In today’s society women are always worrying about their appearance. Their perspectives on how they should present themselves are imposed by everything around them. Friends, celebrities and the media are the main reasons why women fee the need to live their lifestyle a specific way. Sometimes, celebrities don’t even need to say anything to have an effect on one; women in today’s society are already provoked on changing just by feeling intimidated by them. In Nina Power’s text, ‘One- Dimensional Woman’ the author also argues that you don’t need superficial things to feel good about yourself, or to even look like perfectly thin stick figure to be a feminist.
The mirror reflected the woman’s face as she applied her mask. Foundation, powder, eye shadow, liner, mascara, blush, and lipstick are all applied as she satisfies her need to appear beautiful. In Susan Sontag’s passage, Women’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?, she explains the definition of beauty and the plight of contemporary women with respect to beauty. Women are overly concerned with superficial appearances and they do not express who and what they really are. Although beauty was once considered a virtue and can be considered a form of power, it is really a form of oppression that leaves women objectified and constantly working to be attractive.
The author purported, "... It may seem that the promise of beauty is nothing but a commercial myth that binds women to its costly pursuit." (Peiss 23). These commercials such as those in television shopping channels illustrate their perspectives of how people should look with cosmetics on. In reality, that contraception may not apply and appeal to all.
However, women aren’t innocent in this controversy either. They have some control over the attention they receive based on how they dress and present themselves socially. I know for a fact the reason my friend dresses up and stands out it for the attention. In conclusion I agree with Sheets-Johnstone’s thoughts about women only being seen as body parts and objects. Although some perspectives on the subject claim women live in bad faith and put themselves in situations to be defined as a body part, if there was no routine of male’s looking or the notion to dominate and females attention starvation or feelings to please, there would be no need for a dominant and submissive relationship.
I do agree with Drevno in this article. It seems like everybody is trying to look like the ideal figure, but as we all know the majority is not ideal so we try to become that attractive figure that we think everybody wants. Drevno says in her article “Everywhere you look you will find images of women and men who typify what our society considers “beautiful”(P.2). What that quote means is that “unreal” beauty is all around us because our world believes that that is the true meaning of beauty when according to Drevno it is not. A friend of mine named Moe, was in a sense overweight and he didn’t like it because of what other people thought about it.
Clearly the way to get beautiful women is to ignore them, perhaps mistreat them" (272). The ad Kilbounre is describing is similar to the picture in the Bebe ad, and she is trying to make women see just how degrading these images are. The woman in the Bebe ad is very desperately attempting to get the man's attention by leaning on him and focusing her attention on him, but he doesn't seem interested. The image is posed like that to show superiority and power that men supposedly have over women. This teaches women that they need to constantly dote on the man, whether he pays attention or not.
I know how we always want the next new makeup or hair product that’s going to make s look like the model in the commercial. Women can’t just run to the store in sweat pants because they value their appurtenance too much. Women don’t feel as confident when they don’t look nice, but men don’t really care either way. In the reading, “Do thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” I agree with Nancy when she says thin models on the runway or on TV can cause very young girls to become anorexic or bulimic. Nancy says, “Girls are being bombarded with the message that they need to be super-skinny to be sexy.” (Hellmich 706) I believe that is very true when she says that but what young girls don’t realize is that you could be beautiful and sexy with any body type that you might have.
When women see a celebrity on the cover of a magazine they want to look just like the celebrity. Men also, think if they can get girl that looks like a celebrity off a magazine they will be happy. In reality the celebrity does not look like that in real life. There is no reason to be something you are not if the celebrity does not even look like that. Kilbourne shows a good point about this article and that is no women should ever be used to please people for their needs.
Females between the ages of 16 and 26 make up approximately 24 million women as of today (Population clock). This “chick” age bracket represent the group of people that popular media outlets market to that often feature women with bodies that are unattainable for the average woman. These media outlets also focus on what women can do to acquire and please men. The self-esteem of these young girls are also eroding due to the various forms of marketing and advertising tactics they employ because sexy sells. The many celebrities like Miley Cyrus and magazines who all try to portray their idea of a woman, alter and distort their perception of womanhood.
For instance, even though many of the Arab American women are required to cover themselves, almost all of them cover their bodies because they choose and not because they are forced to. Being unaware of the choice that these women have, the dominant society judges them and makes them feel like they are oppressed. The images that many people saw in the media, when the Arab-Americans were shifting from model minority, to problem minority were women who were covered and absent from the scene and suddenly without a complete knowledge of what is really going on. On the other hand it is not only the immigrants that control and regulate women’s sexuality. Based on Entry Denied, the U.S regulated Asian American women’s sexuality.