BEAUTY

Social Media

• The main source in which our society's idea of beauty is exposed is through different social medias.
• We often see pictures of people with the perfect appearance through social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,as well as through the Internet in general, magazines, ect.

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• Women and Men are both expected to have certain appearances in order to be considered beautiful.
• Beautiful in today's society is having a certain physique, specific hairstyles or facial/body hair, height, skin color, and your teeth.

WOMEN

• Today's society is obsessed with women being unrealistically thin, tall, having no body hair, but amazing and well kept hairstyles, perfect complexion, good teeth, and to look as young as possible. Skin color can also be included since most models are white, but there is some diversity compared to earlier times.
• With these expectations, women are often ashamed of how they look. Women try to fix their "flaws" by receiving Botox injections, liposuction, plastic implants in their breasts and buttock, and by hiding their natural face with multiple layers of makeup. A woman's low self esteem can also lead to disorders like bulimia, anorexia, depression, ect.
• We see what is considered beautiful through magazines like Cosmo, social media, movies, television, and so much more. Being surrounded by this kind environment effects women of all ages from children to the elderly.

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• These girls tried on Victoria Secret bathing suits to compare their bodies to the models.
• ""I want a magazine that I can pick up and look at the women and say, "oh my god, that's so me' not 'oh my god, I wish that was me"".
• ""I used to see photos of these girls and hope that one day I could look like that.""

MEN

• Men have high expectations just as much as women. They are expected to be bulky, tall, have perfect and well kept body/facial hair, and perfect teeth.
• They try to ""fix"" themselves by working out, liposuction, taking steroids, getting dental surgeries, ect.
• Men can also suffer from eating disorders and feel just as self conscious as women. Men also go through depression from being told that they are not handsome or masculine enough. They are also stressed out by trying to keep up with the idea of beauty

THE BLUEST EYE

• In The Bluest Eye, the idea of beauty surrounded women. Even though men were not effected as much, beauty still had an effect on them.
• The idea of beauty during this times was associated with being white, having blue eyes, and being ""clean"" like Geraldine would say.

PAULINE BREEDLOVE

• In Pauline's past she tried to make herself look beautiful like white women by doing her makeup and hair like Jean Harlow. After she realized that she cannot be beautiful like Jean, she just stopped trying.
• ""I fixed my hair up like I'd seen hers in a magazine""
• ""There I was, five months pregnant, trying to look Jean Harlow, and a front tooth gone. Everything went then. Look like I just didn't care no more after that. I let my hair go back , plaited it up, and settled down to just being ugly."" (Pg 123)

CONCLUSION

• Overall the standards of beauty from today's society and in The Bluest Eye are similar. The main difference is that the idea of beauty today is much more exaggerated and is expressed through social media. No matter what time period it is, there is always going to be an idea of beauty. The truth is that this standard can never be met. The people that look perfect in pictures are often photoshopped or have so much work done that there is nothing natural about them anymore.
• The good thing is that there are people trying to raise awareness that idea of beauty is an unreachable goal. What one person thinks is beautiful may not be the same as another person. Like the cliche saying ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"".

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