Appearance And Appearance In Society

Ever since their invention many centuries ago, clothes have been used as a way of communicating. The message communicated relies on a number of factors including the social background of both the communicator and the receiver, and the context in which the message is communicated. Although at times the exact message or symbolism one is trying to portray may not be clear, it is evident that clothing has long been embraced as one of the best ways to project one’s desired personal image to those around them.

In this day and age, society has built standards to how citizens should look, talk, wear, behave etc through social media, films, celebrities, friends and family. The youth has now taken place in this and now feel that if they did not meet society's standards, they aren’t beautiful or handsome. Some leaders and motivational speakers are good at telling others to love themselves and to accept how they look. Nevertheless there are still those who need to seek help and those who beat themselves up because of how they are. However is social conformity really the key to happiness? Social conformity is notoriously found in the book Uglies where turning 16 gives you the opportunity to undergo plastic surgery to change your appearance into a “pretty” look. Tally Youngblood is a rare example of a 16 year old girl who hasn’t undergo plastic surgery and was sent to the Smoke, a small town where those who don’t believe in plastic surgery or the society's ambitions go to live like the people of today. However Shay, a friends of Tally’s, is an example of an “ugly” who has a very strong opinion about the surgery, a very negative opinion about it.

The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

The Affects That the Appearance Has On Behavior In, the three stories that we have explored this semester, Passing, A Raisin in the Sun, and Mama Day all have the same theme of how identity is based off of the appearance of someone, and how that appearance reflects how they will behave. So the behavior of someone is based off the outward appearance of someone. This is shown by the fluidity of Clare and her ability to assimilate into different culture easily, in Passing, the various examples of the various the conflicts between Cocoa and George in, Mama Day, and the how the characters in Mama Day, present themselves.

The Judgement of Appearance VS Reality “ I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent” (Roth 442). This quotation display a certain substance people all need understand about the interior of themselves in life; people are more than one thing, one personality, and one judgement, individuals are all divergent. Divergent is a powerful word, which means that people are all different from what the world may want them to be or how they are portrayed as to the rest of the world. Divergent means, humans are not just one type of person, they are all different human beings who has many aspects that make them the person they are. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, judgement is evident when characters, Arthur Radley, Atticus Finch, and Dolphus Raymond are misjudged for the way their community sees them, which is being judged by one aspect rather than the person 's true character. Throughout the novel, Arthur Radley also know as Boo, is misjudged by the community for being a phantasm person regardless of his considerate personality; Atticus Finch is misjudged by his children for being an uninteresting man who only reads rather than hunt, drink, or smoke despite his modest personality. Finally, Dolphus Raymond is misjudged by the community for being a drunk who is married to a black woman and has mixed children regarding his selfless personality. Arthur Radley, Atticus Finch, and Dolphus Raymond are misjudged regardless of their true reality.

It is because of the urge to understand more about social norms and how they influence conduct that saw me take a trip to Palm Beach last Thursday afternoon. Few minutes past noon to be exact. The place is located few kilometers away from my private residence. It was both sunny and windy on this afternoon. I spent quite a bit of time observing the people there on the beach. Actually, I took about 25 minutes observing the people as they went about their business. I reluctantly moved around the beach as I took note of the different manners of behavior from different groups of people.

Every morning, I make the decision of whether or not to wear my headscarf to school, where I am the sole teenager, among four hundred others, to do so. This was undoubtedly frightening the first few weeks of freshman year, bringing on obstacles, but it soon became integrated into my everyday routine. I throw it on everyday the same as I do with the rest of my clothing, not thinking twice about it. With this being normal to me, I constantly forget that it catches other’s eyes. Jumping through hurdles, I learned how to use what others saw as a disadvantage to my own advantage, enabling me to completely change my view about myself.

I believe you make several valid points it’s not always just about looking good in the public eye, sometimes it’s just the right thing to do. I also believe that people take for granted the people involved with performing the volunteer duties and the personal benefits that they receive from doing a positive acts of kindness. This could also contribute to a company’s wellbeing policy that can greatly effect productivity and general happiness within an organization. In the end it’s a great gesture that effects all many people both within the organization and within the community that these organization conduct business.

Reality? What Reality? Meditation can be a double edged tool. It can reveal the nature of actual reality, but in doing so it also reveals many other states of consciousness that we experience as real but are not usually aware of their true nature, depending on our present level of awareness.

This experience made me start questioning the idea of normality. I realized that norms measure a person's happiness. If a person is normal, then he or she has found security and happiness. But, what about the rest of us? Just because I have not achieved, and in most cases unwilling to achieve, the norms of society, does this make me inferior to the norms?         Beside myself, many people have internally agonized over the idea of norms and how they serve society, especially dealing with appearances. Everyone comes to a point when they evaluate their lives against these standards. Often times, in a person's quest for normality, they have to conform and try to destroy their differences from what they perceive to be normal. Before they realize they are different, they are, in a sense, content with their lives. This idea can be found my many writings such as Elizabeth MacDonald's Odalique. "My hair is short can less feminine at this time, my face rounder, my body plumper.

Society is full of ideas pertaining to the definition of beauty and has been controversial for centuries. Beauty is visually pleasing and can satisfy the other senses as well, but it cannot be fully defined through only the senses. It blossoms from the soul; it is an epitome of serene emotion. Beauty is imperative to the mentality our society maintains as if the world would transform to be completely dark without it. The word “Beauty” originates from the Anglo-French term beute meaning “physical attractiveness” and “goodness and courtesy” (dictionary.com, n.p.) Beauty is charming, mesmerizing, graceful, and captivating. Brutality is invaluable because beauty brings peace to the mind.

Overall people perceived as beautiful have more job opportunities as well as a higher chance for advancement in their carriers. A study was conducted by the University of North Carolina at Pembroke on the topic of the relationship between attractiveness of professors and the perceived quality of their teaching. What the study found out was a strong relationship between the two – “results indicated that as hotness ratings increased, so did ratings on overall quality, clarity, and helpfulness. Additionally, further analysis indicated that the greater the percentage of hotness ratings to overall ratings, the more likely that students rated the professors favorably.” Moreover research shows that attractive people perform better when interviewed. An interesting fact is

Causes And Effects of External Appearances Tattoos, piercings and hairstyles are a few examples of ways our appearance can be judged. In our modern day society, we are taught or manipulated to believe that various appearances, we see are the way a person acts or does. Dr. Elizabeth Chabner Thompsons “Tattoos and Body Piercings:Self expression or Self mutilation”and Veronica Chambers “Dreadlocks: You see my hair, But do you see me? ”convey this idea.Both these articles thoroughly explain the premise of self-expression. Therefore, judgment of a person’s character shouldn’t be based off looks, but by the content or substance of their character.