Preview

There Is No Unmarked Woman

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
667 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
There Is No Unmarked Woman
From the dieting tricks that promise to shave off weight within weeks, to the constant gossiping of the fashion trends of a femme fatale, the message is clear: the appearances of women matter. Especially prevalent for the past few decades, the pressure for young women to meet a certain physical standard has been growing ever since. Through the influence of the media and the scrutiny of others, women face the stress of carefully choosing each change they add to their appearance, going so far as to permanently change their genetic features in order to conform to what society has defined as beautiful, and such an issue calls for change. To begin with, the issues of beauty standards are strongly determined by public opinion and the media. As …show more content…
In the essay of “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, Deborah Tannen explains it best through the statement that “There is no unmarked woman” (Tannen 412). No matter what hairstyle, clothes, shoes, or style a woman may choose to wear, every one of her decisions will convey a meaning to the public. “If a woman’s clothing is tight or revealing…it sends a message…If her clothes are not sexy, that too sends a message…” (Tannen 412). There are even instances where the clothes are not the cause of criticism, for a woman may be criticized upon her genetic features. As written in the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercg, a little girl grows up healthy and intelligent, but because other people deemed her as physically inadequate by having “a great big nose and fat legs”, the girl is coerced into change, and not anything like a difference in wardrobe, but permanent change with cosmetic surgery (Piercg 378). Such an occurrence is not far from reality for there are women who will do whatever it takes to be deemed as conventionally …show more content…
One method as proposed by Michelle Cottle in her article, “Turning Boys into Girls”, is to “[fight] spandex with spandex” (Cottle 486). What that means is that she believes that the solution to the high beauty standards women face is to introduce such standards to men too in order to “Make the men as neurotic about the circumference of their waists and the whiteness of their smiles as women…” (Cottle 486). This method then enables men to empathize with the beauty standards that women have. As an effect of it all, the issue of societal pressures placed upon women would then be made aware

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In chapter three, the title tells it all. At a young age we are conditioned to police ourselves with the ideas of masculinity and femininity. Social institutions such as school subtly change how we view ourselves and makes us fit into the norms of society. A relatable example that was used to show the norms of society and how hard people try to fit them, is the body shapes of women. Each culture and time has their different standards for how people should look and act. In 1947 Marilyn Monroe was a beauty icon but if she was compared to someone thought to be beautiful today her figure would seem too full. Many girls have self-esteem issues today because they cannot perfectly…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    If one glances at a magazine or turns on the TV, you got a good idea of what media’s definition of an attractive woman looks like: she’s tall, has long, flowing hair, is surgically and digitally enhanced, blemish-free, and very thin. In fact, academic research tells it like we see it: studies show the women we see in media these days are much thinner than the real world, and very often thin enough to be considered anorexic by world health standards. In a world where a constant flow of media images far exceeds the number of people we could ever see face to face, this abnormally thin and digitally enhanced ideal has become the norm. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld highlights the controversial topic of…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “There is No Unmarked Woman” by Tannen, she focuses on the analysis of women and how women are subjected to prejudice and judgment based by the way they dress. Tannen discusses in her paper the struggles that women go through, how they are seen throughout the media and examining the fact that women are subject to harsher judgement for every action taken or choice made. She shows this through specific examples and past experiences.…

    • 75 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women often are judged outwardly based on their appearance, focusing their attention to the importance of dressing themselves well in order to balance with the societal pressure. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “Marked Women”, she asks herself that “what style we women could have adopted that would have been unmarked, like the men’s. The answer was none. There is no unmarked woman.” (270) which emphasizes how women can be marked. She implies that women have a certain duty to choose a style and can hardly dress without judgment being passed on their dressing. There are no “unmarked options”, everything we do is “marked”. Women express personas through clothing, reminding me of an observation developed in high school. It was a private Christian high school that had a strict dress code on our uniform. The uniform skirt was long enough to cover our knees, however, girls rolled their skirts up, trying to act pretty and sexy as…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elline Lipkin Summary

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In today’s generation, young minds are imprinted with a set of “standards” concerning female appearance. Beginning at an early age, girls observe advertisements and other forms of media that establish expectations for a body that meets society’s standards. “A girl’s body, almost from birth [. . .], often reflects cultural…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is about a girl who struggles with her body image. The speaker in the poem acts as an observer; watching the girl encounter different experiences as it related to her body image. Today’s generation is much similar to the life of the girl in this poem. Girls are forced to keep up with rising standards that are overwhelming and destructive. This poem uses form, imagery, and word choice to express how society chooses not to accept girls who do not represent the “ideal” woman.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jean Kilbourne

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many women choose their physical appearances over their intelligences, because of how our society has created that importance towards the side-out; this social issue should be taken more seriously and we should make big chances by now, in order to save our girls and boys lives. . Because I am a feminist, I look for equality and I’ve seen how media has been the main key to portray this inequality between sexes. Therefore I look upon the many problems this objectification of women’s bodies has harmfully brought in our society. As Jean Kilbourne states, “In this problem nobody wins, neither men nor women, unfortunately women lose more, because this image makes them seem as weak, therefore it leads to…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the decades of time, society has been continuously determining the perception of what it is to be "beautiful." The American standard of beauty is often reflected upon advertisements that convey an unrealistic expectation for most everyday women. Whereas, teenagers have grown to interpret advertisements as a model for how they should appear physically. Marilyn Monroe was perceived as the epitome of beauty in the 1950s. The well-known sex symbol was recognized because of her curvaceous build. But for instance, Twiggy, a popular model in the midst of the 1960s, later set a misconstrued standard to what was beautiful. With the rising of her stardom, the glamorization of being thin was beginning to take a turn on a more positive note. That is until the famous 90s heroin chic model, Kate Moss, hit the scene taking the modeling industry by storm in an unhealthy manner with her campaign "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." As time continues to inevitably move forward in American culture, as will the image and conception of what beauty truly is in the eyes of our society.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dracula, a Gothic horror novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897, presents a clear depiction of how fatal it can be if society continues idealizing women. He writes about the idealistic woman, Lucy Westrena; a pure virgin woman that just submits to the males far more educated than her. She literally dies from her lack of knowledge about Dracula. On the contrary, he also writes about Mina Harker who represents the new woman arising in the Victorian Era and this woman is not just an accessory for males, but an educated woman who will end up bettering society. In society today woman are faced with a similar predicament. Society has formed a high class heel that many women struggle to walk around in, and as a result women want to step out of the shoe and say they look just as beautiful in their own. For example, a woman might not fit into size zero pants or she doesn't have the latest pair of UGGs, so she she makes a statement that she might be a little over weight and have cheaper shoes, but she is satisfied and better off like that. What's extremely ironic is that the same people we are supposed to look like tell us we are perfect "Just the Way You Are," as popular musician…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every girl has seen a woman in the media stick thin, sun kissed, envy of the way she looks “perfect”. Women that are put on television, a magazine or advertisements is ultimately fake with Photoshop, makeup and plastic surgery. This is a dangerous perception of beauty which has resulted in a decline in self-acceptance. Many girls any age struggle with their image believing that they are not thin enough, their hair is not long enough, or even they believe that they are ugly. I believe that the social stereotype of beauty should go back to the 50’s.…

    • 423 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    No unmarked woman

    • 316 Words
    • 1 Page

    According to Deborah Tannen, there is no such thing as an unmarked woman. She says that "a man can choose to wear a "marked" style but a woman has no choice" (Tannen 1). "The term "marked" is a staple of linguistic theory. It refers to the way language alters the meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning on its own". Is there such a thing as an unmarked person? Or are we all marked in our own way? Everything we wear, or say or do is a marking. For example, wearing a Jewish star around my neck is a marking that I am Jewish. If that is the case then there is no such thing as an unmarked person. Everyone wears something that marks him or her, whether they realize it or not. One thing I did somewhat disagree with, was the idea that men are completely unmarked. I feel that both males and females look at each other every day and make their own discretions about one another. All the men at the table are dressed up in the same way with no fancy haircut, suits or shoes (Tannen 2). Although no man wore make-up, you couldn’t say the men didn’t wear make-up in the sense that you would say a women didn’t wear make-up. For men, no make-up is unmarked. The three women expressed their style through clothing. One woman was a “plain Jane”, the other was older and “full of dignity” and finally a “frosted blond avalanche falling over and beyond shoulders. Further on, Deborah also claims that every woman's style has an implied meaning. In paragraph 12 she says “Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories, and each decision had a carried meaning” (Tannen 2).…

    • 316 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been discussions by researchers regarding how the media portrays us to what is beauty and thereby causing a person to be dissatisfied with their appearance, their weight and eating habits. (Levine&Murnen, 2009). The researchers have revealed as to what is considered beauty for women and teenage girls, and what standard they are using that complements what the media has used to define the beauty. In turn, they will use those standards as a means for evaluating their own level and rating of beauty. These women and teenage girls will then seek to achieve those standards so that family, peers and even strangers will be pleased with their appearance. (O’Brien et al., 2009; Thompson, Heinberg, et al.,…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The words “marked” and “unmarked” are used several times in Deborah Tannen’s, “There Is No Unmarked Woman”. These two simple words hold very strong meanings throughout this essay. Tannen gives many examples of how women in today’s society are constantly being “marked”, whether they try to be or not, and how men are therefore “unmarked”. This essay analyzes the ways in which society judge’s women as being marked by their appearance, and how men can have the option to choose to be unmarked. Tannen realizes this as she sits in a conference, critically analyzing the appearance of the women in the meeting but not paying the same attention to the men. Even though there are eight men and only three women, she goes into deep detail of each individual woman and very little detail of the men. Tannen describes the women all the way from their hairstyles to the make up they are wearing, to the clothes they have on and the shoes on their feet. She describes the men as looking almost all the same, “unmarked”. Tannen uses many rhetorical devices so that the reader can understand how exactly women are marked in todays society. Even one of the women who dressed “plain” was considered to be marked, by choosing to dress simpler than the other women. This essay also ties in biological evidence to support Tannen’s theory that there is no unmarked woman, as well as argue that men can also be marked. By reading this essay, one can learn many different ways in which women are marked and scrutinized in todays…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Barbie Doll Analysis

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Society can take over the way people see themselves. In Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” a young girl was judged for her looks and being herself. Due to this young girl’s strong mind set, she tried to stay true to herself, but could only handle so much pressure. Throughout her entire life, she was being compared to a symbolic perfect Barbie Doll who had the beautiful cosmetic fixed face that everyone imagines girls to be, and the irony of how pretty everyone thought she was on her deathbed demonstrated how the standards in society make people second guess who they really are.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every year, women devote billions of dollars in exchange for beautiful hair, expensive cosmetics, and opulent wardrobes. Many of our culture's most common beauty procedures were nearly absent an era ago. The fact is, many of the beliefs of feminine beauty were created in large part by current advertisers, thus becoming societal norms. However, through her diffident wardrobe change, author of the article My Year of Modesty, Lauren Shields, suggests that to live an authentic life, one must be immune to society’s definition of beauty, thus giving release for a return to our true selves. Shields, detailed writing of her experience made for a compelling argument.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays