Beauty Pageants

Where and how did the "beauty myth" originate?

Women cannot find strong role models in today's society without getting a false impression. Too often the role models are of women of unrealistic beauty. Take for instance the big screen: a bunch of long legged, skinny, women with flawless faces, voluptuous breasts, and not a spec of cellulite. All of the "model" women in the media seem to have "perfect lives"; their biggest catastrophe being where to put the indoor tennis court, or the indecisiveness of what to wear to the Golden Globe Awards . Finding role models on the glossy pages of magazines and posters has become even more prominent. Gazing at these "role models" has become an act in which shapes the way women look and feel about themselves in today's beauty conscious society. American women base their lives on a myth, a beauty myth, which impairs their self-image and distorts their views regarding their peers, unlike their male counterparts who are not affected by such a myth.
"Men look at Women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves." Critic John Berger's quote has been true now more than ever in regards to women's self-image in Western culture. Men see male fashion models, but do not see them as role models, mearly as men displaying clothing fashions. They don't depict the model of their own gender, because they simply don't see them as someone whom they can look up to or use as a guideline, and certainly not as the model American male. Whereas, women see a female fashion model and immediately turn her into the guideline of what every American woman should look like. This, among many other places is the origin of the myth. In order for our culture to be kept male, males put women into the roles of ornamentation and are mere beauties in their eyes. No wonder women feel they need to live up to a certain expectations…or at least in the eye of the male.... [continues]

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