Feminine Beauty and the Importance of Beauty - Essay Example

Museum Essay The image shows a woman’s eye. From the artwork, it is easy to deduce that the image is portraying an aspect that is unique to the feminine population. This is beauty. The eye from the image has been beautified through painting various beatification agents. This can be deduced from the colors that are shown on the image. The upper side of the eye has a red color, which could be the beautification agent while the lower part has skin color. The eyebrows can also be said to have been well made to indicate feminine beauty. The image is very effective as a visual image. This is because it is clear to know what exactly the artist wanted to communicate. Specifically, the feminine beauty is portrayed in the artwork. With respect to course materials, this image represents an issuer that has been heavily contested. This is because while some women may state that they choose to beautify themselves to show feminine supremacy while some activists claim that it is a measure of inequality. As per the activist’s arguments, the ideas of beautification are socially demanded. Here, if women do not beautify themselves, the society may view them as out of place or even avoid them; a negative thing that is directly related to beauty. Whether the mode of beautification is self-chosen or influenced by others, it would still serve the purpose of beautification, which is to advance its role in sexual inequality. Subjectivity is a crucial issue when discussing feminine beauty. This clearly relates to the male centric society of the contemporary world. Beautification may be the main issue behind excluding women from benefiting fully from personhood. From a different perspective, it could function positively by improving the woman’s self-esteem. In addition, the society refers to the most attractive people more often and the same individuals experience pleasant sexual interactions more than the unattractive (Sanders 221). Beautification, through some practices such as the everyday cosmetic practices that women engage in before appearing in the public, affects the social existence of the feminine population negatively. This is because the importance of beauty comes to the forefront of all other activities when women are concerned. This affects the amount of time available for women to function in the society in pursuit of realizing equality from the perspectives of both economic and political. This is because the women are too busy dealing with beauty and abandoning other important aspects such as equality. It has also been argued that beautification, for the women, is a form of disguise (Ware 178-179). This implies that, through beautification, women attempt to hide their true self and show what they want the society to see. This may mean that women struggle to hide some defects in their bodies. This would be used to show the difference between the process of beautification and the product of the overall process. The process leads to a product, which is just an extension of the woman but not the real self. Specifically, this is termed as a process of creating an alternative ideal of the physical self and eliminating the flaws in the body. To further support this claim, the main reason as to why most women undertake plastic surgery is so that they can align their inner self with their appearance. Some women may claim that their bodies fail to represent them as they should or as they really are (Cahill 41-43). This implies that the women have identified some flaws in their bodies and are constantly attempting to eliminate them through beautification practices. Therefore, through various beautification processes, the true existence of the women is realized. This implies that there is a form of subjectivity that the society has placed on women that requires them to spend longer periods of time while attempting to ‘fit’ in the society. This is the beautification portrayed in the artwork that could as well indicate that the woman spend a significant amount of time performing some beautification procedures to make her look as she ‘really is’. Such beauty has also been argued to be projected for the male population; for the males’ approval. However, the males are also not keen since they approve it simply by looking at the anesthetic instead of the female being as a full human being. Since the men view the feminine beauty as specifically done for them, the discourse for beautification is contrary to political, social and economic equality. Simply, the idea of beautification is against the quest for equality in the society. When men view the beautified woman as the aesthetic, the whole material of work that constitute the woman’s body is perceived as used up in that she fails to reveal her being. In place of that, men see equipment made for their own satisfaction. This implies that the overall procedure of beautification does not portray the real woman but equipment for use. This confirms the claim that equality would be realized if women stopped viewing beautification as a mandatory procedure before they can appear in the public. Instead, they should focus on achieving equality through better means. Therefore, they should not rely on their physical beauty as an avenue of realizing equality in the society. This is because when they choose to rely on beauty for portraying self-worth, they risk reducing themselves even further than being men’s objects. From a personal perspective, I think that women, at least a significant percentage of them, use beauty to show their worth or their place in the society. It is authentic that the male population views the beautified women as objects of satisfaction. Since such women spend too much time beautifying themselves, the possibility of realizing equality against the male population may take very long or even not happen. This is unless the women population changes its behaviors towards beautification. Since the image portrays a woman’s beautified eye, it advances the issue of gender inequality. In conclusion, the image portrays beautification with specific attention to the women. Although some women may attempt to use beauty in portraying feminine power, the possibilities of ever realizing equality are slim. This is because the male population will only be seeing objects of use when they see the beautified bodies. This is because, through beautification, some women attempt to show a different self. Works Cited Cahill, Ann J. Feminist Pleasure and Feminine Beautification. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003. Print. Sanders, C. R. Body alteration, artistic production, and the Social World of Tattooing. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. Print. Ware, Carolyn E. Anything to act crazy: Cajun women and Mardi Gras disguise. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 2001. Print. Read More