From: Kaitlyn
H.
In today’s society, women are expected to be perfect. They
are expected to have perfect skin, perfect hair, flawless makeup… you name it,
it is supposed to be perfect on a woman. Tina Fey explains it perfectly in her
book Bossypants. In her book, Fey
explains what women like J-Lo and Beyoncé have brought to the table in terms of
what women should aspire to look like, saying that a “back porch and thick
muscular thighs” are now what is desired by females. Fey goes on to write:
“Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue
eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a
California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese
feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms
of Michelle Obama, and doll tits.”
All of these
expectations are made known to women at young ages (even as young as toddlers
via characters such as Cinderella, Anna, and Belle). When they hear or see
something, even if it is only one time, they are likely to remember it in the
long run. They may not know it yet, but they are at the prime age to be, well,
primed. Their minds are so impressionable at that age that they do not know
that what society deems as “perfect” is anything
but the word. This is why the “model” in the picture is a young girl. At her
age, she has already expressed how she wants to be like Barbie; hence the
pictures taped to the mirror in the background and the imitation of the pose in
the far-left picture, and the outfit imitation of the picture on the right.
Disturbing, no? But being Barbie is literally anatomically impossible. When the
measurements from a Barbie doll are compared to that of the average US woman
(who is five feet, four inches tall and 166 pounds), the results are shocking.
Barbie’s head would be larger than her waist, she would be 5 feet, 6 inches
tall and 110 pounds and she would not be able to lift anything (probably not
even her own hand). Not to mention that there would not be nearly enough room
to fit all of her organs. Why would anyone strive to look like that? The only
way that one would be able to possibly get near that image at all is through an
unhealthy approach (developing an eating disorder for example). In the
rightmost picture taped to the mirror, the woman featured happens to be someone
who went above and beyond to become a real-life Barbie, essentially. One can
only imagine what lengths that women went to, to achieve such a dramatic look.
In the song “Pretty Hurts” by Beyoncé, Knowles exposes the
media and society for what they are doing to girls. Ultimately rebutting what
Fey said in Bossypants, Knowles is
openly making a stance and exposing how the media and society are imposing an
unrealistic beauty standard onto young girls and women alike. In the first
verse she sings about how the mother figure pretty much tells the daughter that
smartness means nothing when you are pretty, just maintaining that image is all
that matters. By including this in her song, Knowles is bringing to light the
fact that this beauty standard is not just a one generation issue, but it
encompasses past, present, and even future generations. The second verse of the
song exposes how the media solidifies the standards that women are expected to
follow: “Blonder hair, flat chest/TV says, ‘bigger is better’/South Beach,
sugar free/Vogue says, ‘thinner is better’.” Everywhere you look there is a
billboard, or a magazine, or something that advertises the unrealistic beauty
standard. In a world that revolves around mass media, it is physically
impossible to escape the repetition; thus engraining the notion into our heads
that a woman must achieve a specific look to be seen as “physically attractive”
to potential partners. As Knowles says (and repeats) in her song, ‘perfection
is the disease of a nation.’ The song attacks the beauty standard, and it is
almost as if this is Knowles’ way of telling girls that you are perfect in your
own sense, that you do not have to adhere to the extreme ideals of a
male-dominated society. This message of the song is what led me to add the
overlay of crumpled paper onto the photo, symbolizing that we should discard
whatever we have in our heads as a “perfect body” and embrace ourselves as we
are.
Sources of information for essay:
1 comment:
One of the visual elements I found interesting about this photo is the hidden identity of the little girl, who is supposed to be the main subject . Her image which should be reflected in the mirror is covered over with images of the plastic barbie look-a-like woman she is trying to imitate. The fact that she has to stand on a stool to even be able to see herself further emphasizes how young this girl is and her dramatic attempt to want to look older and physically attractive. This further demonstrates the message that our culture sends to females from such a young age; that it is of upmost importance to look aesthetically pleasing.
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