From a young age, females are subjected to the ideals of what society and “girl culture” thinks they should be: tall, thin, wearing the “right” clothes, and wearing makeup to the point that they are no longer recognizable. A woman is expected to constantly put on a façade where it appears that the way she looks is effortless. To look “beautiful” is to look like one puts no effort into the way she looks, while in reality it takes a tremendous amount of labor and product to look the way “girl culture” expects her to look. Beauty is beast that forces women to not be comfortable in their own skin.
Women are constantly aware mentally and visually of what they look like, and are continuously aiming to become something that is impossible to become. They are pressured into buying the latest and most trendy products, solely in order to keep up with what their peers and friends have. Their own identity dies every time they feel the need to become someone they are not, as the photo shows with the cord around the neck like a noose. Her white shirt shows the innocence that each girl is born with, and slowly loses as she grows older and learns what is expected of her. When innocence is lost, so is natural beauty. She stops seeing herself as beautiful, and is forever in a cage of misery and tragedy that she cannot be freed from.
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I found this photograph interesting because it represents the meaning of “Beauty is a Beast” so well. I especially like how the woman in the picture has her make up running to represent her crying, which I believe is to symbolize how painful it can be for a woman to try to fit into society’s idea of beautiful. I also like the representation of the make-up and brushes in the background because of the way women are portrayed in movies, magazines, and all through out the media, makes girls start believing they need make-up to fit in at a young age. I also find it interesting that the make-up and hair products are slightly blurred out as if to represent how society makes it normal to use all of these products everyday to cover up a woman’s natural features, as if it is not a big deal, even though so much time and money is spent on “fitting in”.
The eyes are the window to the soul, and the mascara stained tears streaming from this teenager’s pained, wistful eyes elicit a feeling of sympathy for this girl’s helplessness against a monster she doesn’t understand. The tears aren’t flowing haphazardly out of puffy eyes and accompanied by erratic, jagged, cosmetic stained paths like one would expect after a fit of uncontrollable sobbing, but rather are gently cascading aqueducts of resigned pain; the kind of pain that is slowly eating away at the soul and, especially in the eyes of the child, needs to be covered up somehow. This picture is the essence of 20th and 21st century beauty. The products and primping gadgets randomly strewn about and out of focus signifies the idea that fulfillment of other needs in this child’s life has fall by the wayside, along with any semblance of order or self-esteem, in the name of beautification. Every society, even those of other creatures in the animal kingdom, has, in one way or another, placed an emphasis on superficial outward appearances throughout time but never quite in the way modern Western civilization has. Beauty is no longer in the eye of the beholder, it is a necessity that can be sold at market like a loaf of bread; kids are learning that they need to stock their cabinets with loaves of white, whole-wheat, pumpernickel and rye, despite the fact that three of them are bound to go moldy.
This photo stood out to me most while scrolling down the page for a few reasons, one of which being that it embodies the idea of “Beauty is a Beast” to a level which works beautifully for the assignment. Initially I am drawn to the face being directed into the camera while lying down. The girl in the photo is on her back, which even in the animal kingdom, is a state of vulnerability because it opens up the most exposure. I notice immediately that her mascara and make up is smudged and running down the sides of her face as if she had been crying showing the pain she goes through trying to live up to the beauty standards. The running makeup also leads into the girl’s hair which has products intertwined throughout, showing that her mind is wrapped around all of the expectations socially and the exposure to so many different products. I also noticed the chord acting as a noose around her neck, who she naturally is struggles to survive (the chord is not tight) but still suffocates her emotionally. I like the idea of the girl’s shirt being white to represent her innocence prior to finding out what society expects. Beauty definitely is a beast and this photo represents that statement fantastically.
The first thing that strikes you about this photo is the dead stare you are forced to lock eyes with. The stare is showing the viewer the lack of enjoyment and enthusiasm some women feel with trying to keep up with the social norms they are forced to align with. The cord around the neck is the next striking feature of the photo, it resembles the suffocation felt by some women as they compete with what they prefer and what society tells them to do. The tears that cause the make-up to run down the cheeks resemble the up stream battle women would have to face to break away from the social norms. It is much easier to just go with what is expected of themselves than to do what makes them happy. The white shirt and white background show the sense of purity, that even with all of this make up that is used to show sex appeal, one must remain pure. The blurred objects in the background also play the same harmony as does the blank stare, it shows the lack of emotion and happiness that one may feel with conforming to the social norms.
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