The Beast of Beauty

"The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women" by Naomi Wolf

There is a gap between beauty and feminism that needs to be addressed. While beauty may "be in the eye of the beholder" the beholder is influenced largely by what they are shown. When I went through my staunch Feminist (capitalized for inflection) phase I was very anti-"beauty" I shunned cosmetics and wore gender neutral clothes. As I've grown older I have softened and fallen in to the ideas of associating myself more fully with the feminine, but I do so more to fit in than to stand out as being female. I do feel that more judgment comes from women than from men as far as appearance goes. Yes, heterosexual men appreciate a well (or scantily) clad woman, they tend not to think less of one that is dressed more gender neutrally, whereas women are quick to throw terms like "dike" out in to the world. Beauty needs to become a choice and there need to be more qualifiers for it. Just as in other languages there are more terms for love than the one in English, I'm sure there are more concepts of beauty. I think that a large part of our infatuation with the physical is the relative youth of the United States as a nation and, though tragic, some of the issues of eating disorders and self-mutilation are just a growing pain of a developing society.

"Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism" by Linda M. Scott

This article is much more effective in keeping the readers' attention and giving clear images and examples of the "beauty" concept. Knowing that women have struggled against their nature to adorn themselves as society sees fit, or not, gives us third-wavers freedom to change at will, but I hope it inspired others, as it has myself to accept the differences of others. I know I'm prone to thinking that girls who spend a lot of time on their appearance are more likely to let themselves be objectified and to allow their self-worth to be established based on the physical desirability, but I also have to realize that they are only reacting to what they see, and my own personal challenge has to be to reshape the value system that women grade themselves on. Being overweight I spent a lot of time feeling less than because I wasn't desired, so I placed sex as my number one priority and wasted a lot of time figuring out how to be wanted. Now that I have so engrained in to myself the flirtation of sexuality I'm balancing the act by trying to figure out how to make men realize I am more than the sum of my anatomy. While I am still not the physical ideal I have let myself portray that I will let myself be seen as a sex object, and that has got to stop. While I think the media allows the modern American a time of casual sex without much reproach, that period however brief can and does cause longterm damage to the psyche (for both genders though it is more apparent in women).

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The Desperate Housewives (Season 5) Promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPL5NeYgAFo

Having these women dressed in red playing with apples is indicative of so many stereotypes. We are to equate women, no matter how socially contrained (as housewives are traditionally thought to be) with temptation and the distruction of the garden of Eden of Christian mythology. These women are to be the downfall of humanity. How so? Well they backstab, lie, cheat and decieve, as well as place premiums of appearance over reality (mostly Bre). Their main concern is not that of their impact on the world at large, but that of keeping their man and making their kids the envy of others. No wonder progress seems to be stalling, this is one of the top rated shows on television right now.