Blog 8: "The Beauty Myth"

The end of the beauty myth doesn't give me closure at all. This is predominantly due to the fact that you can say things like love yourself and everything else will follow suit, but in the end you cannot change everybody. Women will still be judged by beauty standards and will have to work twice as hard to gain the same respect as that of any man. In every situation, the media comments on what the woman is wearing or how she looks whether than what she stands for or what she has accomplished. Her beauty is always more publicized than what she did. Its sad but true. I personally have had people look at me like I'm a phenomenon because I do well in school. "But you're pretty?" still hurts me to hear uttered from anyone's mouth. Why can't I be both? Why can't I care about my appearance and still do well in my academics without people thinking she just got there because of her looks? I work hard to gain that respect and hopefully change people's minds about the intelligence of a beautiful woman by being an example. I can only hope it changes some day. I want it to be where women are both seen and heard equally because right now women are acknowledged just for their visual images.

Images from the before and after of the Fox tv series "The Swan" where they took contestants who were considered "ugly" and used plastic surgery, hair extentions, makeup, and new clothes to give them makeovers so that they could feel "beautiful"

Wolf's work is much more wordy and a little cryptic in its message at times. Valenti is much more direct, to the point, and in your face about it. I would much rather read Valenti's work because I feel that I can relate more with it and it was much more understandable. Valenti uses examples that are more prevalent in the media while Wolf's examples are court cases that went bad. I feel that Valenti's examples are better because these are the type of images that are constantly being presented on television such as the Swan and commercials seen on television. Pretty much everyone watches tv so I could relate more to the images and recall moments. They both present the same message, but Wolf does it in a round about way. They both talk about eating and dieting, how women are discussed about their beauty only to silence them, and what women go through to attain beauty. You can also feel anger in both of their writings. Valenti just uses harsher words to express it.



The essay that I felt was most interesting from the Body Outlaws text was, "The Butt: Its Politics, Its Profanity, Its Power." When I first read the title, I was instantly interested. I myself, posess a big butt and I have a love hate relationship with it. I felt that I could really relate to the essay and it gave me a little knowledge about why it is so much associated with black women. Even though, nowadays its more associated with women like J.Lo (Hispanic) and Kim Kardashian (Armenian). It was interesting to hear some of the trials and tribulations of one's behind from someone else. I could relate to the fact that going shopping for pants and skirts can be limiting with larger assets than most. Nothing fits right and I've destroyed many pairs of jeans because of the friction between my thighs. It also grows when you least expect it. I just felt really understanding to this piece. It was almost as if it was written just for me. I often found myself saying, "I know!"