What Is Orbach's Argument To Define Western?

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:

Raina Kelley covers society's issues and cultural controversies for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.’s. In her article “Beauty Is Defined, and Not By You” aims to convince her readers that women success or not is not depends on beauty. “When I’m on m deathbed, I hope to be smiling in satisfaction about all I accomplished, not that I made it to 102 without any cellulite.” One of her goals is to remain all girls do not get influence by this society, just be brave and continue to reject that beauty is the only way to get ahead. Kelley used personal experiences, facts and examples, also counter argument to create a convincing argument.

According to Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture, “In a society that equates the body with both self and moral worth, cultural meanings are attached to physical differences, so that the body provides a foundation for oppression based on gender, class, ethnicity, and age—all social characteristics that are deeply embodied.” (Gimlin 141) In the end,

With the rise of colonial expansion and imperialism, Europeans were inspired by their encounters with both culturally and physically different people to categorize them; thus leading to the creation of race. While the construction of race started off as harmless, it has been used to in the defense of cultural erasure and the oppression of Non-White racial groups. Today, the aftereffects of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism are still felt with increasing racial tension, the perpetuation of racial stereotypes, and the existence of Eurocentric beauty standards: a concept where people with commonly white features (thin lips, narrow nose, light hair, etc.) are exalted and those who do not adhere to these beauty standards are marginalized. Although

Several years, society has created an ideology that white and Europeans descent people have more acceptable, attractive and beautiful features than a someone who is African American or has African descent. Society has held a standard of “white beauty” and African Americans have been and still to this day, find themselves partaking in the standard. In the “white beauty” standard, slim waist, petite, long haired, tall women were prone to be more attractive than others (Patton 26, 30). African American women and men were created with all unique shapes, sizes, and skin complexions and would never be able to meet the standard. Many white women could not even meet up the standard, so they used things such as corsets, Botox, or surgery to do so (31).

Lindsay Kite, author of the article “Beauty Whitewash”, advocates positivity of what beauty is to its bearer. Living the life of a society which is full of physical image perfectionism is a huge challenge for any woman to attain. The effect of media implying what is beautiful is encouraging the minds of women into needing a physical remedy. The images of beauty shown in all forms of media create an emotional struggle for many women of color. For these reasons, Kite’s observations combined with life experience, come with a goal to empower women, by focusing on the effect of media’s white beauty standards on women of color.

Since the beginning of civilization there have been beauty standards, but as time has gone on, they have continually evolved and changed into what they currently are now. What was once beautiful two hundred years ago may only be average or desired by some, whereas in the past that may have been the most popular look or body type. However for decade’s women put beauty to the side and focused on the evolution of their rights and equality, but now since they have attained many of the same rights as their male counterparts the importance of gender equality seems to be changing. Currently many women are resorting back to issues of beauty and looks because of the societal norms that have come to be popular and important to the masses.

A Genealogy of Modern Racism by Cornel West. According to America, the standard beauty is the Europeans, the idea of the white supremacy that all white people have the power. Racism is still an issue in America, people are been discriminated by their skin color. White people are considered to be the most beautiful persons in the world, but this is just what make us think because this is the way that society is structure that white people are the ruling class.

Some girls indicated that boys explicitly discuss media models such as Cindy Crawford, and/or insult girls who deviate from the unrealistic standards represented by sch models.” (Milkie). As pressure comes from both internal and external factors, it is difficult for women to ignore these beauty standards. Even though the minority group (specifically black girls) saw the same images, their response was quite different. These girls had a different response to these images because they weren’t able to relate to the beauty ideal, “the black girls indicated that they did not relate to the images and did not wish to emulate the rigid white beauty ideal.” (Milkie). If there were more images of women of color as “beauty ideals”, they would find it more relatable and might create their own beauty standard. Thus, these tan, toned, curvy girls might be the ideal shape for white women, but it cannot be said the same for the other cultures, and adds an extra pressure to these

When you think of a beautiful girl, what do you see? Do you see someone with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes? That’s what Google Images sees. As an experiment, I searched “beautiful girl,” and there were five black girls in a bevy of white girls. Flipping through high fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle, you’ll see countless white women that meet these characteristics, but little of representation of women of color. Today, women of color are represented more than before. However, not quite as well as white women are. Even when they are shown, they have light skin and straight hair. The media tries and succeeds in making African features Eurocentric to fit the mold of beauty. Dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair are not commonly glorified the way light features are. What the mainstream media fails to recognize, is that beauty is a wide spectrum. There is not, and should not be a sole image of what classifies as beautiful, because, well, that’s not the way things are.

Society, especially western, conceptualizes beauty through the use of publicity and cinema. We are under constant bombardment from consumer related magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and movies about what “beautiful” people look like and how we should imitate them. This standard is overwhelmingly portrayed as white beauty. Starting from a young age this standard of beauty is forged in our minds; we want to look like these actors and models; we want to be thin, fit, youthful looking, have a symmetrical face and possibly even posses a particular race. We accept this beauty standard; we notice our various faults among ourselves and self-critique. We try to emulate the models as best we can and we fail to realize that these

African American artist Margaret Burroughs wrote, “What shall I tell my dear ones fruit of my womb, of how beautiful they are where everywhere they are faced with abhorrence of everything that is black…what shall I tell my dear ones raised in a white world?” (“What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black” 1). This is a prime example of the Eurocentric standards that permeate throughout daily life and into the homes of women and children, victims of a society in which lighter skin is prettier skin. Although geographic-specific standards of beauty remain in some remote communities such as tribes in Africa or South America, the standard of beauty worldwide is, regrettably, Eurocentric, with little regard to originality, demonstrated through the beauty industry, skin tone preferences, and psychological problems in women of color.

“You would look so much prettier with your hair straight!” is a comment my sister of mixed descent has been receiving from her classmates since childhood. Straight hair is a Eurocentric beauty standard that has been pushed onto my lighter skinned sister for most of her life. I am of a darker complexion however and therefore am complimented often on my naturally curly hair. This leads to the question; do black beauty standards differ from white ones? The answer to this query is explored in Maxine Craig’s work Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? She claims that in many regards, though not all, the answer is yes. While Craig does a good job of defining the historical moments that lead to black beauty standards today, she lacks an explanation as to why darker skin tones are stigmatized the way they are and neither does she factor in how many people consider personality when determining beauty.

A common argument against the existence of cultural appropriation is; “Well, how about when Asian people who dye their hair blonde, or when African Americans straighten their hair?” This is not appropriating ‘American culture’ but assimilating to it. Assimilating is adopting the dominant culture in order to be successful and carry out day to day life. Instead of questioning why people of color are forced to fit in, we should be asking why the American standard of beauty is so