When you see a young woman, do you make a judgement about whether or not she is ‘beautiful’? How does this happen? Does it just au...
When you
see a young woman, do you make a judgement about whether or not she is
‘beautiful’?
How does
this happen? Does it just automatically occur to you that, “She is so
beautiful”? Or “She is
very ugly?”
Is your perception of beauty based on some authority? Or is it some kind of
emotional
decision?
Do you first think about the reasons - the ways in which the person may be
beautiful, the
arguments
for and against - and then make a reasoned judgement? Even if you do not
consciously
think about
the reasons, there must be some reasons why you think someone is beautiful or
ugly.
You must
have found that sometimes you disagree with your friends about who is more
beautiful and
who is less
beautiful. Different people have different opinions about beauty. Different
communities
may have
different ideas about who is beautiful. Our opinions about who is beautiful may
also
change over
time.
Why do we form opinions about beauty?
Why do we
care about the beauty of a woman? One obvious reason is that a woman’s beauty
is a
factor in
deciding who will be her mate. A woman tries to make herself appear to be
beautiful so that
she will be
appealing to men - a desirable bride.
Besides
marriage, there are other kinds of opportunities available to women who are
considered to
be ‘good
looking’. Perhaps they will be more popular at school. Could they even be more
apt to get
good marks,
and to get good jobs?
You might
think that beautiful women are desirable just because they are nice to look at.
It makes us
happy to
see beauty.
How do we
form our opinions about beauty?
Who decides
what is beautiful? Does each one of us have our own idea of what is beautiful,
independently
of our family, community, or society? No one actually lives separately, so of
course we
are all
influenced by what others think is beautiful. For example, if we grow up in a
society in which
the richest, most powerful people tend to
have lighter skin colour, it is not surprising that we will
think of
light skin colour as
beautiful.
In fact, this opinion will
also be
useful as a means of
keeping the
powerful lightskinned
people in
power. It is one
aspect of
racism.
However,
those of us who do not
have light
skin and are not
powerful
may object. In today’s
world we
realise that such ways of
defining
opportunities are
oppressive
and unfair. We do not
think it is
right to condemn people
just
because of the colour of their
skin. A
person’s rights and
opportunities
should not depend
on the colour of their skin.
People have an
infinite variety of skin colours. Skin colour is a characteristic
that we are born
with. But it also depends on our interaction with the
environment - we
may get darker if we spend more time in the sun. People
darker skin than if
they worked inside. Many kinds of outdoor work are
lower paid and of
lower status compared to many kinds of indoor work. This
is another reason
why we may consider darker skin to be inferior.
Ideas about
inferiority based on looks are reinforced by the things we see in
films, television,
and other media. If a girl grows up in a society surrounded
by images of
beautiful women with light skin, it is unlikely that she will think that dark
skin is
beautiful.
We may try
to change our bodies and dress ourselves in ways that will make us beautiful.
Sometimes
we even go
to such great extents to make ourselves beautiful, that it may cause us pain or
discomfort.
For example, it is not uncommon for women to buy ‘beautiful’, but uncomfortable
shoes.
Our
opinions about which shoes are beautiful are greatly influenced by what we see
in films, TV, and
advertisements.
Companies make shoes in order to make money, and the styles depend on how they
think they
will be able to make the most money. Therefore, the shoe companies do not
really care
about how
long the shoes will last or how comfortable they will be. Some shoes actually
cause
ailments
and permanent damage to our bodies. This is because making a profit is of
course the main
concern of
the shoe makers. They try to define “beauty” in a way that will increase their
profit.
Beauty
becomes another commodity to be bought and sold.
Companies
have perfected the art of defining fashion and feminine beauty to their
advantage. Thus,
we have
beauty pageants, fashion shows, abusive and lewd advertisements displaying
women’s
bodies, and pornography.
A rich
man is likely to buy a car if it is pictured with a scantily dressed woman
draped over it.
The
woman has been reduced to a commodity - an object used to sell a car. Today the
use of
women’s
bodies for commercial purposes is so commonplace that it seems normal and
usually
passes without protest or even recognition.
Let’s
examine the beauty pageant. What is the purpose of a beauty pageant? Is it like
some form of
sport - a
game for our entertainment? Is its purpose to find the most beautiful woman in
the world -
so that
everyone can then enjoy her beauty? Is it to give a few women a chance at
attaining some
measure of fame and wealth?
If it is a
sport, it certainly shares one characteristic with other sports like
cricket and
tennis: commercialisation. In fact, pageants actually are
advertisements
- media events conceived and paid for by corporations so
that they
can sell their wares and make ever larger profits.
Just as the
purpose of a fashion show is to sell clothing, a beauty pageant’s
purpose is
to sell beauty. Not just lipstick, clothing, perfume, soap, shoes,
hair colour
- but the concept of beauty itself.
Actually,
there is no absolute beauty. Our concepts of beauty are
determined
by our society, culture, and traditions, as well as by our
( Beauty pageants and fashion
shows are
advertisements to sell the idea and the ideal of beauty,
fashion,
and 'woman.)
personal
experience. Different communities may have different definitions
of beauty.
If there is more global agreement today about what is and is not
beautiful,
it is only because the global environment is becoming more
uniform,
and regional cultures are disappearing. This is due to the effects
of mass
media such as TV. Whereas formerly people belonging to a certain
tribe may
have found a woman to be beautiful if she had wide hips and a
flat nose,
today the same people may prefer a woman who is wearing
lipstick, a
western dress, and suffers from anorexia. Why? Because it is this
kind of
woman that is seen on TV, irresistibly flashing signs of wealth and
glamour.
By
definition, the majority of women will never succeed at being beautiful.
Beauty can
only exist if ugliness also exists. If every woman was equally
beautiful,
there would be no beauty. But women are indoctrinated with
that ideal
and with the desire to attain the unattainable beauty, however
impossible.
Companies benefit, by selling the lipstick, fingernail polish,
shampoo, perfume, frilly underwear, and
clothing.
Far from
promoting a greater awareness of physical well-being, the emphasis on a certain
ideal of
feminine
beauty has caused a great amount of physical as well as mental suffering -
especially among
people who
have enough money to keep consuming more than what they need. The practically
inevitable
failure to maintain the ‘correct’ body shape and weight prompts an unending
series of
‘diets’,
and exercises. However, these efforts usually fail because they are accompanied
by
tremendous
temptations to consume ever greater amounts of unhealthy food and drink. In the
USA,
dieting and
exercising have become huge industries. Nowhere on earth are people so
preoccupied
with the
desire not to be fat - and yet it remains the country with the greatest number
of fat,
physically
unfit people. Added to this are diseases ranging from allergies and asthma to
cancer that
are caused
by various kinds of make-up, skin and
hair
products, and practices like sunbathing to
attain the correct colour of skin.
Perhaps of even
greater importance, there is the
mental anguish,
alienation, and feeling of
inadequacy, guilt
and shame that results when a
woman feels she
does not live up to the standards
of beauty. Almost
every woman is made to feel
physically
inadequate in one aspect or another - if
it’s not a nose of
the wrong shape, it’s lips that are
too fat or too
thin. Maybe the hair is too curly or
too straight, the
legs are too hairy, the muscles too
prominent, or the
arms too thin. And of course,
after a certain age
every woman will automatically
loose whatever
beautiful looks she may have once
had, since the
image of feminine beauty is confined
exclusively
to young women.
However, this self
perception of
inadequacy may be
of some use to
society - it helps
to maintain the statusquo.
If a woman feels
inadequate she will
be less apt to
rebel or demanding a
better position in
life. A woman who feels
ugly and worthless
will be more apt to
continue washing
the utensils in silence,
feeling she does
not deserve to earn as
much or work as
little or be as free as her
husband, or as those
beautiful, pale
upper-class wives.
We are not saying
that the idea of beauty
should not exist in
society. Of course
people will always
make judgements
about a woman’s
beauty. But we should
be aware why we are
making the
judgements. And we
should protest
against the
monolithic definition of
beauty for
commercial purposes. We
should protest
against the exploitation of
the female body for
commercial benefits
because it hurts
the minds and bodies of
so many women.
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