The Understanding Of Beauty, By Virginia Woolf And Susan Sontag

There has always been women who have defied the social gender norms. Throughout the years outspoken women have used their platforms to communicate their points of view. Sontag first starts off by stating that Greeks value the beauty of a woman and that it is a virtue. Sontag continues to mention how Greeks distinguished a person 's inner beauty to their outer beauty. It is directly associated with how today 's society will perceive outer beauty more than the inner kind. History has taught us that women have struggled for centuries, and that their intelligence was always overshadowed by their appearance. This continues to happen in the present time, especially with all the superficial people telling others what is acceptable in regards to beauty. It is because of this that the writings of Sontag and Woolf are particularly informative. Both authors felt that women should have the opportunity to fulfill their full potential the same way as men have been able to.

Although Virginia Woolf and Susan Sontag were both born in different eras they both believed in issues towards feminine gender. Woolf was born in Kensington, London in 1882, and Sontag was born in New York, New York in 1933.

Beauty is seen as something that is “essential to women’s character and concerns” (a woman 's beauty puts down or power source). She writes that “beauty: is the only form of power that most women are encouraged to seek”. As for Woolf, she talks about a speculative latitude, and how Shakespeare’s sister lives on through all women. For example, we as a woman has been victims of discrimination because man believes we are weak. She added that these achievements would have been impossible for a woman in Shakespeare’s time. She encouraged women to discover their hidden Judith, with specific reference to Elizabethan times, the main idea focuses on all the ways in which women have been quieted by the force of gender