In our western society, women are constantly bombarded with very unrealistic beauty standards. My photo entitled “Image May Not Appear If Not Beautiful Enough”, encapsulates the feelings most girls have in relation to their outward appearance.
In my picture there is a gold framed mirror with “Image may not appear if not beautiful enough” written on it in lipstick. It is written in lipstick to represent the value of cosmetics, to fix a women’s appearance. There is only a camera in the frame. The idea behind this is that women do not value themselves, if they are not deemed what society creates as “beautiful”. Therefore, the image did not appear. The gold frame represents the importance of vanity to most women, and how it can fully enclose one’s mind on their own self perceptions.
On the contrary, when women fit the societal standard of beauty, they are valued higher. Nineteen-year old Sara from Lauren Greenfield’s Girl Culture says "Life is definitely easier—while your beauty lasts. People, especially of the opposite sex, treat you better. But if you’re a beautiful girl, there’s a tendency for people to assume you’re not intelligent" (Greenfield 11). When women do identify with the hyper-realistic beauty standard, then they lose another part of themselves: their intelligence.
This idea that beauty correlates with other aspects of your internal self is a false idea that is set up by the standards of a patriarchal world. In that idea, women must remain the subordinate group. Therefore, women are made to compete with each other, rather than with all people. Women must compete to be “beautiful” rather than compete as full intelligent beings. This perpetuates the idea that women must be drawn to vanity, and men must be drawn to intellectual work.
Why can’t a woman be both, or neither? Why can’t she be accepted by any standard? The answer to those questions lies within the separate sphere ideology that was mentioned previously. Though we’ve made progress as a society, females are still made to be the weaker sex. It is detrimental to a women’s self esteem
The purpose of this picture was to show how a women’s inner self are not as considered, as their outer self. It is usually how a woman looks, which gives her power in our world. By the image not appearing, it shows that you typically do not “exist” nor matter in a society without them having that specific beauty.
1 comment:
Your picture, and explanation captured America’s beauty standards perfectly. People almost assume nothing else matters besides their looks anymore. I myself am very guilty of this. The pressure that society puts of the glitz and glam of beauty makes us doubt everything else about ourselves, and over all brainwashes us into thinking looks are the only thing that matters.
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