Analysis Of The Last Time I Wore A Dress By Daphne Scholinski

In the Elizabethan Era, many women thought it was appropriate to change their body features to make themselves appear more attractive and look as though they were of a higher class. The mindset of these women was to change themselves and to make others drawn to their appearance. The distress that these women went through was not often

Child labor during the industrial revolution was wrong. It shouldn’t have been done to that extent. You may look at it as ‘they’re getting paid what’s the problem?’ Nevertheless, they are getting paid extremely small amounts. Children back in those times struggled to earn money for their family. It’s not fair children are put in these positions were they have to work so hard to help support for their family. They shouldn’t have to worry every night about when their next meal will be, or how they are going to come up with the money for their house so they don’t have to live on the streets. It would help they got paid a more reasonable price for their work. "She sews on 36 buttons to earn 4 cents." (The Story of My Cotton Dress, paragraph 18.) This quote just goes to show how

To be a human means to live life with free will, to be accepted, and achieve the set goals; as well as, going through problems and emotions along the way. Humans look at one another differently through the labels we give one another. Some labels are expressed by how we act, and others are how we look. Most of these labels are how we feel about ourselves. Several people feel they are not good enough; they will never be able to accomplish their set goals. Or they feel they don’t look the part. Dave Berry, an American author, wrote the expository, Beauty and the Beast, he explains how “women grow up thinking they have to look like Barbie…” (Barry, 316). This explains the labels women give to themselves to try and fit in. Everyone looks at the world in a different

People resort to many things when they want to escape from something oppressive. Many will resort to fantasies to free themselves from the harshness of reality. Living in a false sense of reality ensures that a person does not have to face her own problems. In the short story, “The Dress” by Marta Jara, Jara develops the idea that a person’s will to escape may be driven by her isolation and imprisonment. When an individual is isolated and lonely she could become desperate and dominated by the thought and need for attention. She may become willing to go extreme lengths to be noticed and to ultimately escape.

Since women started to become more valued in the workforce, they also wanted to reward themselves by expressing how they felt through style. The booming designer of the time, Christian Dior, really helped women find their identify through simple fabrics along with tasteful and simple designs. Dior took over the closets of all women from the 1940’s all the way through the mid 1950’s. The waist became the focal point of the human figure and the bustlines started to raise and take shape. The shoulders stayed soft with rich fabrics and colors and the length of the dresses and skirts became effortlessly long and full of life. The most iconic women of this time that really took a grasp of this era was Marilyn Monroe.

Proof #1: “… I consider myself in the mirror. My plain self, not the self-wearing lipstick and eyeliner in a flimsy dress. Sometimes I see a girl who is growing into womanhood. Other days I see a girl growing old before her time” (McCormick

Bernard Cooper is able to explore and incorporate many themes in his essays which help the reader question exactly who or what we are. In his essay Burl’s, Cooper narrates his story through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy whose life changed one night at the diner where he saw a group of “women” with Adam’s apple and beards (Cooper 46), realizing that male could be female disregarding the different gender expectations of society regarding their dresses and behavior. From this day on, the boy’s perspective on sexuality had a complete turn, followed by interest, curiosity, and claims that “any woman might be a man” (Cooper 47). Accordingly, the child is later confused and intrigued by the idea that he was not able to tell what form his body would take… “the body of a boy or the body of a girl” (Cooper 47). Such statements by the author help bring awareness of the different gender expectations towards how a boy or a girl should look like and act like, which lead to confusion and

The Funeral Dress, by Susan Gregg Gilmore, is a beautifully written novel about a young girl living in harsh conditions and how she thrives with her newborn child. Emmalee Bullard, the main character in the novel, lives with her father in a two bedroom house that lacks certain necessities like heat and running water. At 16 she gets a job sewing collars at a factory, which is where she meets the women that influence her life heavily and change her into the person she is today. Emmalee struggles a lot as a mother throughout the novel, but her character grows substantially from the beginning to the end of the story. In the novel, the protagonist, Emmalee Bullard, has grown in character by standing up to her town, standing up to the Fultons and

In the essay “Mirrors” and the poem “Phenomenal Woman”, both women learn to accept their self and not listen to society’s standards. While they start out differently and both endure different journeys, in the end, they achieve the same goal.

Mama Ru (RuPaul Charles’ Drag Queen persona) gave her perspective on an episode of Drag Race with this quote: “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?” the aspiration with this quote, it is to show the relevance that even with a different lifestyle, such as the “drag” life, self-love is respected in that controversial world. Over the centuries, men dressing as women has been going on since the dawn of the theatre, but what society do not know is the great Shakespeare, the beloved wordsmith of the English language, invented the term ‘drag’; to describe the event of cross-dressing. Even after women were allowed, dressing up as women was often used in entertainment for

When looking at a portrait the first questions the viewer should ask is who is in the portrait, who is left out, and what this depiction makes the viewer believe about the person in the portrait. What female artists try to illustrate in their works is how a woman’s body is presented in reality rather than how it is imagined to look in society. Their goals are to break away from the gentle pictures that encompasses how a woman should look and act. They instead illustrate the beauty and ugliness of their environments, histories, and subjects and then place that onto the canvas. In the video interview of Mickalene Thomas she details how her artwork shows the ugliness in the history of beauty and uses these societal notions of beauty to show her own view of it. In these forms of artwork the viewer can see incredible differences in art both past and present.

Since I am guilty of “fixing” myself to be a likeable person as well, I can’t say that it does not apply to me. Yet it’s not always our fault to want to do these types of things, since we live in a society that is engrossed in materialistic values we find ourselves craving the next advanced technology or new clothing. Then without realizing it we start to judge others because they don’t have or wear what we own. Ellen had also touched on this subject in her novel as she discussed about people needing to be more comfortable for their own sake, with their own personality. She had also quoted, “To me, beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are. I’m happy being who I am.” Reading those sentences made me think about how I was going to have to trust in myself, be more confident, and not shy away from my talents. Since I will being going to college one in the upcoming months I thought that this quote by Ellen would be a great motivator when meeting new people in various environments. Unlike being sheltered by my family and friends I would need to remember not to forget about who I am as a person in the future when I’ll be journeying of on my

Although Potter’s work is at times autobiographical, her aim is to present common female perspectives related to the internal psyche. Potter draws on her own life experiences as well as the experiences of women friends to build identifiable narratives in the work. There are several groups of figures in Potter’s production, each with distinctive formal qualities and each using different materials or modeling methods. Although each group of figures has a different focus, all address the social and personal pressures experienced by women. The group of multi-coloured underglazed porcelain figures display more individual characteristics through details such as facial expressions, apparel or other trappings. Using humour and gentle satire, Potter sets up a vignette in each of these pieces. The women are seen performing rigorously to maintain the appearance of youthful beauty and the perception of “doing it all” with ease. Another set of figures includes attire embossed with nature motifs such as leaves and flowers - suggesting the natural cycle of growth, change and mortality inherent to all life. A group of figures without heads or facial identity places attention directly on the body speaking to the pervasiveness of body image angst in our culture. These forms exhibit physical cracks signifying aged skin, but also are indicative of stress fractures in the veneers employed to hide age. Ever present in

“I am not cruel, only truthful” the mirror thinks to itself. Even though the mirror cannot speak it appears it’s saying that it wouldn’t lie to the one who is looking at it. It will show all that it sees and be honest. The mirror mentions that it has “no preconceptions” and whatever it sees, it sees “unmisted by love or dislike”. This shows us that the mirror has no judgment each time that someone goes up to it. With society throughout time, a woman’s appearance always tended to be important.

Women have had their worth decided by their beauty since the world began. The beauty industry has made millions off telling women that they need this product to matter, literature has been painting women as plot devices or prizes for year, and television tends to only show thin and beautiful women. Even now, women call themselves “snacks” and “delicious” as if we only exist to be consumed. We are constantly taught to laugh at jokes we don’t find funny, to tear down other women, that our bodies are not our own, and that our value is determined by what size dress we wear. Women are brought up in a society that teaches them that being pretty is the price they must pay to occupy space in the world. Warsan Shire, a British-Somali poet said “It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful. I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me” (Shire). However, some female authors have chosen to revolutionize female narratives. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos and Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton were a direct challenge to the idea that a woman’s identity were wrapped up in her beauty.