As I look
at this definition, I begin to ponder and question what this whole world
deduces beauty to be. I mean if Google defines it, then it must be true,
right?
WRONG!
Nowhere in that definition does it mention beauty being an inner quality, rather, only gives examples such as "shape, color, or form." In other words, Google is saying that one's body shape, skin color, and weight is what makes a person beautiful.
Nowhere in that definition does it mention beauty being an inner quality, rather, only gives examples such as "shape, color, or form." In other words, Google is saying that one's body shape, skin color, and weight is what makes a person beautiful.
Are we as
a society going to continue to believe this fallacy? Will we resume to try and live up to what the typical "beauty standards" are?
These
conjectures of beauty produce many problems within the female population. Women
want to reach the bar of what is considered to be "beautiful."
Take
myself, for instance. I have never thought of myself to even be able to compete
with other girls at Troy High. Through my perspective, every other girl has
qualities that I can never even strive to have. They are all either taller than
me, better in shape, skinnier, have cuter outfits, or an infinite number of other reasons.
And I know for a fact
that I am not the only one with this mentality. In every other girl's mind,
something is always wrong with the way she looks. I have literally heard girls say,
"My thighs are
too big."
"My eyebrows are
weirdly shaped."
"My hands are
ugly."
Even Hagar from Song of Solomon
was having difficulty squeezing into a skirt smaller than her usual size. She
"sucked in her stomach and pulled the fabric as far as possible, but the
teeth of the zipper would not join" (Morrison 310). In her head, if she is
unable to fit into this desirable size, then she is "overweight," at
least, according to Google's definition of beauty.
I just want to slap
society across the face for shaping women into what it thinks they should look
like! They do not have the authority to control women mentality, yet women
continue to listen, as if it's their master.
I truly hope that one day, women will wake up and realize
that Google is wrong; beauty is not about the exterior, but it is represented
through one’s identity and personality. A beautiful girl is one who makes
others smile, not jealous.
I think google is defining what society sees as beauty, which is so messed up and probably the result of countless commercials, with "beautiful" girls, and shows and movies where the "ugly" girl gets a makeover and suddenly everything in life works out. It's like we've been brainwashed that beauty brings success, which unfortunately isn't even completely wrong today. I'm not saying models and actors aren't talented, but being a model depends on you having good looks, and unfortunately the same usually goes for actors unless the goofy or awkward character is being cast.I wish people would finally see whats really important too.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading Song of Solomon, I felt so stinking bad for Hagar because of how poorly she sees herself. I feel as though we all do this, and society seems to normalize hating yourself. I agree that it's messed up Izzy, and I hope that one day beauty will not be a list of requirements as well.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good post izzy, I have to agree with abby when she says that society normalizes that literally everyone has insecurities. Its good to know that people are finally realizing that insecurities are a problem but that doesn't change the fact that no ones doing anything about it either. Beauty is extremely subjective and its time more people knew that, even google.
ReplyDeleteYour voice in this piece was so apparent!! I could genuinely hear you saying this as I was reading it. I totally agree with you I think the way google defines beauty needs to revised. You related yourself really well to this piece, and I definitely felt my own experiences being tied into this as well. Great job!!!
ReplyDelete(In hindsight, re-reading this makes me sound sort of disparaging. I don't mean to sound mean, but I feel extremely frustrated with stuff like this. This is a great post, but I disagree with the content.)
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting Izzy! I would like to mention that the way Google defines beauty refers only to the colloquial definition. These fringe definitions that you mention are irrelevant to Google, because when someone says "she's beautiful," they don't mean "she has a great personality!" They mean that she is physically appealing. Definitions are one thing that should be off limits to social justice. How can we have an actual debate about society if words themselves cannot be defined? I understand that definitions are, to an extent, malleable. I take issue with the fact that these movements to redefine basic nomenclature are destroying the essence of language itself
Furthermore, you seem to imply that "social standards" for beauty are a bad thing. Beauty standards are good. The beauty standards that our society has also correlate with health standards. Skinny and toned bodies are the result of a good diet and good exercise and indicate a genetic advantage. It's no wonder that guys are more attracted to women who are thusly appealing. Wide hips are better for childbirth, and evolutionary psychology would dictate that men find that attractive. Evolution isn’t biased. The "Healthy At Any Size" movement is dangerous because any damage that beauty standards do is far outweighed by these social justice movements that essentially normalize diabetic behaviors. But I digress.
Beauty standards don’t exist to disparage those who don’t match up with them exactly. Men don’t analyze women to that point. Additionally, there’s no “golden standard” upon which to measure women. All in all, most of your worries are absolutely unnecessary- you’re a healthy teenager, and that’s all you really should be concerned about. I agree that a certain element of high school sort of pushes competition in beauty, but to go out and condemn beauty standards entirely is to damage the integrity of the fabric of society itself.
Finally, you write that you want to slap society for damaging women by setting up beauty standards. This blatantly ignores over half the population- men. I trust that you don’t honestly think that beauty standards are sequestered for women alone, but I think your post is indicative of the major trend of the world- problems only occur for women and minorities, and all white men are all privileged scumbags. This sort of thinking is a cornerstone of misandrism. Why must suffering be gendered? This sort of “pity-mentality” is one of the things that angers me the most. We all suffer. The world isn’t great, so why must one person/group always be a victim? Doing this actually degenerates the meaning of victim to the point where actual victims don’t receive the help they deserve.
All in all, I like the fact that you’re thinking, but I’d encourage you to rethink some of your points. Beauty standards are a good thing, and we don’t need to redefine beauty to increase self-confidence, because that would actually dilute the value of beauty.
While I do feel this post is heavily flawed, I don't think that simply because I do disagree with your core premise, which I feel Richard has challenged enough.
ReplyDeleteRather, I believe much of you rhetoric detracts from the persuasive power of your argument. To be frank, your blog is a rant. You've made a lot of hasty generalizations that shift the blame from what are essentially individualistic problems to the level of apparent problems embedded in society.
Your first idea is essentially that a software-aggregated definition is incorrect because the limited examples it gives go against what you perceive beauty should be. Your claim that "beauty [is] an inner quality" goes completely unsubstantiated. To me, it looks you're the one creating arbitrary standards for what YOU think beauty should be.
Next you make the aggressive claim that women in general want to achieve society's "bar." The only problem is you never even vaguely described what the bar or "typical beauty standard" is because they don't exist. No one's forcing you to conform to anything. You can choose to live your life whoever you want to. What you can't do, however, is mandate everyone to like everyone equally because you think society's standards are flawed.
Towards the end, you say you want to "slap society" for forcing women to look like what "it" wants, and claim "they" shouldn't have the authority to do so, yet women still listen to "it." I'll take the liberty to assume that by society, and the pronouns that follow it, you meant men (feel free to correct me if my assumption is incorrect). If so, this generalization is a pretty cruel stereotype. You've directly implied that the only thing men care about are physical appearances and are unfeeling blokes as a result.
You conclude by projecting and reiterating what your standards are. It looks like you're the one putting people into boxes for what makes them beautiful or not.
Hi Pratham. Respectfully, I disagree with how you’ve chosen to interpret Izzy’s post. To start off, I’d like to say that there’s probably no way this is going to be as beautifully written as yours and Richard’s comments, as I’m currently writing this with two thumbs in a car. Also, I recognise there’s probably no use in me writing this, as it is truly difficult to change one’s mind on a subject he/she feels strongly about. However, I feel the need to express my opinion, as your response has seemed to avoid and misinterpret the message of her blog.
DeleteFirst, I’d like to acknowledge the point that Richard has brought up. I completely agree that the male and female beauty standard is an equivalent struggle and should be regarded equally within society. Both standards are fostered by both genders, nobody is innocent or a sole victim when it comes to these standards. However, I think that Izzy chose to focus on female beauty standards as it is both most relevant to her as a person, and it also connected more to the quote she had pulled, regarding Hagar (a female). Nowhere does Izzy say or imply that “society” is her way of trashing men, and to interpret this as so is simply searching for a some way to play the victim. Both men and women are responsible in projecting standards amongst each other, and to further the idea of us vs them is never productive. Rather, I see it as she could connect more with the female point of view, because she is female. While she certainly could have done a better job portraying the male perspective (that is, if was if she was focusing on that equally important subject as well), nowhere does she discredit or disprove male beauty standards.
I do not understand what it is that makes the claim of “women wanting to achieve society’s bar” as so aggressive. The bar, (for this specific example: skinny women) is constantly portrayed in the media. Honestly, I’m having trouble seeing how you can claim it doesn’t exist, seeing as it's plastered everywhere within our society, but...moving on. While Richard is correct in saying that skinny women are normally healthy, which is truly what’s important, standards have made it so that it sometimes becomes unhealthy to try and achieve such a standard. No man nor woman should feel obligated to starve themselves in order to achieve these standards, although this is sometimes the case. I believe that Izzy is merely expressing her frustration at the unhealthy self hatred beauty standards may cause.
Nobody is forcing anyone to become the skinniest they can be, but it may feel as though they are actually forcing themselves. Which is..because of these beauty standards. Please consider yourself lucky that conforming feels like a choice to you, and that you do not feel the need to adhere to such standards. Again, I do not see her as trying to force anyone to perceive all women (again, as she focuses on in her post—men too) as equal in beauty, rather she just wishes that such standards would not cause this inner hatred that many of us possess, because we internally do not reach the bar.
Lastly, I do not believe that Izzy is trying to force anyone in a box, or create her own beauty standards. Unless you see “forcing and creating her own standards” as her stating that to make someone smile is beautiful, she seems to want others to consider their identity and personality as beautiful too. Really, you seem to be projecting anger at her opinion rather than offering a new viewpoint, as admittedly Richard has. By focusing on the fallacies of her rhetorical appeals, you seem to have missed her message that beauty standards should not provoke self hatred within anyone. I really encourage you to reread her post, and think about what she’s truly trying to say, instead of taking it as an illogical personal attack against your sex.
In addition to what Abby stated, I did indeed mean society as a whole, not men, when I said "it" toward the end of my blog. Sorry for the confusion on that. So, the purpose of what I was trying to proclaim wasn't to bash men on what they want from women, rather; I wanted to explain the stress women have to go through to fit societal standards, because unfortunately, beauty is a test that women feel they need to pass. The standards aren't any I made up; they are real. It is hard for a man to understand how a woman feels she needs to look, because as girls, we are constantly comparing ourselves to other females. It is difficult to look at ourselves and see complete perfection, so the bar we have set for ourselves will supposedly help us reach this so-called "perfection," which is unhealthy because it shouldn't have to exist in the first place. And how did this bar become built? The answer is again, societal standards. Sorry for the misunderstanding!
Delete