Size 6: The Western Women's Harem by Fatema Mernissi and Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

Beauty is determined by society and their standards. Women are expected to be skinny, pretty and a size two which puts a lot of pressure on women. The pressures of society persuade women to go through extreme measures to fit in with society standards. This is evident in the short story “The Falling girl” and “They’re Not Your Husband” as the main characters are impacted by social expectations, insecurity and peer pressure.

This helps the overall quality of the essay because since women already understand the ceaseless cycle of changing their shape and figure, it is not hard to persuade them to think differently about the perception of women’s

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:

Stereotypes exist in many different forms with the most common referring to gender and culture. Roxanne Gay talks about the difficult struggles that women have to deal with such as the usage of birth control and the process of having an abortion. While Judith Cofer takes a similar route with a few differences. Her article talks specifically about the struggles of a Latin woman. Both articles talk about the obstacles women are faced with while also taking the time to focus on specific topics. “The Alienable Rights of Women” by Roxanne Gay and “The Myth of the Latin Woman” by Judith Cofer complement each other because they both discuss how women are perceived and stereotyped by others/society.

Mernissi starts off her essay with story about a saleswoman telling her that she is too big for anything the store sold and that the “norm” is a size 4 or a size 6. All the magazines in America show skinny women who barely weigh a pound and look so young, which shows that the Western man wants “... to freeze female beauty within an idealized childhood, and forces women to perceive aging,” (255). Mernissi compares the weapon used against women in the West as declaring youth as beauty and to criticize maturity, and in the East as limiting access to public space. The serious approach Mernissi uses shows how personal her examples are and creates a big effect on the “weapons” used on

In today’s society, men and women are confronted with gender stereotypes daily. In the texts Ten Things I Hate about You, The Big Bang Theory, I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl! By Whitney Darrow and ‘Stupid Girls’ by Pink, the roles of men and women are perceived in different ways. Some characters in each text challenge the typical stereotype whilst others accept it.

Throughout history, women have been victims of oppression no matter what religion or background they come from. They have learned from a young age, that their appearance is important to fundamentally be happy in their life. The topic of oppression in woman leads to controversial discussion not only to scholars but women of all parts of the world. How a woman presents herself through appearance and clothing targets her in a society obsessed with each other’s business. In today’s society, whether we can help it or not, men are treated differently than women. There seems to be different “rules” associated with the acceptable ways they should dress as opposed to the strict rules that apply to women. Women who are westernized

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.

Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.

Racial and gender stereotypes are vague assumptions that are generally negative in the novel, Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. They are false beliefs abstracted by judgmental people based on a person’s gender or ethnicity. Each person has their respective thoughts, ambitions and passions despite their gender or race. These stereotypes are ignorant and do not define every single person. Most people realize that stereotypes are inaccurate, however they continue to make presumptions based on ethnicity or gender. The author of Forbidden, challenges racial and gender stereotypes by explaining how they are only crude generalizations which cause disruptions in society because of people’s belief that as long as they exist that they must follow them.

Beauty is determined by society and their standards. Women are expected to be skinny, pretty and to be a thin size which puts pressure on women. The pressures of society persuade women to go through extreme measures to fit in with society standards. This is evident in the short stories “The Falling girl” and “They’re Not Your Husband” as the main characters are impacted by social expectations, insecurity and peer pressure.

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.

As the somewhat non-conformist daughter of an east-Asian, single-parent immigrant family, I feel as if I challenge several societal norms. Hovering between two very different cultures and growing up surrounded by strong women throughout all of my life have greatly influenced my identity. Of course, being a part of a minority group in a country, being a part of a non-nuclear family and being a not very feminine girl means that I have been subject to multiple types of discrimination and can be frowned upon. They are all elements that I am made up of but each concept is a mould which society determines that I do not fit into. They are also social constructs that need to be ‘performed’; they are born from socialization and interaction thus, susceptible to external influences and fluctuations in circumstance. In this essay, the sociological concepts of globalization/ migration, performativity and patriarchal ideology will be explored and applied to show their effects on my aspects of my life.

To be feminine is to be pretty, sexualized, and passive. “Marked Women” by Deborah Tannen, “Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language” by Alleen Nilsen, and “A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” by Susan Sontag are three essays that show these negative connotations of femininity. Together, they exemplify that females are “marked” as pretty, sexualized, and passive.