Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses. Young woman are made to believe that beauty comes from the endless hours spent on doing makeup, hair, and picking out the best clothing that makes them beautiful, but from the above definition beauty is not just how you look. Beauty comes from the inside much more than the outside. The first thing you will notice is the young woman is blurry, she is blurred from seeing how beautiful she really is without the makeup. She spends countless hours masking the naturalness of who she really is. The Photo shows how black and white woman see themselves and the only color is when they add layers of makeup. The only clear object she sees is the way her makeup should be done. Not only is her unrealistic makeup standards photo on her phone clear, but her makeup bag has what media believes is the ideal beautiful and sexy woman. Lastly, women believe showing their body off, especially cleavage, makes them even more sexually attractive, which is beauty in women's blurred eyes.
3 comments:
From: Jessica
You state that the first thing the viewer will notice when looking at the photo is that the woman pictured is blurry. I disagree. The first thing I notice is that she looks sad. While very concentrated on what she is doing, she looks immensely sad. The lighting (black and white) helps further this feeling. My eyes are immediately drawn down to her phone next, where a picture of an expertly done “Smokey-eye” reflects back at us. This only deepens the sadness that this picture emits. Beauty, in its own right, should be done for enjoyment, not because of societal pressure. In this photo, the girl’s expression is one of uncertainty. We can assume her confidence is not high as she looks forlorn and tired in the photo. A look at the background of the photo shows that she is in what I can assume is the school bathroom. The fact that she is in the school bathroom shows us, the audience, where her priorities are- she’d rather make sure that she looks nice than be in class or on her way to class. This type of prioritization represents the effect to which the beauty culture influences young girl’s lives and goals. The goal of being seen as pretty is shown to be much more important than her goal of getting a proper education. This largely effects which career path women go down and has a large, but often not discussed, effect on how boys and men view women in the sense of careers and commitment.
From: Carolyn
What I gathered from this photo seems to be that a young girl is trying to fit in with other girls her age. In this photo the young girl seems to be doing her makeup in a school/public restroom. Some of the elements in the picture show that her clothing is dark and seems like a “punk” look; like something rock and roll stars would wear. Also, her choice of eye makeup is very dark and bold like she is trying to make a statement. Why is she doing her makeup in a public restroom? Her parents may not approve of her wearing makeup, or she may not be allowed to keep it in the house. She is even trying to copy the makeup shown on a picture, so she may feel that if she does her make up like that she will feel confident; and may even be noticed. The photograph is in black and white, so maybe the young girl sees herself as “black and white”, or even “dull” because when I think of those colors I picture a gloomy day that typically brings my mood down.
Being a teenager in high school is tough. I feel like young girls are very hard on themselves because they have this perfect image of what they should look like and it is constantly in their minds. If they don’t meet the requirements of how they view themselves they may not only mask themselves with makeup, but it could cause them to use drastic measures that are dangerous; like eating disorders, depression, and suicidal thoughts or tendencies. It also doesn’t help that the media is encouraging this perfect image of what a woman should look like, and that if you don’t look that way then you can’t accomplish things; like being a model because you aren’t a size 0-2. You are your worst critic and you should embrace the great qualities that you do have. Use empowerment and independence as your bold statement.
From: Thara
In your photo “Beauty Is a Beast” I noticed a lot of different things first, being the photo is black and white. Before reading your essay on the photo and your creative elements I wanted to try and figure out what you were going for myself. I saw a black and white photo, I thought that was very interesting considering when you’re putting makeup on your adding color. I liked the idea of having the phone there as a guide of what you should look like. The model is standing to the mirror where only the image in the mirror is clear. You mention how the makeup bag is clear which is a nice touch. Clear could represent clumsiness, and vulnerability with it being translucent. It’s ironic that is bag is filled with makeup that covers and hides considering the bag is open.
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