The Beauty Myth

Introduction

The topic of this dissertation is the idea of beauty in Western culture and the way it’s portrayed in cosmetics adverts. It’s focused on three main subjects – The Beauty Myth, Cosmetics adverts, and Beautification through make-up. The first chapter, which discusses what exactly the Beauty Myth is, looks at the feminists theories of beauty and whether these theories have changed the way society looks at women. The second chapter is dedicated to advertising, and more specifically cosmetics advertising, and analyses two recent adverts in order to discuss how the woman is portrayed. The third and final chapter concentrates on the role of the make-up in the Beauty Myth and social and cultural significance of the lipstick.

The text covers feminist theories and ideas, as well as anti-feminist points of view. It looks at the way women have been perceived before the feminist movement and discusses whether that perception has changed. It also gives a brief history of cosmetics advertising in the 20th century. There are two main images given as an example of contemporary high fashion cosmetics adverts and it’s given an in depth analysis of both of the images. The chapter dedicated to make-up, and more precisely the lipstick, discusses its social significance and cultural meaning, and looks at both negative and positive characteristics of the product and its use. This is achieved, again, by looking briefly at the product’s recent history, its development in society and why it is such a big part of our culture. The chapter and also the dissertation finishes with a discussion whether the Beauty Myth is still part of our society or we have managed to fight the prejudices.

The topic has been discussed countless times and there are various opinions on it. Of course, most of these opinions have been written by feminists who only see one side of the coin. Still, there are people who challenge their theories. Also, in recent years, it could be noticed a... [continues]

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