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First Impressions, Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover Essay

Decent Essays

The New Yorker, with 47 publications each year, often generates some debate. In July 2007, the literary magazine released its latest issue. The cover included the title, price, edition, and three differently dressed women sitting on a bench. The first woman’s face and body are covered, except for her eyes. The second, with long blonde hair, is wearing a halter top, short shorts, sunglasses, and flip flops. The third is wearing a tunic and veil. Our first impressions are often stereotypical, and we must look deeper than the cover. Immediately, different conclusions are drawn based on each woman’s appearance. Just from this magazine cover, we can assume different things about each individual: including her religion, self image, and …show more content…

Wearing the niqab also makes me think that she is proud to respect her religion. Along with the Muslim faith, the habit for the Catholic nun is not necessary, and yet she still wears it. Another reason I believe that she is respectful to her religion is because when a nun makes her vows to the church, she is vowing to poverty, and not many women are willing to do that. Unlike the women sitting on both sides of her, I feel like the woman in the middle does not have a very high self esteem. Along with the scarce amount of clothing she is wearing, her hair, arms, chest, stomach, and legs are showing. She also has a ring in her belly button and earrings in her ears. Media often describes the “perfect girl” as being skinny and bearing a lot of skin. I believe that she dresses this way because she feels that her body is not up to the social standards being described by the media. You could also say that she dresses this way to make up for her low self esteem, and that she believes her skin will get her love and attention.
We may also make judgements regarding the family life of each of the three women based on how they are dressed. The Muslim woman would have an arranged marriage, only marrying a Muslim man. She may not have more than one husband, but polygamy is permitted in some Muslim countries. Once married, the Muslim couple would likely have as many children as possible. Divorces are rare for women who are Muslim, mainly because they face

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