Does Beauty Take Away From Intelligence

Hello World,

       Throughout history, women have constantly faced a challenge: to choose if they want to be either beautiful or intelligent. This dilemma seems so unfair and untrue yet consistently troubles and affects the lives of the majority of women. In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf tells us that even in ancient Greek mythology and Victorian novels, the two main female characters are categorised: "one being the winner and one loser in the beauty myth" (60). She says that the heroine has always been either beautiful or intelligent/brave. Not only can she only embody one of these characteristics but she must also take place in a constant "battle between the overvalued beauty and the undervalued, unglamorous but animated heroine" (60). The author purposefully introduces a serious division between these traits because, unfortunately, is what attracts male audiences; this inevitably enforces women to believe that they can only ever be either pretty or smart.
       In the working world, which I have previously written about, women face the daily challenge of how to walk the blurry line of appropriate dress. They are subject to radical judgement solely due to a piece of fabric on their bodies that we call clothes. If a woman dresses formally and fashionably, she is accused of not taking her profession seriously and focusing on her appearance rather than her work. However, if a woman doesn't put care into her outfit daily she gets accused of not caring about the work environment she belongs to and is also called ugly and unfashionable. Wolf also discusses this and says that regarding professional jobs "[women] can be dismissed as either too pretty or too ugly"(69).
       However, the most important aspect of this discussion is its cause: men. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft discusses men's thoughts about women's beauty and intellect. She says that women "displaying intellectual beauty may be overlooked or observed with indifference" (50). She says that in men's opinion, maybe not so much in our present day, women's beauty is far more important in the fields of comparison. Men, generally, are jealous and egotistical beings who constantly compare their 'prizes'. Wollstonecraft indeed says that men "find their happiness in the gratification [of other men]" (50).
       In addition, society's training has shaped men's thoughts. Wolf says that due to a man's pop culture education, "Men are visually aroused by women's bodies and less sensitive to their arousal by women's personalities"(152). However, for a man to enjoy beauty and be sexually attracted to a female isn't wrong at all. Wolf discusses that the issue is that as a result of the constant pursuit of beauty, men can no longer be drawn to intellectual, friendship (or any other quality except beauty).

"What becomes of the man who acquires a beautiful woman, with her "beauty" his sole target? He sabotages himself. He has gained no friend, no ally, no mutual trust: she knows quite well why she has been chosen. He has succeeded in buying a mutually suspicious set of insecurities. He does gain something: the esteem of other men who find such an acquisition impressive." (174-175)

       Wolf tells us how the choice that women face between pursuing beauty or other qualities has triggered views that prevent women from wanting to embody beauty-less qualities because men actively chase beauty over anything else.
       As Naomi Wolf said, "The beauty myth posited to women a false choice: Which will I be, sexual or serious?" (273). In my opinion, it is absolutely false that a woman must choose between beauty and intellect. A modern day female must ignore this ridiculous decision and realise that a combination of these qualities is not only possible, but beautiful. One must also note that it isn't necessary to find a balance between beauty and intellect, for there should no limits to your care for appearance or your intellectual capability, and that you should strive to your full potential.  So, in all, of course intellect doesn't take away from your beauty, and vice-versa. In fact, it compliments it.

Goodnight, World.

Triple 'W' | Working World of Women

Hello, World.

       An important part of feminism, and the equality they fight for, is the right to not only be able to work, which was hardly prominent before the Industrial Revolution, but to be able to be comfortable in a work environment and given the same professional experience as men.
       Often, women are challenged with not being viewed as capable beings of professional work and are often treated this way; this sometimes results in harassment, mistreatment, and lower payment. In Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she discusses this professional capability of women: "A fine woman, who inspires more usblime emotions by displaying intellectual beauty, may be overlooked or observed with indifference"(50). She says that not only is a woman's beauty more important than her intellectual curiosity and capability, women are usually overlooked, even if their "intellectual beauty" is valid and/or greater than a correspondent male's. This also reminds me of Hannah Rosin's article The End of Men, where she says despite the inequality that women face in the working world, they usually preform a better job then men do.
       In addition, jobs which are reserved solely for women still remain extremely critical and usually only hire women for a period of a few years. In The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf, Wolf gives us an example of a "waitress, fired because she had lost her Bunny Image" (32). The waitress, in normal english, was fired because she wasn't beautiful enough anymore. Wolf later tells us on what characteristics the waitresses are judge on: "A flawless beauty", "An exceptional beautiful girl", "Marginal [...] aging", and "Has lost Bunny Image [...] aging or an uncorrectable appearance problem" (32). I understand that being a Playboy waitress involves a certain degree of beauty, but am I the only who thinks that being sent to the street because of your appearance, especially once you've (usually) given up talent to become a type of model, is completely ludicrous? The pressure put on women in the working world is astonishing.
       Finally, women are often subject to discrimination and victims of harassment in the work environment. Wolf talks about the pressure women undergo even just choosing a suitable outfit for work, where formality becomes a catwalk (42-44). However, something extremely surprising and interesting is the fact that victims of harassment, I would expect, should be strong about defending their dignity and fighting for their betrayed position. Instead, women, who usually have already admitted to themselves that working men are 'greater' than they are, respond in court trials (not just to their friends), but legal court trials, that they may have "possibly provoked the comments by dressing inappropriately" (43). The men's lawyers also often convince the women to feel this way and in the end, the court that is meant to bring 'justice', enforces inequality and corruption.
       In all, the working world for women is yet another example of the inequality that women face in daily life. They fight so hard to even earn the right to work, and their reward for this tremendous effort is discrimination and harassment. Of course, not every working women undergoes mistreatment, yet professional jobs, to say the least, have  room for improvement.

Goodbye, World.

Cigarette | Killing Us Internally

Hello, World.

       In 1979, Jean Kilbourne released her first of a series of documentaries attacking media, the industry, and its affect on women's lives. Since then, she has produced an additional three documentaries, about once a decade, noticing change, improvement and worsening of the significant impact that the media plays on women's health and life. She titled them all variations of the phrase: Killing Us Softly, which I thought was interesting. In my opinion, there is no clear or obvious meaning; the title doesn't shout out a message (in fact, quite the opposite). How can a title containing the word 'softly' shout out a meaning? 

       Now you are most likely thinking, OK, I get it, why do you care so much about the title? Well, in understanding Kilbourne's title, it is possible to conceive a summary and overall conclusion of all of her points (including sex appeal, domination, food, etc.) in a one-sentence goal: 

The modern day media's consistently produces films and images of women to enforce and impose certain societal views towards them, ultimately affecting how men treat women and how women treat themselves; whenever a message is conveyed, it is achieved through our subconscious. 

The fact that this is achieved through our subconscious, is extremely important, and accounts for the "Softly", within the title. An advertisement company's chief was actually quoted in this documentary saying that only about 6-10% of an advertisements message is received through the eye and that roughly 90% of all information is directly received by our subconscious. This is extremely powerful and dangerous, because, since most of the information processed by our brains heads straight to our subconscious, even the most disturbing, harmful and scarily effective messages are believed and accepted within our mind without us even realising it. Kilbourne said that a lot of people have told her that "Advertisements don't affect me, I just censor them out". Clearly, you can't. Most of us are vulnerable to a cornucopia of information that we have not even realised we processed.
       Since the media and the industry, especially more recently have been negatively affecting women's lives, as discussed in the documentary. Therefore, the societal views of women, as portrayed by the media, is killing us...softly.
       However, in my opinion, I think it is noteworthy to expose the exponential growth of the media's influence on society. Only starting in the 50s, pop culture has been increasingly influential, and with the introduction of the Internet in 90s along with the widespread availability of TVs, media has severely and increasingly impacted our lives. The media is a corrupt, invading motor of the cause of many problems in female culture such as: attitudes, inequality, domestic violence, eating disorders, and extensive cosmetic surgery. I think that this overwhelming and frightening growth and impact can no longer be described as 'soft', but rather as internally.
       We as humans, especially women, have become victims of the society we created. Therefore, our new definition is as follows:

The modern day media's consistently produces films and images of women to enforce and impose certain societal views towards them, ultimately affecting how men treat women and how women treat themselves; the industry's impact is constantly growing and increasingly powerful not only making us more vulnerable to subconsciously delivered information, but similar to the cigarette, is killing us internally.

Goodbye, World.

Confidence is Beautiful

Hello, World.

       I would like to discuss one of the most important aspects of both female daily life and feminism: beauty. I also feel like this would be a good preliminary writing to a book I'm about to read entirely dedicated to beauty, especially its role and consequences in female life, called The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf. For centuries, the importance of beauty amongst women has been prevalent: being fat in the 17-18th centuries (because it showed you were wealthy), being pale in the Victorian times (symbolic for pure), and even in our modern day, where girls constantly invest in fashion, cosmetics, even surgery to constantly attempt to reach that level of ideal beauty.
       Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, although not directed and focused on beauty discussion, the physical appearance of women is often touched on and mentioned. Her main argument, presented to us in the very first few pages of the book, is that "women [are] intoxicated by the adoration [of men]" (3). Women, triggered by an inequality between the two sexes, have constantly tried to win the approval of men, since they are the 'greater sex', and therefore widen the gap by admitting and enforcing that women are only great if the men say so. In fact, she later says that men "find their happiness in the gratification of their appetites" (50). She says that in addition to women constantly fighting for male approval, men have  become complacent with women's efforts and have evolved into beings who believe the only way to be happy is if their woman have tried hard enough to earn their counterpart's appreciation.
       In addition, Wollstonecraft makes the point that if an ideal woman is pretty, if her surface, her perception is aesthetic, then she merely becomes something to look at: an object in theory. She says that men "render [women] alluring objects for a moment", that is when they are scrutinising and analysing a female's beauty (3). This is important, and rather sad in my opinion, because due to maple supremacy, and then due to a need for male approval, women increasingly aspire to an ideal judged by men. Now, since men powerfully associate this ideal with beauty, a superficial view of the physical aspect of somebody, women therefore aspire and surprisingly yet actively pursuit this surface view. Not only do men create a social chasm between the sexes and encourage women to become a superficial ideal, women embrace this and encourage this pursuit instead of fighting.
       Using Wollstonecraft's argument to support my opinion, I believe that beauty should be an ideal created by yourself, that should only compliment rather than invade your life, in order to increase confidence and show effort and care to the people you love.

Goodbye, World.

The Ugly Face of Prejudice

Hello, World.

       Earlier today, I saw an episode of a show called The Ugly Face of Prejudice, on the 4 O.D. Channel on Youtube. This show groups a pair of people, one who is completely engulfed in making sure they are as beautiful as they possible could be whilst the other has a physical deficiency, usually in the face, which resulted from either birth or an accident. The aim of the show is to take two complete polar opposites and 'force' them together to encourage them to step in the shoes and walk two moons in the other person's shows. This allows us as viewers to deeply understand lives in two complete different worlds and help us realise how a mere physical appearance can change your life. Inevitably, Beauty becomes the central topic of this show, whilst touching upon and discussing many of its subtopics such as surgery, media, and even street walking.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/beauty-the-beast-ugly-face-of-prejudice

       In the first episode I saw, the pair consists of a man named Leo (shown left on the picture) who as a child was caught up in a fire at age 14 when his school burned down. The fire had scorched his face and hands, turning skin to charcoal and massive scars and disfigurement on his body. The woman named Yasmin (shown right on the picture) is a normal human being who has constant self-confidence issues and finds it near impossible not to wear cakes of make-up in order to cover her 'oh so apparent ugliness'.

       As they have dinner their first night together, they start discussing their beauty problems and the woman, carried away by her ego problems jumps into the topic of surgery head first, quickly ranting about breast reductions, face lifts, liposuction, etc. The man, already taken aback, seems confused and asks her, why would you get surgery. He says its artificial, it hurts, its dangerous - the usual arguments against surgery. However, soon after, he said something that took me aback. He said, that for people with disfigurement, surgery is viewed as 'the cheap way out'. He said that as a child he had already received many surgeries and the last thing he wanted was to get another artificial alteration to correct his face. I found this interesting as I only ever viewed cosmetic surgery for beauty queens, barbies, and models and of course for injury. However, never did it occur to me that someone who had undergone practical surgery would despise it so much. It was a very interesting argument, and in my opinion, I think they are absolutely right that one must embrace any fault they have in order to be happy.

       Half way through the show, another man named Adam Pearson appears on the show, because he himself has a facial disfigurement. He discusses how people with disfigurement never appear on the media because they are not the ideal beauty that people look out for. He, along with a one-armed friend of his, posed for the famous advertisements of David Beckham in Armani's underwear ad and Eva Herzigová in Wonder Bra's ad, respectively. He then printed billboard sized ads of these images and posted them up just like normal ads and the response from the general public was incredible. The professionals within the modelling world all said (quite harshly as well) that this was not good advertisement as people would never aspire to look like that. However, the public all said that was extremely inspiring showing that anybody can do anything no matter what they look like.

      

     

http://www.channel4.com/assets/programmes/images/beauty-the-beast-ugly-face-of-prejudice/

series-1/episode-1/model-behaviour/96220c32-7fc1-495b-bebe-4ef3b9af6a70_200x113.jpg 

http://cdn-ugc.cafemom.com/gen/constrain/500/500/80/2010/10/20/16/dx/3w/pohj3q61w0wmqb.jpg

        Finally, Yasmin and Leo had a night out together on their last day together. They merely went out to a restaurant and bar and they each had a chance to showcase the public's reactions to how they look like. In general, they look at Leo like "why the hell are you with a girl like her?" and made extremely rude and obvious comments about Yasmin's breasts. This was shocking to me that people could summon up the 'courage' and complete ignorance to say remarks like this. However, to the pair, this was natural.

       That was a huge wake-up call for me and I feel like I've learned a lot about living with a physical deficiency or being obsessed with how beautiful you look.

Goodbye, World.