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Beauty is More Than Skin Deep: Looking Good and Feeling Better

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Beauty is More Than Skin Deep: Looking Good and Feeling Better
Beauty is More Than Skin Deep: Looking Good and Feeling Better

It is often said that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but is there any real truth to that? The phrase itself merely means that beauty has no set characterization, depiction, or even value for that matter. In a beauty salon, hairdressers use the environment of the salon and their clear connection to the beauty culture to accommodate to each individual clients interpretation of beauty. I think this was best stated when Lennon remarked that, “In the beauty parlors, women not only accommodate to or go along with media-defined beauty, they also actively create beauty culture on their own terms to fulfill the needs of the women hope to achieve it” (pg. 295).The hairdressers at the beauty salon, lay a foundation that bridges the gap between those who strive for beauty and those who outline what beauty is; they become the path to those criterions while tending to the transformation on the outside as well as the inside without passing judgments. I would like to start off first and foremost with the fact that women have always been recognized to devote a large portion of their time to beauty. Those women who are dedicated to portraying a certain image of themselves most frequently believe that with beauty everything else will come along such as success and being well liked by other. Women are completely and totally mesmerized by this notion presented by the media due to the overwhelming amount of bombardment of media messages that women are faced with on a daily basis in magazines and television advertisements with images of unrealistically attractive and powerful women, the complete package. Ridgeway reiterates this statement when she says, “These more contemporary films that follow this tradition as well, marking the beauty parlor as a place in which women get their hair done and let their hair down, a setting in which female knowledge, assumed unique and often essential, becomes privileged”



Bibliography: Amanatullah, E. T. & Morris, M. W. (2010). Negotiating Gender Roles: Gender Differences in Assertive Negotiating are Mediated by Women’s Fear of Backlash and Attenuated When Negotiating on Behalf of Others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, volume 98 issue 2, pages 256-267. Black, P. (2001) Look Good, Feel Better: Beauty Therapy as Emotional Labour. Sociology, volume 35 issue 4, pages 913-931. Deutsch, F. M. (2007). Undoing Gender. Gender and Society, volume 21 issue 1, pages 106-127. Ellingsaeter, A. L. (1993). Changing Roles: Trends in Women’s Employment and Gender Equality. International Journal of Sociology, volume 23 issue 2/3, pages 153-171. Firestone, J., Harris, R., &Lambert, L. (1999). Gender Role Ideology and the Gender Based Differences in Earnings. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, volume 20 issue, pages 191-215. Lennon, M. C. (1987). Sex Differences in Distress: The Impact of Gender and Work Roles. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, volume 28 issue 3, pages 290-305. Ridgeway, C. L. (1999). The Gender System and Interaction. Annual Review of Sociology, volume 25 issue 1, pages 191-216. Rudmon, L .A. & Phelan, J. E. (2010). The Effect of Priming Gender Roles on Women’s Implicit Gender Beliefs and Career Aspiration. Social Psychology, volume 41 issue 3, pages 192-202. Scanlon, J. (2007). If My Husband Calls I’m Not Here: The Beauty Parlor as Real and Representational Female Space. Feminist Studies, volume 33 issue 2, pages 308-334. Snodgrass, S. E. (1992) Further Effects of Role Versus Gender on Interpersonal Sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, volume 62 issue 1, pages 154-158.

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