Monday, September 29, 2008
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder?
I'm interested to your response to our discussions of female bodies and beauty. Using an image or an idea from one or more of the texts, either the readings or the television shows, analyze the messages our culture sends about what it means for women to be beautiful, what beauty means, and why we're supposed to want to be perceived as beautiful. You might think about the role advertising plays, about how we should go about decoding and countering the messages we see, about the potential dangers in such messages. For your analysis, I'd like for you to focus on one, specific passage or scene, and read it closely and carefully to make your points.
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The TV series Ugly Betty is a place to start on defining what our culture perceives as beautiful. The term “beautiful” has gone from only involving general facial features to incorporating the entire body. The image that is given throughout the show is one of skinny and blonde being equivalent to beautiful and anything else is not. The characters in the show that are portrayed as beautiful are the ones with the name-brand outfits, perfectly styled hair and bodies that most women dream of having. The beautiful bodies are slim and appear toned, but characters, like Betty, who are size two and up are not beautiful by media standards. In the opening scene of the pilot episode, Betty is sitting next to a woman who is a model by every standard-tall, slim, fashionable-while she is short, not slim (but not overweight by any means), and in an out-dated suit. This scene instantly gives an image of the “Do’s and Don’ts” of media beauty. Everyone wants to be seen as beautiful but it should not be the media’s decision. And even though Betty was not a size zero, she was still marked as “ugly” because she could not meet all of the defining standards of “beautiful” that are set forth by the media. This kind of all-or-none message sent by the media is harmful for females of all ages. If a girl has a pretty face but a curvy or slightly larger frame, she will not feel beautiful because that is not what beautiful is to “everyone” as the media makes you believe. This type of scenario can lead to eating disorders or other self-destructive behaviors which can only be prevented by countering what is being shown with alternatives to the definition of what is beautiful.
As a way of countering these types of images, companies like Dove have commercials that show every type of woman as beautiful. Large and small, black and white, beautiful becomes something that is in the eye of the beholder instead of just being what the media says it is. These commercials are still media images, but they portray an accepting side with variation instead of only one option. Wanting to be considered beautiful does not make you shallow or superficial. It is almost a way of realizing your acceptance by the world. If more images of every type of woman were shown as being beautiful, girls could accept their bodies at an early age and grow up confident with how they look.
The media plays a large role, both accepting and rejecting, in defining beautiful. It is up to our generation to help younger girls accept themselves as beautiful no matter what the media tells them otherwise and hope that the message will be carried for future generations.
I loved reading the article by Rebecca Traister about the ABC hit show, Ugly Betty. The article was very entertaining and touched on some important concepts of the show. The passage I want to focus on is when the writer brings up a past episode of Ugly Betty. It is the episode in which she receives a makeover. Betty looks as well as feels beautiful. Everyone in her neighborhood- Queens, New York-also thinks she looks great. However, her colleagues at the fashion magazine, Mode, seem to think otherwise. They make rude remarks about her makeover. The writer suggests it was because Queens beauty is not Manhattan beauty. Like Mrs. West said in class, beauty is contextual.
In different cultures and sub-cultures, beauty is defined in different ways. For example, in the African-American community being thin is not in. The models that we see in videos and urban magazines have curves. I am not saying that they are necessarily plus-sized but the women do have bigger hips, thighs, and bust sizes than what people would normally see in other race communities. However when one looks at predominantly white programs and magazines, the people being featured are more on the thinner side. I think it has to do with the culture and what the person in that particular culture’s idea of beauty is. Just like in the television show Ugly Betty, Betty was the definition of beauty after her dramatic makeover in her area. But because the people at her job and in Manhattan are tall, thin, rich, and sophisticated, she was ridiculed. Basically, she did not look like their definition of pretty.
I guess an individual’s definition of beauty depends on their surroundings, what media they are exposed to on the daily, and how they grew up. All those factors contribute and shape our definition of beauty. Everyone’s perception of beauty is different. For example where I grew up, most of the people deemed beautiful were very “urbanized.” When I went off to college in Atlanta, the girls who were considered beautiful where I grew up would not be considered attractive by the majority in that city. I could just tell this by the beauty standards of the new city I was. In this instance, I do not think it is the media that is shaping our perception of beauty. I think it is our environmental standards such as class and culture that decide who is considered beautiful and who is not.
In the article Rebecca trastier about Ugly Betty it says early on that Betty is hired because “Bradford assumes his son will never look twice at a not-anorexic Mexican woman in braces” this is just one example of how a “beautiful” person is not suppose to look. Just because Betty does not care about the latest fashion in New York Everyone there automatically thinks that she is not beautiful. I think this show lays out a lot of what America thinks about a woman being beautiful. I like how it has betty .who is suppose to not be beautiful, but she is such a good person and it show how a lot of people in our society don’t care about what is on the inside they just focus on how someone looks. But women and girls should learn early on that it is better to see someone for who they are and not judge them on just how they look. I think that one of the main keys to seeing yourself as beautiful is to have confidence and high self-esteem. I you have those things I personally think that it is easier to love your body and not judge every little flaw that our bodies might have.
The current media influenced ideal of feminine beauty, that is physical attractiveness in regards to form not the gross term beauty which is altogether different, has been highly criticized especially with the entrance of the emaciated models of mid to late nineties. Susan Bordo in “Never Just Pictures” and excerpt from her book Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J., attempts to highlight and explain the need for change, the problems associated with the current body ideal, and why exactly society’s perception of physical attractiveness has undergone this change. In this response to Susan Bordo’s article I hope to extrapolate on society’s apparent attraction to the emaciated physical form, and possibly formulate an alternative explanation to our fascination with body manipulation.
In order to better explain my ideals later in my response I believe it is important to offer an image of the current ideal, that is the ideal personified in the movement of “heroin chic” as the model for attractiveness and beauty. The image is of Kate Moss smoking a cigarette at a party. She is apart from the world, devoid of all emotion. The world has no excitement no color it is calm, unmoving and dissonant. This freedom from desire is what Bordo believes is so attractive and compelling to society in these images. Bordo “would argue that ghostly palor and bodily disrepair…are about the allure, the safety, of being beyond needing, beyond caring, beyond desire” (Bordo, 52). One need only refer to the image of Kate Moss to comprehend exactly what Bordo means by this statement. Why do we find these kinds of images so alluring? What about them is so disturbing but yet so desirable? I strongly agree with Bordo in her assessment that the desire to be utterly free has a longstanding and complex history in our culture and society, one which cannot be easily explained. The freedom from desire is alluring, but not in my opinion the only reason for societies fascination with body manipulation. I believe that the apparent fascination with the emaciated form can also be attributed to the belief that as a society we are endowed with the ability to change, improve, and ultimately better ourselves.
In order to argue this alternative interpretation it will be important to draw on two comments made by Susan Bordo in her article. Susan Bordo refers to a study in which young boys and girls found that drawings of fat children “elicited the greatest disapproval and discomfort, over pictures of kids with facial disfigurements and missing hands” (Bordo, 48). The unchangeable components of the human body that is facial proportioning, and structural abnormalities are found less troublesome to children than those attributes which can be changed, or at least perceived to be changeable. This is a common thought in our society, especially in American culture. We are raised with ideals and beliefs such as the American dream. Think of the show Ugly Betty for instance. Betty begins to live that American dream that ideal of change, she achieves her goals despite her apparent socio-economic disadvantages to change her destiny as it were.
This delineation between unchangeable and changeable body proportions is also designated later in Bordo’s article. Bordo refers to Calvin Klein advertisement which portrayed less conventional more flawed people, however these people had one alarming thing in common, their bodies. The models where considered beautiful, or desirable because their faces are overlooked. The features they were incapable of altering, facial features, skin abnormalities and disfigurements, were considered beautiful because the changeable had been altered into the ideal. This would seem to run analogous with the results of the young children’s survey regarding physical appeal.
If we accept that the skinny human form is desirable because it is believed to be obtainable, could that explain the ongoing prevalence of skinny models in the media today, a full ten years after Susan Bordo published her book? I believe that it can and does. The models which were popular in the zenith of the “heroin chic” era were the epitome of skinny. They were an extreme. The models today although much the same size, however do not have the same significance or persona of the heroin chic models. They do not propose a detachment from the world. They are engaged, active, participants, but they are still skinny and emaciated. They do not personify a freedom from desire, merely a goal, an ideal to strive for. I believe that Susan Bordo if she would write on this subject again today would agree that body manipulation, and the compulsion to fit to this “ideal” form has changed and metamorphosed as time and the media’s influence has grown.
The implications of this ideal today are perhaps more alarming than they were during the height of the “heroin-chic” era. A mental or transcendental escapist ideal is not being advocated merely an unexplainable ideal propagated by a visual signification. This ideal being, you are meant to be skinny because skinny is attainable and an ideal, and all ideals which are attainable should be attained regardless of the motives or problematic outcomes which may arise during their achievement. The problem with the emaciated ideal of today is that, it is an ideal which has no clearly defined basis yet it is accepted as an indoctrinated part of our culture. The real question then and the question that I cannot begin to answer is how can we change an ideal when we can’t dictate what or why that ideal exists?
Footnotes:
1. Susan Bordo refers to the birth of “heroin chic” and the prevalence of models with anorexic and emaciated body proportions in “Never Just Pictures “ as becoming increasingly popular in the nineties.(Bordo, 52)
2. An image of the Kate Moss in the height of the “heroin chic” era can be found at http://www.yenmag.net/img/issue/Kate%20Moss_BLK.jpg
3. Bordo explains in greater detail the social and historical basis for eating disorders in western society in more detail, as well as going into depth on the appeal of this emancipation from desire in detail on pg.51-53 of her article. The ideal also is maintained in eastern cultures where the historical prevalence of guru’s starved themselves to become free from desire such as in the stories of Siddhartha Gautama.
4. I am not advocating that the feminine form propagated by heroin chic is betterment in anyway. I am merely commenting on the ideal that as a society we are very committed to the ideal that betterment and improvement are attainable.
5. Susan Bordo states “Then it suddenly hit me that these imperfect faces were showing up in clothing and perfume ads only and the bodies in these ads were relentlessly normalizing as ever-not one plump body to complement the facial “diversity”(Bordo,53).
6. A picture of a model who although active retains the skinny component propagated by heroin chic http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/01/06/surfing7106_wideweb__470x313,0.jpg
According to The authors of “Only Two Women Describe Themselves as Beautiful” over 50% of the women in today’s society do not view themselves as beautiful, with the basis of beauty being physical attraction, body shape, and body size. As I have recently reviewed articles, television shows, and other forms of media, I have realized that there is a huge controversy as to what the word beauty/ beautiful means to society. The Webster’s dictionary gives a simple definition that correlates with the mind and spirit as opposed to one’s physicality. So, as a culture, why do we hold beauty on a pedestal and treat it as if it pertained to something else? One of my biggest concerns is the impact of the media and what they lead America to believe what beautiful actually means. In my opinion, beauty and physical attractiveness should be separately defined and analyzed in pop culture; however, media combines the two which gives mixed signals and causes most women to lack confidentiality.
In the aforementioned article, about 68% of women agree that the media gives unattainable standards of beauty. Beautiful, to me, means that someone is attractive- both on the outside and inside. Anyone can be physically attractive, but it is very important to realize that not everyone is beautiful. God has yet to create a perfect person, so society should never compare themselves to enhanced body types and facial features that are shown in the media. Instead, it should be an air of confidence and a love for one’s own personality, presence, and accomplishments. There were also 76% of American women wished that the media made beauty appear to be something more realistic and less based on physical attraction. This statistic alone shows the mass affect that media has on public perception of people and body images. As humans, we are attracted to outer beauty, something that is aesthetically pleasing and this depends on your culture. Because of the variance in cultures and personal preference, the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is true and should therefore be expressed and not forced into one mainstream idea about what beauty should be.
For example, in an episode of the television series “Ugly Betty”, the producers spend a lot of time focusing on what features are typically considered unattractive, such as glasses, braces, wavy hair, and a waist sizes larger than a five. Researchers and sociologists have tried to analyze the topic and explain that being different should not always be a bad thing. Because Betty Suarez is much different from the other employees of the magazine, she is looked upon as an outcast. Media gives us all one particular image of beautiful: long, straight hair, tanned-skin, ultra slim waistlines, and glamorous attire. All of these can in fact be beauty, but what matters is the individual. A person can be the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye but can hold characteristics that will shield the outer appearance and cause society to see the worse. It ultimately comes down to being able to separate pretty, beautiful, physically attractive, etc. from one another. People have different tastes and dislikes, so we as a culture should spend less time trying to conform to a media constructed “norm” of beauty, and learn to express ourselves individually and appreciate the strong traits we do have.
In Marie D. Smith’s article, “Decoding Victoria’s Secret: The Marketing of Sexual Beauty and Ambivalence”, it seems that Victoria’s Secret is defining beauty as a physical feature or how appealing a women is to the male population. The article implies that what it means to be beautiful is how well one looks in lingerie. That women look to these articles to see what men think is attractive and what is considered beautiful. Smith does not necessarily agree with these statements just that these are the marketing techniques that Victoria’s Secret uses. Victoria’s Secret implies that women can be considered beautiful in three ways: have a beautiful body, appeal to male eye, and her self-image based on how a male perceives her. It seems that if a women can obtain all these things she will be happy and this will make her beautiful. If a women does not possess these qualities she lacks the self esteem and confidence to be beautiful. All of these characteristics are only skin deep and do not show the true woman, and that is where beauty lies. The marketing draws on weaknesses not strengths on materialistic beauty not internal beauty. The media has drastically altered the definition of beauty and this is dangerous. If women do not feel like they can measure up to this they may take drastic measures to alter themselves to accomplish this so called beauty. It could lead to serious health issues like eating disorders. After closing reading this article, I agree with Marie Smith’s interpretation of Victoria’s Secrets marketing tactics. Victoria’s Secret gives a person a false sense of beauty that in some cases are unattainable. For this reason, I believe we need to look at ourselves and loved ones for the true definition of beauty. Take everything the media says with a grain of salt and never define yourself according to media standards.
I want to add to the point made above, about Victoria’s Secret giving women a false sense of beauty. VS makes money by telling women they’ll be good enough for a man if… while not directly saying men will be happy if you wear this, they do certainly imply it. A lot of women don’t just go out and buy lingerie for them; they buy it with their husband or boyfriend in mind, asking themselves will he like me in this? Love today has become outward beauty first and inward beauty later. I think that you should connect with someone at a deeper level than just the physical. If you are attracted to someone’s inner beauty first then you will learn to appreciate their physical attributes as well. For example, I had a teacher who had a facial deformity, in the beginning that was all I could focus on but by the end of the year as I got to know her on a deeper level and began to appreciate her inner beauty, I didn’t even notice the deformity, because the outer didn’t matter any more. I just think that less emphasis should be placed on the outward appearance and more on the inward. But if you don’t have the chance to get to know someone I guess you just automatically take ‘clues’ from their outward appearance, (I do, anyway) and I don’t know if you can really deprogram yourself to think totally the opposite of the way you have been thinking all along. But I am glad this class has brought to my attention these ‘automatic stereotypes’ in my mind and it has put things in a whole new perspective and I have learned to take the information I’m given on a daily basis and think about it, not to just make snap judgments based on the outward, but to try and find deeper meanings.
From our class discussions, it is obvious that everyone has an opinion on how to define beauty. When I first think of beauty I conjure images of a tall, white, and nineteen year old with healthy, long hair and a blemish free face. Of course, this beautiful woman would be free from wrinkles, dimples, cellulite, and fat of any kind. This woman would be nothing like me. If I was asked to define beauty, my thoughtful definition would be very different from my first reflection of the concept. The deeper definition of beauty would include actions and emotions like honesty, confidence, grace and poise, and kindness. It would also include some of my original thoughts but not in so much detail, and all of those elements would not be required for me to consider someone beautiful.
Ugly Betty is a perfect example of beauty is so many ways. In episode one Betty goes on a job interview and is first rejected because she does not fit in with societies’ definition of beauty; later in the show she is hired specifically because she is considered less beautiful, or “ugly”. The media allows this scene to show its viewers that images are important in today’s culture. Ugly Betty demonstrates ideals that make society believe a beautiful person is white, tall, thin, and fashionable, and therefore successful and well liked. Shows like Ugly Betty draw attention to the qualifications of beautiful people and indirectly make us think of ourselves as less beautiful people.
The images the media is feeding us can be very dangerous. They are cutting women’s confidence down and making us all believe that beauty is virtually unobtainable, when in reality it isn’t. The media also focuses a tremendous amount of attention on the importance of being beautiful instead of the importance and benefits of feeling beautiful. Women of today should focus their attention on these images so that they may recognize the degrading effects and not conform to societies’ view of beauty. Rather, they should attempt to develop their own. Dove has excellent programs for females to enhance their self esteem starting from girls 8 years age to women who are older. I know it is much easier to say than to do, but if every woman makes a conscious effort to shield herself from these negatives effects we will all grow and benefit from it.
After we left our discussion on Monday I really started to look at why I and our society views beauty almost as high as intelligence or even happiness. We are impounded by images throughout the media of gorgeous women who practically have everything you could ever want or need in life. I find that I see a lot in images on t.v. that not only show women who are beautiful having ever thing, but it also shows them having some sort of empowerment. That to be beautiful it gives you everything in life and I think that is why people sometimes want beauty so bad.
In Mad Men and Ugly Betty I found two scenes that really stood out to me. Both shows obviously are surround by different parts of beauty and of course women. I found it interesting how both shows started out and kind of symbolize a shift in society. In the opening scenes of both shows, you watch a women entering into a huge building and walking up to a elevator. In Mad Men you see a pretty girl who walks into a elevator with nothing but men and is harassed by men who are pretty much in control of her. whereas in Ugly Betty you watch and girl who is portrayed in her character as "unattractive" and you watch her enter into an elevator with nothing but gorgeous woman and she is also harassed and questioned about her even being there. I think both these two scenes show a shift in what has occurred in our society and culture today. To me it symbolized that women yes our in more control today, but still beauty and appearance is still held up on a pedal stool.
Now my opinion on beauty and what is means to beautiful is very open. I think of beauty as a rainbow. Rainbows have tons of colors and some or small and some are huge, but they are always breathtaking and a site to see. And that is a quality everybody has in them. There is no longer a perfect image or perfect body...its just you and how you see yourself that is all that matters because honestly beauty is just in the beholder and you should never forget the beholder is you.
Our class discussion was very interesting this week. We brought up very interesting concepts of what it means to be beautiful in today’s society and what we think that it means to be beautiful. Many times when we hear beautiful we automatically think of the outside beauty before the inner beauty. I know I do this even when I don’t mean to, but when I think about what it really means to be a beautiful person weather you a man or a women I look past the persons outside appearance and look at their inner beauty. I think that in today’s society the media tries to say that being “hot” and “beautiful” are the same, but they are not. To be “hot” is just a person’s outside appearance and being beautiful is all about the inside.
In the show Ugly Betty she is chosen for the job because she does not fit the mold of being “hot”. While her family thinks that Betty is a beautiful person because of all of the things that she does for her family the people at her work do not see her as beautiful, they see her as awkward, ugly, and out of place. In the show they constantly compare her to the other women that work there and by doing this it makes us think that Betty is not qualified to work in a fashion environment even though she loves and seems to know everything about the magazine.
Beauty as defined by the media is almost strictly based on appearance, and to a large degree sexual attraction. The TV show Mad Men exaggerates this definition through its female characters. In a scene from the pilot episode, experienced office assistant Joan coaches the new girl, Peggy, on how to be successful at her job. The advice basically amounts to ways in which Peggy can improve her appearance to please her male bosses. “He [their boss, Mr. Draper] may act like he wants a secretary,” Joan says,” But most of the time they’re looking for something between a mother and a waitress. And the rest of the time—well…” Joan shrugs to indicate that she’s referring to sex, which is reinforced by Peggy’s meaningful glance. Joan quickly follows this up by telling Peggy to go home, undress herself, and “evaluate” her body with a paper bag over her head, in order to determine her “strengths” and “weaknesses.” She also advises to Peggy to wear a shorter skirt and make her legs “sing.”
If beauty is defined simply as attractiveness, then the criterion for female beauty in Mad Men, as evidenced by Joan, is to enhance one’s appearance, particularly one’s body. The goal is to sexually attract men. To understand the reason for this, it is crucial to know the context of the dialogue. Joan and Peggy are the secretaries, whereas the male characters are their bosses. Thus the men call the shots, and the women have to do whatever they can to appease them—otherwise they endanger their spot in the office pecking order, and even possibly their jobs. In the world of Mad Men, “appeasement” means showing off your legs and occasionally sleeping with the boss. The message is clear: if women want to be successful in the world (or at least the professional one), they must be beautiful in the eyes of men.
The show Mad Men finds itself in an interesting contradiction. On one hand, Joan’s bluntness indicates that the show is deliberately portraying sexism, which is reinforced by Pete Campbell’s sexual harassment of Peggy and the bachelor party. Showing the ugly side of female objectification makes it seem as though Mad Men is trying to counter it, yet literally all of the actresses are slim and attractive. When women and girls watch the show at home they are still seeing women who fit the highly unachievable standard of beauty produced by the rest of the media. Therefore, no matter how deeply the show probes into the female characters and explores their struggles with sexism, the message remains that the women must beautiful in order to afford this kind of attention.
When asked to define the word “beauty” in my own words, I find myself very confused. I feel as if I have so many different meanings for just one word. In the world that we live in, the media plays a huge role in how we view ourselves and how we view others. The media is not the only source that shapes our ideas of image. I believe that the way one is raised and how they are treated greatly influences the person they become. As I think about my own personal definition of beauty, I tend to automatically think physical appearance. I’m not sure if that is because I have grown up thinking that women in magazines and in movies are the ones that should be considered beautiful, flawless, and absolutely unreal.
During the first day of our class when we were looking at the different images of women in the media, the one picture that stands out in my head is the Victoria Secret models posing all together at a runway show. It is truly undeniable that their physical appearances are attractive, both to the majority of men and women. Most men consider this image beautiful and sexy because they are attracted to the women, but most women see this image in a different way. Many aspire to look similar, and if they believe this is an unattainable goal, they find them wishing they could look like that. The questions some women may be thinking could be…How much of the physical beauty is natural? What kind of a person is each of those models? What are their values, goals, dreams, and morals? I believe that being a strong person in all of these areas makes someone beautiful. It is only natural for people to want to be perceived as beautiful, inside and out.
However, I believe that people wanting to be more beautiful on the outside than on the inside is an important problem in today’s society. I think it is partly because of the “beautiful” people we see everyday; in movies, magazines and on TV. I admit that I would personally love to look like some of the women in Hollywood, but I can say I am not envious of their lives. I would not love being followed around all day by people just waiting to catch me in compromising situations. I would not love the pressure of having to look near perfect every time I stepped outside of my house. In conclusion, I do believe that some people associate being beautiful with qualities one possesses on the inside. But with the images of great looking people plastered everywhere we look, how can we not want to be beautiful on the outside too?
I thought in the Ugly Betty article it was pretty clever to say that Betty was "a beast in the beauty industry who in fact brings beauty to a beastly world". It completely contradicts the title of the show "Ugly Betty" by referring to her as the beautiful one.
Ugly Betty is indeed beautiful. She is willing to do anything to keep her job she worked so hard for, and to take care of her family and her sick father. She's surrounded every day at her job by the "pretty" people who in all actuality are pretty ugly. They have nothing better to do than to do than to make fun of Betty for not being as pretty or fashionably savvy as them.
But physical beauty is not the only way Betty is set apart from her coworkers. She is also Hispanic and from Queens which is apparently a double whammy in the world of Manhattan and Mode Magazine. I didn't realize how big of a part this played in the show until I read this article. "Queens pretty is not Manhattan pretty". How many different kinds of pretty are there? This clearly shows there are more than one. So why does everyone put pretty into a category of being white tall skin and bones? The media has portrayed this image of pretty to us. I think that Ugly Betty is a good contradiction to this and will hopefully change some of those views.
Beauty, in modern context, usually refers to the physical aesthetics of a person or object. Ideally, beauty would encompass all sorts of characteristics, such as generosity, friendliness, and intelligence, but the word has been transformed into a glorified synonym for physical attractiveness. There are several reasons for this change, but images of women with flowing hair and flawless faces splattered all over the media are a main component. Although this image shifts and changes with time, the idea of a perfect physical appearance will never go away because people long t be beautiful.
A new television show, Ugly Betty, is attempting to shake up the meaning of the word beauty and what it means to be beautiful. The show offers a more modern view of who and what is attractive and uses comedy to break through stereotypical images of beautiful women. In the pilot episode, Betty is asked by her boss to stand in for a model at a photo shoot. Betty by no means looks like the typical tall, anorexic-looking model and her boss is trying to humiliate her into quitting. To his surprise, Betty dons the skimpy costume and marches right in-between the two other ridiculously dressed models. As expected, the entire set exploded with laughter. Betty is not overweight, she seems average size, but she is ridiculed for trying to appear like one of the models. By laughing, the “beautiful people” are trying to discourage bigger people from dressing in a certain ways. Apparently high fashion can only be achieved by a select few. Maybe one of the reasons people want to feel beautiful is so that select group of people will not make fun of them. On one likes to be embarrassed, especially for something that is as hard to control as physical appearance. Due to this need for beauty, an image is created to glorify those characteristics most desired as a scale to measure themselves to.
Beauty is dynamic and comes in packages of all shapes and sizes. Once people see that beauty can happen once they are satisfied with themselves, then society will have no need for an ideal image of beauty.
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholders, so is the definition of beauty. The media has created a definition that is more physical than about the true person. Beauty to me is someone who is caring, patient, loyal, loving, determined, and a hard worker. In Ugly Betty media portrays beauty as what you see on the covers of magazines, or on television, but you look at Betty and do not think that she is ugly she is just not media standard pretty. Then as you get to know the characters you see that beauty is truly not skin deep. As cliché as this may sound and familiar. My momma always said you do not always see a pretty person as pretty if they have an ugly attitude. This holds true even on Ugly Betty where Betty slowly becomes more attractive because of her personality.
The Real Truth about Beauty: A Global Report says that beauty should not be reduced…but understood as a basic human pleasure. Dictionary.com states that beauty is the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind. Though these definitions seem too broad, I believe they correctly embody the meaning of beauty without constricting the standard by a certain bias. Because the media manipulates natural forces of the social world in order to sell products, they narrow the definition of beauty to what is pleasurable for the buyer or dominant social group. Instead of one broad but personal definition, many explanations of what is beautiful are advertised. Marketed for different buyers and products these ideals may be contradictory in message and unachievable by the average person. The buyer is never fully satisfied as the meaning of beauty is constantly changing and impossible.
This week we compared two major company’s advertisement strategies that sell different images of beauty for separate ideals. Victoria’s Secret’s ads are based on the assumptions that a woman’s self image is largely based on a male perception of her physical beauty and that the right man gives meaning to her life. So instead of focusing on women, Victory Secret markets their products in respect to what gives men intense pleasure. The company has created the VS angels, the VS fashion show, and the VS commercials and catalogs that entertain the imaginations of men while teaching women what to embody. I have never purchased a VS product or even tried on one of their bras, but this past year my boyfriend and I watched the annual fashion show together and I received VS perfume as a Christmas present from him. They have created the standard for intimate apparel that promise to lift, separate, and adorn the key assets of women’s bodies for male enjoyment. Meanwhile, Dove is “redefining” the meaning of beauty by the average woman’s standards. Understanding that they are a company selling a product too, I believe Dove is marketing an image of women who are pleased with their reflection as they are applying Dove products in front of the mirror. Shiny, smooth hair; soft, silky skin; and a clean, clear complexion will give any woman deep satisfaction with her body. If this idea personal beauty contentment is embraced, Dove can promote their product to women of all generations, cultures, shapes, and sizes.
These are only two examples of advertising strategies manipulating the definition of beauty for their own benefit and financial gain. Consider the standard that high fashion created by narrowing beauty to encompass an extremely slim number of women in society. There are many messages bombarding women about beauty from television, magazines, and mere fashion on the street. Women must not get bamboozled by the hype but realize beauty is a personal experience between the admired and admirer. When deciding what is beautiful, there are no absolutes.
“Fat is the Devil”
Our culture has taught us to believe that “Fat is the devil” and we must do whatever we can “eliminating our stomachs, busting our thighs, taming our tummies,” etc, to achieve this ideal anorexic weight. In her article, “Never just pictures,” Susan Bordo coins the media’s definition perfectly of what our culture thinks is beautiful. She writes the media has taught us to love “a woman’s pelvis, her hip bones jutting out through a bias cut grown, [and having a] clavicle as a coat hanger from which clothes are suspended.”
This extreme image is staring us straight in the eyes constantly changing our perception of ourselves and what the true definition of beauty really means. This unclear definition of beauty leads to lack of self esteem, lack of confidence, and eventually leads to even more serious problems down the road. It is hard to believe that just one word can cause such chaos. Bordo writes that “Eating disorders are linked to the contradictions of consumer culture, which is continually encouraging us to binge on our desires at the same time, as it glamorizes self discipline and scorns fat as a symbol of laziness and lack of will power.”
Although the real definition of beauty is very simple and focuses more on the mind and body than on physical traits, then why is it that eating disorders have become a norm of cultural perception? This norm of needing to be thin has been increasing, it has been confirmed that models have been noticeably been getting thinner since 1993.
Sometimes, I feel that it is not just having a beautiful face, volumized hair. Fashionable clothes, a thin frame, or a great personality; it really is that beauty lies within. But I can also agree with Bordo on her take on being thin when she writes that its being “glamorized for your self disciplne,” and not wanting to be seen as a “symbol of laziness and lack of will power.”
Beauty is one of those words that has a different meaning to everyone, as we have seen in class. Media is very biased when it portrays beauty; it has strict guidelines as to what is and what isn’t beautiful. We usually see a tall, skinny, perfect hair and makeup or handsome and muscular main actress/actor. Rebecca Traister’s article on Ugly Betty describes Betty as “a beast in the beauty industry who in fact brings beauty to a beastly world.” I found this description of Betty to be quite ironic. Betty is portrayed in the show as ugly because she has braces, glasses, quirky clothes, less than perfect hair and on the ‘wrong’ side of the socioeconomic border. She is essentially dropped into a world very different than her own, a world of beautiful people and fancy everythings because of her ugliness. Despite of how she is treated and what she looks like Betty finds a happy medium in her materialistic job and shows the people around her what beauty really is. In my opinion I believe that beauty is not only skin deep but something that comes from within as well. From my own experiences I have met men and women who are very pleasing to the eye but once I really get to know them they have characteristics, like attitude and self-perception, which takes away from their looks and it also holds true the other way around. In Ugly Betty, she slowly develops in the eyes of her coworkers into this beautiful person, not because she has physically changed anything about herself but because her charm, charisma and attitude overpower the physicality of material beauty. The media is so set in this one particular view of what beauty is that we, as consumers, entangle beauty with physical attractiveness more than anything else like personality, wits and education. I was born in a country that is so culturally different than America especially when it comes to beauty. In Honduras, a woman is seen as beauty because of what she has accomplished and how she carries herself; It’s more than a physical thing, growing up I never saw any woman in my life with makeup on, being natural is considered beautiful. I think Ugly Betty is a great way to show some people that beauty isn’t just a physical thing but something deeper than that, it’s a balance between what you, as person, consider to be beautiful on the outside and the inside. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
The fact that “only two percent of thousands of women from 10 countries around the world consider themselves as beautiful” is not s shock to me. How are women suppose to feel when the media is constantly telling them the way they look is not good enough? This trend the media has started has affected woman after woman. Generation after generation, new ads are forming to make women unattractive and worthless.
In the discussion we were having on Wednesday, we talked about what influences us in how we feel about ourselves. While media plays a huge role in how I view myself I couldn’t help but to agree when it was stated that mothers or the people closest to us play a role in it too. My mom is skinny. Her whole life she has always been thin. My mom is a size 3 but looks like a size double 0. She has had five kids and still has a six pack. My mom is smaller than me and she struggles with the way she looks. She feels she is too fat and not in shape like she should be. She felt this way most of her life. Her feeling this way has definitely pushed off on me. My mom that was smaller than me by 6th grade and her still felt she was fat. Naturally this had its effect on me causing me to be self conscious about my weight. In “Only Two Percent of Women Describe Themselves as Beautiful,” “Sixty-three percent strongly agree that women today are expected to be more attractive than their mother’s generations.” (Only Two Percent of Women Describe Themselves as Beautiful).
But what I realized when thinking about this was there was a reason my mom felt that way and the reason was media. My mom always looked at fitness magazines and was always comparing herself to the model on the cover. She’d always point out the things she liked on other women on TV and she constantly buying material try to keep her looking young and in shape. Media had affected my mom just as much as it has affect lots of other women. So my point is that yes the people closest to us affected us and how we look at us, but media has the biggest role. Media not only affects us it affect the people closest to us.
I agree with the statement “beauty is in the eye of the Beholder”, but I do not think that the media agrees with this idea. I do not agree with beauty just being based by the image of a women’s body. I believe that beauty is about the inside of a person. It’s about how you carry yourself, your confidence, and your inner spirit, and how you feel about yourself.
If you look at the TV series “Ugly Betty” you see an impression of how our society and the media image beauty. You see how they compare poor beauty and rich beauty to Latino beauty and white beauty. Betty is a Latin American from Queens, who goes and get a job in Manhattan at Mode. Betty’s image in the Manhattan society of being “unattractive” is really what gets her the job in the first place, because her boss doesn’t want his son to have an attractive assistant. Her co-workers are all these really skinny women who also appear to be unhappy, and mean, even though they seem to have everything they want out of life. Then you look at Betty who is considered to be “ugly” in this society, while in he own home of Queens she is considered to be “beautiful”. Even though she is considered to be “ugly” Betty still holds herself together in the work place next to all of these so called “beauties”. Which I feel displaces her beauty of character, which is really the most important part of a person.
I enjoyed reading the article about this TV series by Rebecca Traister. My favorite quote from this article is when she says, “Many critics have also pointed out that Betty, played by America Ferrera, is not ugly. She is merely encumbered by a mouth full of blue metal, one hellacious poncho and a wonky eye for color coordination. The show should be called "Badly Styled Betty." I fully agree with this statement, and the first time I watched the show, I thought to myself that’s not America Ferrera. I think that taking a woman who is perceived by the mainstream media to be beautiful and cast her in this role is huge. I think this show exhibits the ides in our society about beauty, and shows that hey are not all correct. I believe that when I watch this show, and relate it to the image of beauty, I grow to see how much more important it is to have inner beauty than outer beauty.
For decades the media has influenced society’s opinion on what is considered to be “beautiful”. Television, magazines, the internet, and newspapers are constantly focusing on Hollywood’s obsession on physical beauty. The articles in most of your popular magazines center on weight, wrinkles, and name brand clothes. The entertainers seem to be getting thinner and thinner. They are always wearing the latest trends and are using the best skin care lines on the market. It is easy to see why some women in our society have self image issues. I enjoyed reading Rebecca Traister’s article, “Class Act”, which focused on the television series “Ugly Betty”. The main character, Betty Suarez is a twenty-two year old woman who goes to work for Mode, a popular woman’s magazine, in New York City. “Ugly Betty”, is a fictional television series that illustrates realistic issues on physical beauty and economic status. Rebecca Traister’s article correlates the status of the characters economic class to beauty.
Betty Suarez was born into a stereotypical Mexican family. She comes from a lower economic class in Queens, New York. Her father is a hard working Mexican illegal immigrant. Betty works long hours and is dedicated to her boss, Daniel Meade. Daniel comes from a wealthy and well known Caucasian family. The subject of economic status is a sensitive one and the television series down plays these issues. In Rebecca Traister’s article she states, “It's about class and ethnicity. Its smart take on cultural and economic differences, enmeshed as it is in a fresh, funny package, makes it positively subversive television.” I agree with Traister’s statement about this particular series. Rebecca Traister then goes on to state, “Poor pretty is not rich pretty.” Betty’s look is accepted in Queens because they do not focus on weight and name brand clothes. In “Ugly Betty”, the wealthy Meade family and the models that surround Betty can afford to buy the material goods that aid in their physical appearance. This is accurately portrayed in our society today. The wealthier people in our society can afford personal trainers, expensive cars, and beautifully furnished homes.
In today’s society thin woman are considered to be beautiful. In the television series “Ugly Betty”, Betty is a curvy and voluptuous woman. She is proud of her figure and does not focus on the outward appearance as much as her peers at Mode do. In an episode in season two, Betty gets upset because all the models are too thin and do not represent the average American woman. In today’s world most entertainers are airbrushed in magazines. Jamie Lee Curtis and Kate Winslet are two actresses that are against being airbrushed when they are on the cover of magazines. Both actresses have said that they are just like any other average woman. They do not have the perfect bodies and they have wrinkles.
Betty is able to not conform and be bothered by the materialistic lifestyle of her peers. She seems to be truly comfortable and happy with herself. In today’s society the definition of “beauty” is extremely unrealistic. However, women of every age can be affected by the pressures that are placed on them to stay thin and perfect. Young girls can develop eating disorders because they see models that are thin and gorgeous. In an episode of “Ugly Betty”, Justin’s classmates throw away their lunches after a field trip to Mode Magazine. The young girls see the beautiful, fragile models and they want to be skinny just like them.
I agreed with Rebecca Traister’s article and thought that the message of “Ugly Betty” was deeper than physical beauty. I personally think that there is too much emphasis on financial status and outward appearance. As a society, we should be focusing on the beauty that comes from within a person. Betty’s peers at Mode magazine had a difficult time understanding this concept. In today’s world people with money have a certain kind of power and status. Financial status is usually the deciding factor on how much a person can invest in conforming to what society thinks is “beautiful”. Just because a person is “physically beautiful” in the eyes of society does not mean they are happy.
“Ugly Betty”, sends the audience an important message. Money does not buy happiness. There are many problems in the Meade family including marital affairs, greed, and alcoholism. Next time you pick up a magazine, look at the celebrity on the cover that has the financial means to achieve what society says is “beautiful” and ask yourself are they really happy?
Rekesha
Sometimes being a product of your environment is more harmful than beneficial. Across the world esthetics is on the hierarchy of needs right under wealth. If you have enough wealth, one can automatically be put in the category of beautiful as well. Recently in class we have researched and read about many different media concepts of what it means to be “beautiful” and the elements one most possess to obtain it. I would like to focus on the book Where The Girls Are because it not only describes society definition of beauty in women but also how women themselves define it as well. The author says that in reality physical beauty is not for the benefit of the female mind. It is merely for the men of the world to judge and decide who should receive more attention. Magazines such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan in the present are only giving women a reason to either hate or love themselves. They offer new and improved ways to trim your thighs and lift your butt. Face creams to rid your skin of aging lines and faulty dimples. They are basically saying aging is horrible and if you want to have a happy laugh then try and keep your twenty year old body forever. This is the most ridiculous theme that I have ever come to understand. Why is beauty considered young and ageless. My definition is feeling great mentality and physically according to you. If we continue to always look to others specifically males for approval then in a few years everyone will be walking around with bikinis on and the aches and pains of plastic surgery everyday. Beauty should be in the eye of the beholder as long as the beholder is the individual and not some other selfish source. The cosmetic companies are doing the most to make women feel like the worse about themselves. They even state in the book how they make really catchy phrases for the names of products so we assume it is something that can attack all the seemingly bad physical features and turn them into good. I personally believe they if we as women are not shaving our legs and putting make up on everyday for ourselves, then it is self degradation. Our entire lives can not be the result of trying to please others. We should all enjoy the naturally beautify features that we given to us without someone else saying they are not good enough for this particular lifetime. The book also says that beauty is represented by buying the most expensive products while having the best intelligence, which sounds like some type of code to what it is to be happy, healthy, and pretty. I believe everyone has their own unique beauty and that is what makes the world so beautiful in itself.
I chose to focus this response paper on Ugly Betty—season 1, episode 1. The first scene in this show’s pilot episode “screams” the stereotypical definition that American, popular culture has ungraciously given to beauty. Within the first minute of watching the show, viewers are made overwhelmingly aware that the show’s lead character—Betty—is out-of-touch with this narrow definition. Different people may define their personal definition of beauty differently; however, today’s working definition—according to the media—can be defined in only a few words: super-thin, provocative, and flawless in appearance. Even this restricted definition can be compiled into one word—unobtainable. Ugly Betty’s dramatically over-stereotyped characters do nothing to object to this definition; in fact, they reinforce it.
Prior to watching the show, viewers are primed by the show’s title—Ugly Betty—to make judgments on the shows characters based on physical appearance. Betty’s initial appearance, including everything from her wardrobe to braces, makes it overly obvious that she is, presumably, “ugly” Betty. Even the initial environment that Betty is in encourages the show’s audience to judge Betty’s physical appearance. She is, initially, in a fashion office sitting next to a supermodel—who unsurprisingly fits our media’s coined definition of beauty. Aside from all these things being made aware within 10 seconds, the scene progresses to Betty getting unrightfully denied for a job after the interviewer saw her physical appearance. Collectively, all of these things force the assumption onto the viewer that Betty is indeed “ugly,” without the viewer even having to make their own judgments of Betty’s actual physical appearance.
In actuality—and in opinion of course—Betty isn’t all that revolting. If you take away all of the primers that may smother a viewer into thinking that she’s nauseating in appearance, she’s not far from being the average girl. This show may be offensive, or unjust to some members of its audience, and understandably so. I do not have any intentions of spreading the idea that it’s fun and/or humorous to provoke judging and discrimination on someone based solely on their physical appearance. However, based on my interpretation of the show resulting—solely—from one episode, the show seems to be mocking America’s stereotypical definition of beauty. This, in turn, could actually influence others to rethink their definition of beauty by exposing them to the seemingly inaccessible, and sometimes cruel, stereotype. Now—with that said, my interpretation of whether or not the effect of this exposure leads to an indirect, positive result would have to be based upon watching more episodes to determine whether or not the exposure that I speak of is handled correctly.
In Susan Bordo's article "Never Just Pictures," she states that "the ideal body beautiful has largely come from fashion designers and models." and in that beauty, "the fashion industry has taught us to regard a perfectly healthy, nonobese body as an unsightly "before"." I believe this is what the media wants us to believe as the standard for beauty across all genders, races, ethnicities and cultures. I really believe that this highly mediated stereotype stems from people's greatest fears of being fat. In American culture being fat conveys a message of slothfulness and idolatry. So naturally, for anyone to steer clear of being equated with yet another stereotype, they too must jump on the bandwagon of the media's constructed image of beauty thus feeding the stereotypes associated with them. Together these images and ideals set the stage for the media to dominate our culture. Because, not only are the media portraying these deathly thin images of women as the hottest trend, but they are also offering us a tentative solution to this "fat problem" by promoting unsafe ways to "shed the pounds" through ridiculous crash dieting. This, compiled with the clutter of advertisements young people, especially women, see everyday begins to set these material predispositions in place for life. When we look at what the media is feeding us under a closer lens, the idea of beauty is and always has been spun out of profit. The vicious cycle goes 'round and 'round. These incredibly skinny and continuously dead-looking models or "heroin-chics" are portrayed in magazines all over the country by fashion designers everywhere as "ideal beauty." Young girls and boys alike view these images and begin to question themselves because this is what they "should" look like. Advertisement agencies promote rapid weight loss with the latest diet trends to gain profits from this onset lack of fulfillment. And finally, more and more people are left feeling empty because of what the media projected to us as beautiful. This "beautiful" is virtually impossible to achieve and even harder to maintain by any healthy means of diet and exercise, leading to malnutrition and perpetual unhappiness. Multiply this cylce by many generations over time and there is no wonder why more and more Americans have what Bordo and psychologists refer to as "body image disturbance syndrome," or the incapability of people to be satisfied with their self-image.
The concept behind these ideas is generated from designers who argue that beauty manifested through death or lifeless models is more profitable than beauty manifested through positive self-fulfillment. The designers creating these ideals are not average people, but creators of a media infested lie set up to profit from our failures. However, I still don't understand why designers would torture the mere essence of what fashion is based on? Shouldn't fashion be based on real beauty or images that confirm our sense of self rather than destroy it? After all, beauty can loosely be defined as our self-worth, dignity and sense of accomplishment. So how can people continue to buy into this advertisement strategy knowing the angle of the marketers? Furthering that thought, what does this say about beauty today? That beauty is manifest in unfulfilled prophecies or unattainable truths?! Beauty should not be manifested through death no matter what the rhyme or reason. Beauty is the essence of a person's soul. It can't be defined just by glancing at a media based image. Media has set us up for a lifetime of failure. No matter what, the consumer will never be satisfied with results because the media continues to distort images to make a profit. Since I do not see beauty manifest through the portrayal of these negative, one-sided types of images, I feel that beauty should manifest itself from within and through that be projected outward to achieve total satisfaction.. Self-Satisfaction is one of life's greatest gifts. A sense of accomplishment or confidence will always makes a person feel worth it, and with self-worth comes beauty. Together these things make people physically and mentally beautiful. Therefore I believe beauty is the fulfillment of life according to personal conviction. So why is it the opposite for fashion? If we acknowledge the gap between achieving self-worth and these attacks ideals of physical beauty, why are we not doing anything about it? What are we gaining from accepting these images? Nothing but a lack of respect for ourselves and a broken image of the reality of beauty.
The scene I’d like to focus on is the scene that dealt with the Victoria Secret models. In it one sees “beautiful” women. The thing about society is that we see women as being beautiful without them speaking. We don’t know these women from any other stranger walking by, but they are still seen as beautiful. So, for us to say that beauty lies within is a lie. Physical beauty does not lie within. If that was the case, then we would not be able to tell if anyone was beautiful before they spoke. That just is not the case. Advertisements have set an unattainable beauty that no one can measure up to because the models don’t even look the way they are presented. They are “photoshopped”. By doing this, they make sure that everyone needs the product. They simply exaggerate the products affects. They sell the dream that beautiful women get everything. They get the man of their dreams, the house of their dreams, the kids of their dreams, ect. Everything is just laid out for them if only they buy this acne wash to clear their face up, or this mascara to get longer eyelashes, or this bra to make them a cup-size bigger. It is almost overwhelming. Women believe that in order to have a good life, they have to be the most beautiful woman around. If they do not get there with their looks, then everything is going to be wrong with their life. It is a horrible way to advertise, but it is effective. In a way, it allows people to feel as though they can control their future based on their appearance. That just is not so. Consequently, there are millions of “beautiful people” walking around sad and depressed and wondering how come they still feel so empty and ugly inside but at the same time beautiful. The two are never supposed to mix ideally. It happens daily, and it leaves consumers lost.
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