Blog 3: The Beauty Myth "Work"

The general ideas that I found recurrent in the reading was that women are not measured by what they offer mentally but what they offer physically. In the workplace, women are not accounted for because of the work that they put in but more because of what they look like. Knowing this often makes females feel self-concious about their work because they never know if they are where they are because of the work they did or if it is because of the way they look. In history, there have been many trials working in favor of the workplace instead of the female counterpart who felt she was objectified in the workplace because of her dress or the way she looks. This only makes women feel more helpless when they are harassed by their boss or coworkers. Another general idea of the text was that women earn $6 - $7 thousand dollars less annually then men unless it is a profession focused primarily on beauty such as: modeling or prostitution. Before reading this, I was under the impression that equal pay was prevalent any and everywhere and that was a distant memory. It makes me wonder if I have ever been deprived of pay for all the work that I have done.

Beauty, body image, and sexual attraction is a function of "social construction" because it is socially acceptable that the men make the money and that women be pretty enough to get a man that makes a lot of money. In the workplace, it is as if they are saying men can make more money than women because their supposed to. Women are supposed to look pretty because they are supposed to be there to catch a man. It's confusing as a woman because if you do really good work but you are not "pretty" or constantly making yourself "presentable" then you will not get as much recognition but someone who is beautiful but does poor work gets the acknowledgement but they are not taken seriously. You have to have it all to get the kind of recognition you deserve. You have to work harder than any male and look pretty and put together while doing it and it is socially acceptable.

In the reading, the most shocking story in the book was the one where the woman was raped and the court did not go in her favor because they said that she wore provocative clothing that provoked the whole ordeal. Stories such as these scare me to go into the workplace. Things such as these should not be so prevalent. Another thing that was mentioned in class, was that women get used to the cat calls and side comments made by customers or male coworkers and it just makes you wonder why should we as females have to put up with it or get used to it. Why is it acceptable? It all reminds me of when I was working at a restaurant as a hostess. I would constantly get hit on by male coworkers and they would comment on my clothing or compare me to other female coworkers. I never said anything but ok and just brushed it off. Another thing is that my brother told me that it was not a real job and I was just being paid to stand and look pretty. I was really offended because there is a lot more work into being a hostess than just standing and greeting guests. There is a lot of organization that goes into it and making sure that the waitstaff is presented a fair amount of guests. It just goes to show how some males continually undermine the work of a female just because she wants to look good while doing it.

Ideals of female beauty function as a form of social control in that they make a standard that females are supposed to adhere to only to later say they only got that position because they look a certain way not because of there efforts. She is not respected as the head of the company or the boss but only the secretary. Women have to work 2x as hard as males to earn the same equality and pay. Females are just supposed to be pretty and that is the main purpose. This limits women's life choices because this idea of women weakens women's self esteem in that they will not feel good enough or worthy enough for their efforts. So many females are qualified, but society constantly telling you "you can't" can make many women believe so because they do not feel worthy of anything more. Women are looking to models and celebrities as their role models instead of the female ceo or the president (because there is no such thing as a woman president.)