Poem Analysis: One Girl At The Boys Party

The Beauty Myth’s central argument is the growing standards of physical beauty of women as they grow stronger. This standard has affected women in many ways, such as in the workplace, culture, and religion. The standard has taken over the work of social harassment. The beauty myth expands the belief an unbiased measurement of beauty exists and that women want to express it and men would want that women. The author, Naomi Wolf, states that the beauty myth is not about women themselves, it is about the power of men and their society. The myth supplies power to multibillion dollar cosmetics industries and it keeps women from rising too high in the workplace. Within this book, Wolf shows how the beauty myth functions and affects women in the workplace, media, sex, religion, culture, violence against women by men, and by women themselves in the configuration of cosmetic surgery and eating disorders.

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

The argument of The Beauty Myth is that as women have received more eminence, the standard of their personal appearance has also grown. Wolf’s position on the issue is that this type of social control is potentially just as restrictive as the traditional roles of women. The Beauty Myth discusses how society’s viewpoint of beauty is detrimental to women because it causes many emotional and psychological problems to women who strive to become “perfect”. This book is important due to the fact it raises awareness to the issues that many young women are currently facing.

In this poem the mother give her daughter a long string of advice to hopefully teach the daughter how to properly run the house and live respectably. The mother seems as though she is scolding the girl between her words of wisdom because she is so fearful her daughter will adopt life as a “slut.” At the same time the mother take the time to share her knowledge, this shows how much she cares about her daughter. This concerned mother feels she can save her daughter from becoming a slut. The daughter says very little and when she did speak it was only to defend herself against her

The Beauty Myth is the last (and most dangerous) of a long line of lies concerning the "rules" of feminine attributes and behavior. It is the most dangerous because it has succeeded in effecting women's internal sense of themselves. It has created a standard of

To express your sexuality means to have capacity for sexual feelings and motives. Whether it is interest in gender preference, realization of sexual orientation, or expressing who you are gender wise, male or female, every single person is subjected to these individual rights. In the short poem “The One Girl at the Boys Party”, Sharon Olds defines a young teenage girl as she comes to conclusion with her sexuality and discovers her growth in maturity as a young woman. In her journey, mathematical metaphors are used to describe her confusing feelings towards her new found sexuality. As this young girl becomes a woman, values and symbolic numbers related to math are provided, which represent her quest towards maturity and sexual development as

Media and technology is shaping our society today. Women are being viewed as just objects instead of human beings. The ideal image of beauty has changed due to the media and technology. Considering this, woman's value depends on how they look.

It’s difficult to envision a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our present circumstance is a relatively new occurrence. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were restricted to our own communities. Until the introduction of photography in 1839, people were not exposed to real-life images of faces and bodies. Most people did not even own mirrors. Today, however, we are more obsessed with our appearance than ever before. But the concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable given society’s standards. According to Jane Kilborne, “Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the

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.

Without even realizing it people are pear pressured to maintain a certain image for acceptance in their everyday lives. The two readings that I found particularly interesting were, “Does an employer have the right to control body art of its employees?” by Alan Shanof and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn. They both can relate in the sense of how the world perceives body image and especially in women. A lot of people are turned down for a job since they have body art or appear in a certain way, even if that person possibly could have been the perfect person for the job. This stops people from being able to express themselves and do what they want with their own bodies. Girls are expected to service this presentation from the media on ‘how we are supposed to look’. Judgement has been a problem from the beginning and still till this day.

Women are being objectified in just about every part of life. In the workforce, in the schools, on the television screens, in the words of famous people whether it is in their music or any particular craft that they are able to produce and have broadcasted to the world. I don’t know if this problem will ever be erased however there are things that can be done to make this issue known ( in the eyes of the victims and the prosecutors), faced for what it is, and intervened. One way that this intervention could take place is with a huge shift in the ideals of beauty. Recognizing that people come in all shapes and sizes and that is what is so beautiful can provide major comfort and confidence not only to those who are victims of this but also, those individuals who understand this message but can’t find a way to breakthrough to others. Something that can be done is taking this idea to ALL sources of media. With the spread of trends nowadays and many different videos and post going viral, I don’t see how this can be stopped from spreading. With just one story and initiation of a chain of stories from individuals’ alike who have been through being shamed for their bodies, or not fitting up to the standards. Beautiful like you – a slogan that can carry this message around different media sources not just identifying one individual as beautiful but all

It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.

We are constantly surrounded by images of the “perfect” woman. She is tall, thin and beautiful. She rarely looks older than 25, has a flawless body, and her hair and clothes are always perfect. She is not human. She is often shown in pieces – a stomach, a pair of legs, a beautifully made up eye or mouth. Our culture judges women, and women judge themselves, against this standard. It is forgotten that “beauty pornography”, as Wolf says, focuses on underweight models that are usually 15 to 20 years old. Flaws, wrinkles and other problems are airbrushed out of the picture.

Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful.  Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.