The High Importance of Women’s Physical Attractiveness
The theme of fantasy versus reality is a central focus that reappears throughout the film 25th Hour directed by Spike Lee. In this film, the main character Monty is sentenced to seven years in jail for drug dealing. On Monty’s final day of freedom, his father proposes two options for him: driving to the prison to serve his sentence or fleeing to a town so he can make a new life for himself. While pondering on the second option, Monty construes a false view of a wonderful life filled with joy and happiness. He does not take into account however, that fugitive recovery agents will constantly be searching for him, making his life very difficult. Like Monty, many people in today’s society have a distorted understanding of reality. In particular, contemporary American society holds a misconception about the connection between women’s physical attractiveness and personality. Our culture views beauty in a distorted way due to the mistaken belief that outer appearances reflect the type of person a woman is.
Dating back to the Renaissance era during the early 15th century, the ideal “beautiful” woman would have a voluptuous body with a pale ivory skin tone and a wide and high forehead. She would also wear voluminous skirts and blouses with puffed sleeves and low necklines to show off the curves of her breasts. During the Victorian era in the 18th century, the appearance of moles was considered attractive. Women would draw black marks on their faces to simulate these moles. They would also powder their hair white and wear extravagant high wigs with decorated curls. It was not until the roaring 20s when flappers became popular did being slim become an attractive feature...
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...changes with time. A woman who is considered “beautiful” in the past may be considered less attractive in the present. Therefore, beauty is completely subjective. It is false to pair a good personality to a pretty face based solely on a woman’s outer appearance.
Our culture’s view of beauty is severely construed. As seen in successful ad campaigns featuring “beautiful” women, my personal experience, various groups of friends, and the image of the ideal perfect woman, we falsely believe that physical appearances, particularly in women, are directly related to personalities. We hold the image that what is considered “beautiful” during a certain time period is parallel to the type of person someone is. When it comes down to what really matters to us, it is the person we are and the person we strive to become. Our physical appearances can only carry us so far.
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
on a scale from 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1.50 to 2.11. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0.94 to 1.67. In other words, women in 1989 considered a man look’s more important than men considered women’s looks 50 years earlier
Showing off your body was the new trend of the ‘20s. Flappers of the 1920 era started wearing shorter dresses and sleeveless tops to seem keener. Before the 1920’s, it was rare for women to even show their ankles let alone their knees. Not only did women start to wear “skimpier” clothing, but they also garnished themselves with accessories. It was all about that bling. Girls were obsessed with pearls, diamonds, and just about anything that looked expensive. They hated cheap dull accessories and wanted the real McCoy. Clothing was not the only change during this time. The way women did their hair and makeup changed. Flappers started wearing a lot of makeup and styling their hair differently. “Flappers raised their hemlines, bobbed their hair, and applied make up with abandon.” (Armburst, Lloyd) No one wanted to be considered a bug-eyed Betty, and they did whatever it took to make themselves more alluring. This new style of women was the bee’s
Beauty is an omnipresent characteristic that plagues societies’ youth today because mainstream media has them convinced that inner beauty is less important than physical beauty. Unfortunately the media’s warped sense of what true beauty is has been advertised in such a way that it has become an unhealthy observation for today’s youth. The expectations of beauty are unacceptably stereotyped, which creates unrealistic idealistic goals for our young people to try to achieve. It is crucial to mention that as a society we need to strive toward teaching the proper balance between both aspects of beauty to offset the portrayal of what true beauty is by the media.
Who sets the standards for beauty? What must one do to truly look beautiful? What does feeling beautiful mean? When considering the concept of beauty one must differentiate between the universal and relative perception of beauty. Among the components of universal beauty are harmony, symmetry and utility. However, perception of beauty is also relative, when it is defined by the standards of the time that are subjective to the socio economic values of the era. One of the ways these values are communicated is through images portrayed in art and in modern times through the media. ‘Fashion’ is the carrier of theses values though physical appearance and self-image that define power, rank, acceptability and belonging. Having ‘fashion’ as the medium of these relative values bring advantages and disadvantages. Although there are benefits of matching the fashion of the time, positive self-image and satisfaction with a feeling of acceptance these are temporary because fashion is ever changing. On the other hand not conforming to the contemporary standards can have a detrimental impact on self-image that leads to feeling a sense negative self worth and marginalized. Eating disorders are a powerful manifestation that fashion has on the psyche. The underlying idea of what fashion ‘is’ is value. Amongst all the change of fashion, value remains ever present.
What is beauty? It seems like a simple enough question, yet it has an extremely elusive, ever-changing answer according to American society. What is “popular” or “stylish” at the moment could be completely obsolete the next. This question has plagued societies for ages and continues to motivate women all over the world go to drastic lengths in their search for beauty. As women in remote Asian villages search to attain beauty by stretching their necks with heavy metal coils (Anitei) and women in America lie in enclosed melanoma-inducing tunnels of light so they can emerge gloriously tanned (Is Indoor Tanning Safe?), God has another, far more fulfilling plan for true beauty. Beauty in American society is so fluid, elusive, and superficial that it doesn’t possibly equate to the plan that God has for women to view themselves. Real beauty comes from character, confidence, and an identity in Christ.
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Women have been facing crisis of body image since the dawn of man, for competition in breeding purposes, however women came under great scrutiny because of this. Often through history, they have been at the same level of livestock, treated poorly. Creating a rise in the early 1900’s to create the movement about pushing for the equality of women in the United States; it was after then when media first started adopting an ideal image of women in American culture, when marketing research found the use of images of ideal women in their campaigns made for higher sales.
What is beauty? How do human beings decide who is attractive and who is not? Society is full of messages telling us what is beautiful, but what are those definitions based on? Do we consciously decide whom we are attracted to, or is biology somehow involved? The issue of beauty and how we define it has been studied for centuries. Scholars from all fields of study have searched for the "formula" for beauty. Darwin in his book The Descent of Man wrote, "It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty with respect to the human body. It is however, possible that certain tastes in the course of time become inherited, though I have no evidence in favor of this belief." (1) Science has tried to look at beauty beyond the conscious level. It has tried to determine what roles biology plays in human attraction. Scientists have discovered that symmetry and scent play a role in defining human attraction. (3) But while this can begin to explain beauty on the most basic of levels, what accounts for variations in the standard of beauty? The idea of beauty varies within different societies and communities. Do these cultural preferences have a biological basis? What is the relationship between biology and society in relation to the idea of beauty? How do they relate to each other, and how do they differ? In particular what role does science play in the preference that many societies, (in particular South Asian, East Asian, and North American Cultures), have for fairer skin?
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
The concept of “beauty” is something that everyone feels, thinks, or wants, in order to fit society’s standards. In today’s society, we are often faced with the unrealistic ideals of what beauty is. Due to society’s constant portraying of unrealistic beauty ideals, this reinforces a negative influence upon women’s idea of beauty, resulting in a negative impact in their confidence, and self-esteem, which leads to others, specifically women to be manipulated by society’s corrupted outlook of what beauty is. To add onto this issue, we are constantly surrounded by sources of this negative influence in our everyday lives, including magazines, television, advertisements, and so on. However, women specifically, are more prone to be victims of this negative effect, thus will have more pressure upon themselves to match society’s idea of “beauty,” which includes unrealistic and sometimes unattainable beauty standards. Women especially, can sometimes be so deeply manipulated by society’s unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful, such that it’s possible that they don’t even realize it Furthermore, in order to do so, women often will receive negative impacts rather than positive impacts, such as in their confidence and self-esteem. The negative effects of society’s beauty ideals also lead women to have an overall corrupted idea of what is “beautiful.” Society creates unrealistic ideals of beauty towards women through the media by creating an unrealistic image of what women should look like to be considered beautiful. Men negatively affect women’s idea of beauty by using the unrealistic beauty standards exposed by society which further pressures women to try to fit society’s idea of what is beautiful. Beauty pageants negatively affect women’s ov...
All young girls in America can remember watching the movie Beauty and the Beast by Walt Disney. At that time, it was a story of love and triumph, a girl falls in love and gets her prince charming. As we grow older, we question that movie and its intentions that we were too young to understand. Who is the real beauty and who is the real beast? A puzzling question due to our society constantly telling us how we need to look and be perceived as in order to not be “the beast” and more of “the beauty”.
Throughout history many researchers came up with ideas on what makes a person beautiful and what cause them to be unattractive. Plato, a famous philosopher, argued that the face that held the golden proportions was what made a person beautiful. “The width of the ideal face would be two –thirds its length and the nose no longer than the distance between the eyes” (Espejo 24). These are only a few things that make up the golden proportions. Researchers claim that averageness is what makes a person good looking (Espejo 24). However, according to Lisa DeBruine an experimental psychologist, “When it come to some key features, such as big eyes and small chins in women, being distinctly nonaverage can be better” (qtd. in Espejo 24). Big eyes and small chins are feminine traits. How masculine or how feminine a face is could determine how attractive the person is.
How do you judge if someone is beautiful for the first time you see them? By physical appearance is the most popular answer you may find. To the majority of people, beauty is solely depended on how a person look like on the outside. However, some might argue that inner beauty has to do more than outer appearance. It is difficult to fully define beauty because everyone has their own views about beauty. In my view, beauty has to deal with one’s self as the only rival.
Beauty is a concept. An idea that changes from person to person. We put on makeup, do our hair, paint our nails, and buy the latest clothing in an effort to satisfy those around us and conform to their idea of physical beauty. By doing this, we often forget who we are and lose our inner beauty. Although many people focus on physical beauty, inner beauty is more important because it is permanent and a representation of a person’s true self.