, thereby neglecting the implications of Pope’s aesthetic form. Exploring poetic form with particular attention to ekphrastic representation and the mock-epic genre enables Chico to extrapolate social significance and assert that aesthetic choice signifies Pope’s concern regarding the inherent value of different arts. That is, Pope’s heavily ekphrastic method of female representation effectively demeans cosmetic artistry, while lionizing his art of the masterfully crafted poem. Pope sought to keep the art of beauty in check—alleges Chico—as the power of cosmetic beauty “[threatened] to emasculate the viewer” (11).
Chico offers a compelling evaluation of the relationship between Pope and his subject, particularly in her discussion of To a Lady, where the primacy of poetry over physical beauty is most evident. Rather than looking at female portraits, reading Pope’s poetry is the best way to seek “truth” about women (18). Chico shrewdly asserts t...
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...Chico reiterates in her conclusion that Pope scorned cosmetics on account of their capacity to grant women artistic agency and render them evermore beautiful. And, as Chico most successfully maintains, Pope repeatedly conveyed the limitations of physical splendor—artificial pretense and transience chief among them—while privileging the power of his own poetic capabilities.
[1] Chico discusses the following works: John Gauden, seventeenth century author of A Discourse of Artificial Beauty and In Point of Conscience between Two Ladies, argued that cosmetics enabled women to display their piety and goodness; The Art of Beauty, a 1719 poem by J.B., borrows Belinda as a character and satirizes the utter fatuity of the cosmetic realm; Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s 1711 Spectator 11 chastises cosmetics and derisively labels these artificial women “Picts” (5).
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage Books, Inc., 1990. Proser, Matthew N. The Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
During the Art Deco era the calla lily became one of the most popular flowers around. Whether in florist shops or on artist canvases the calla lily became a recurring theme. Like many flowers before it the calla lily came to be more than a flower on its own but it represented the idea of femininity. The calla lily was used by artists such as Tamara de Lempicka, Diego Rivera and Georgia O’Keeffe as a symbol of femininity and feminism. Through examining their works, in relation to their own lives and the events of the day, I will explore how the calla lily came to represent a new type on femininity and feminism.
To begin, in The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope uses satire to invoke a capricious, melancholy mood to illustrate the absurdity of fighting over the cutting of one's hair. Hidden inside this poem is a crafty criticism of the society that helps create the crisis over the stolen lock. A Society in which appearances ere more important to a person’s sense of identity, and treats the insignificant with utmost importance.
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
Female sexuality is often equated with physical beauty. In The Bell Jar, the protagonist Esther works for an “intellectual” fashion magazine The Ladies’ Day and receives bonuses such as clothing and make-up kits. These false enhancers of female sexuality only make her feel “very empty” (Plath, 3). To fill the empty void in her sexual wellbeing, Esther stows away these beauty products and privately envies the “stern muscular Russian girl with no make-up” at the U.N. (78). As well, Esther admires Jay Cee, the editor who has brains so that “her plug-ugly looks didn’t seem to matter”(6). Esther sees that once a woman is rid of her make-up, she may appear masculine, but her strength will shift towards useful talents such as simultaneous interpretation, which enhances her true feminine value. Indeed, Esther is insulted when she reads a magazine article which insists: “The boy thinks of the universe, its immensity and mystery; the girl thinks, ‘I must wash my hair’”(177). Esther does not belie...
.... "The Beauty Industry Promotes Unrealistic Beauty Standards." Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2007. Rpt. in The Culture of Beauty. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
A woman strangled her husband to death. Another woman died due to extreme happiness after she was told her husband passed away in an accident. “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour” are the two short stories associated with these plots. The two texts are perplexing which is why they use symbols. Both stories use objects figuratively to reveal a hidden story that contributes to the theme which is pain and loneliness may provoke a person to act in selfish ways.
The crusades were a series of military expeditions undergone by the Christian armies of the eleventh and twelfth centuries directed against Muslim controlled areas of the eastern Mediterranean (Cowper 40). Although there were many reasons for the start of the crusades, the main cause was that the Muslim control of the holy land was a disgrace, and considered a threat to Christianity’s livelihood (Toler 140). With the holy cities of Jerusalem and Palestine being in Muslim control Christianity as a whole saw its influence in the world begin to weaken, so the leaders of the Christian religion came together as a entirety and determined it was time to regain their beloved holy land through means of force (Daniels 152).
Throughout his life, Stephen is consumed by conflicting desires, the strongest of which being his sexual desire towards women versus religious morality. Confused and ashamed by these “sinful” thoughts, Stephen comes to view women in one of two extremes: they are either pure, virginal, and decent, like Emma, or impure, sexual, and corrupt, such as the prostitutes he visits in Belvedere. However, it is Stephen’s individual experiences with women from both ends of this spectrum that become the motivating factor behind both his art and personal growth as an artist.
The poets integrated ?metaphysical conceits? as focal parts of these poems. Along with these, they used effective language as a basis for their convincing arguments, they included subjects of periodical importance (e.g. ?courtship? and ?religion?), and use very clever structures that are manipulated in order to make the poem read in the desired way. The very clear indication of the theme in question was strongly aided by the way in which the personas portrayed the emotions they felt and the way they showed their attitudes towards the subject. Considering all these factors, the poets made critical arguments to the mistresses in order to alter their views, thus changing their minds, on denying the poets the sex that they desired so strongly.
In 'The Rape of the Lock' Alexander Pope (1688-1744) employs a mock-epic style to satirise the 'beau-monde' (fashionable world, society of the elite) of eighteenth century England. The richness of the poem, however, reveals more than a straightforward satirical attack. Alongside the criticism we can detect Pope's fascination with, and perhaps admiration for, Belinda and the society in which she moves. Pope himself was not part of the 'beau-monde'. He knew the families on which the poem is based but his own parents, though probably comfortably off, were not so rich or of the class one would have to be in to move in Belinda's circle. He associated with learned men and poets, and there can have been little common ground between the company he kept at Will's Coffee House and those who frequented Hampton Court.
Throughout history, beauty has been seen as a value to humans. Beauty practices start as far back as foot binding and continues up to today with cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction. On every billboard, magazine, and commercial citizens are reminded that they are not as physically attractive as they could be and there is a solutions to their problem. In his analysis of beauty, Kant states that beauty is morality. Despite the fact physical beauty is highly valued in society, it is not the driving factor when it comes to determining morality and making ethical judgments. To support this, I will be introducing Aristotle’s virtue ethics and David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature to demonstrate that beauty is independent of virtue and does not influence morality as it is not considered when discussing morality.
...ibillion dollar industry of beauty. She argues that “Scientific studies have proven that human beings are hard-wired to respond more positively to beautiful people”. She also cites a recent report published by the University of Bristol which states Neanderthals wore “makeup” as long as 50,000 years ago, all in hopes of attracting a mate with the chance for successful breeding (Zilhao 2009).
Regarding physical qualities, everybody has their own idiosyncrasies or quirks, things which make them peculiar and yet interesting. These features make us who we are and even if we consider them as flaws, they still make us beautiful somehow. The 1957 film, Funny Face, was actually a tribute to the late Audrey Hepburn’s rather unusual, quirky facial features—her large nose, thick eyebrows, slightly crooked teeth, being doe-eyed—which all summed up to her being the epitome of a truly beautiful woman that she was (De La Hoz 6). Audrey Kathleen Ruston Hepburn embodied both essential aspects of inner and outer beauty which does not equate to being flawless. Voted as the “Most Beautiful Woman of All Time” in 2006 by New Woman magazine, it is evident that women today still look up to her as a truly beautiful woman (Keogh 2). She was one of the greatest film stars of the 20th century—some of her notable films were Funny Face, Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany’s—and at present, she is still a timeless Hollywood star and fashion icon. Furthermore, she was a philanthropist for the UNICEF organization—her only motive being to serve a cause she believed in (Spoto, 201). This innate, natural beauty she possessed clearly translated into how she presented herself to the world through her sense of style (Ferrer, 155). How she dressed clearly embodied who she was, which many women all over the world still aspire to be and which designers continue to try recreating. Audrey Hepburn’s timeless, individual style continues to influence the fashion world today.
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...