Women, Beauty and Self-Esteem Essay -- Body Image & Self Esteem

Ambrose Bierce (1958) at a time wrote, To men a man is but a mind. Who cargons what face he carries or what he wears? But womans body is the woman. condescension the societal changes achieved since Bierces time, his statement remains true. Since the height of the feminist operation in the early 1970s, women devote spent more money than of all time before on products and treatments designed to make them beautiful. Cosmetic gross revenue have increased annually to reach $18 billion in 1987 (Ignoring the economy. . . , 1989), sales of womens clothing averaged $103 billion per month in 1990 (personal communication, U.S. Bureau of economic Analysis, 1992), dieting has become a $30-billion-per-year industry (Stoffel, 1989), and women spent $1.2 billion on cosmetic surgery in 1990 (personal communication, American Society of Plastic and reconstructive Surgeons, 1992). The importance of beauty has app atomic number 18ntly increased even as women are reaching for personal freedoms and e conomic rights undreamed of by our grandmothers. The emphasis on beauty may be a way to hold onto a feminine image while shedding feminine roles.Attractiveness is necessary for femininity but not for masculinity (Freedman, 1986). The word beauty continuously refers to the female body. Attractive male bodies are described as handsome, a word derived from hand that refers as much to action as expression (Freedman, 1986). Qualities of achievement and strength accompany the term handsome, such attributes are seldom employed in the description of attractive women and certainly do not accompany the term beauty, which refers only to a decorative quality. Men are instrumental, women are ornamental.Beauty is a most elusive commodity. Ideas of what is beautiful vary crossways cultures and change ... .... Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 10, 129-38. Stoffel, Jennifer. (1989, November 26). Whats new in weight control A market mushrooms as motivations change. sensitive York Times, p. C17.T hompson, J. Kevin. (1986, April). Larger than life. psychological science Today, pp. 41-44. Walker, Alice. (1990). Beauty When the other dancer is the self. In Evelyn C. White (Ed.), The black womens health book Speaking for ourselves (pp. 280-87). Seattle Seal Press. Walster, Elaine, Aronson, Vera, Abrahams, Darcy, & Rottman, Leon. (1966). Importance of physical attractor in dating behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 508-16. Wernick, Mark, & Manaster, Guy J. (1984). long time and the perception of age and attractiveness. Gerontologist, 24, 408-14. Williams, Juanita H. (1985). Psychology of women Behavior in a biosocial context. New York Norton.