Stereotypes in America
Holly Pettit
Ms. Renee Nigon
AP Language 4th
January 7, 2015
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Everyone has their own opinions on what beauty consists of. It is in cliché expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This means beauty can come from within a person’s soul or from the outside of looking at woman’s body. As it just happened, saying the word “beauty” on most occasions comes hand in hand with the word woman. In the story “A Woman’s Beauty: Put – Down or Power Source” by Susan Sontag. Sontag states; “To be called beautiful is thought to name something essential to women’s character and concerns. (In contrast to men whose essence is to be strong or effective, or competent.)” (Sontag.488.1) The word beautiful may not seem synonymous with men in 2015 but handsome is, as the word “handsome” feels more masculine. Before Miss USA even was a thought in 1951 there has always been a standard held to what is beautiful. The ancient Greeks wrote of goddesses who were fertile and glowing and to this day has been a permanent foundation for “beauty.” Women got taught that beauty is what they see on the outside because if a female cannot get the necessary glow needed naturally then do it synthetically. These ways that women were communicated about are extremely prevalent still to this day if not more so, because even though in ancient Greece women were goddesses with being fertile and glowing there was beauty on males mind as well. It was only until Christianity came along and “…sent beauty adrift-as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enhancement. For close to two centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only of the two sexes: the sex which, however fair, is always second. Associating beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive, morally.” (Sontag.488.2) This argues for the fact that maybe the word “beautiful” hasn’t been always synonymous with females. Today’s society has the means of communicating what is “beautiful”
Ms. Renee Nigon
AP Language 4th
January 7, 2015
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Everyone has their own opinions on what beauty consists of. It is in cliché expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This means beauty can come from within a person’s soul or from the outside of looking at woman’s body. As it just happened, saying the word “beauty” on most occasions comes hand in hand with the word woman. In the story “A Woman’s Beauty: Put – Down or Power Source” by Susan Sontag. Sontag states; “To be called beautiful is thought to name something essential to women’s character and concerns. (In contrast to men whose essence is to be strong or effective, or competent.)” (Sontag.488.1) The word beautiful may not seem synonymous with men in 2015 but handsome is, as the word “handsome” feels more masculine. Before Miss USA even was a thought in 1951 there has always been a standard held to what is beautiful. The ancient Greeks wrote of goddesses who were fertile and glowing and to this day has been a permanent foundation for “beauty.” Women got taught that beauty is what they see on the outside because if a female cannot get the necessary glow needed naturally then do it synthetically. These ways that women were communicated about are extremely prevalent still to this day if not more so, because even though in ancient Greece women were goddesses with being fertile and glowing there was beauty on males mind as well. It was only until Christianity came along and “…sent beauty adrift-as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enhancement. For close to two centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only of the two sexes: the sex which, however fair, is always second. Associating beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive, morally.” (Sontag.488.2) This argues for the fact that maybe the word “beautiful” hasn’t been always synonymous with females. Today’s society has the means of communicating what is “beautiful”