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Kim Cherisse Cruz

Professor Ditch
English 113B
19 February 2015
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Culture is commonly referred to as a nationality, ethnicity, race, age and gender.
However, it is beyond that, it is any group of people that share a way of life. I am part of
a culture where beauty and appearance is at a high priority. I of many people have been
influenced by what society depicts as beautiful. A culture where beauty is important,
where judgements are cruel, where I have to shape myself to feel accepted. Although, I
may not fit the culture of appearance and beauty that media dictates, I have found beauty
in everyone around me including myself, because as they say Beauty is in the Eye of the
Beholder.
The society around me likes to influence judgements on beauty. Women have to
be beautiful, tall, and skinny. I used to look up to celebrities and models as if they were
gods and goddesses. But in reality these celebrities give an unrealistic view of beauty,
because they have access to unlimited resources like professional make up artist, money
for cosmetic surgery, fashion designers and more. According to Paul Valry, we suffer
from a three body problem (Etcoff). He defines each body as the body we live in, the
public facade, and the third as the physical body. Etcoff goes on to say that we try to
become works of art along with works of nature. (Etcoff). For instance, I want people
to perceive me as honest and caring but at the same time gorgeous. But does my outer
shell match that? Movies and television shows exaggerate these characteristics so well. A

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girl who is extremely gorgeous is stupid and very slow but a girl who is extremely smart
is ugly and nerdy. Its almost saying that women cant be both. However, I have met
plenty of women who are gorgeous, talented, caring, and smart. But I have also witnessed
women who try harder on their make up rather than their studies and that shows a lot. It
presents a negative view that appearance is more important than brains. It is a culture
where beauty is more important.
There is always this confusion that women try to look good for men. In the book
Rhetoric for Radicals, Gandio explains the different ways society views women. Women
are expected to compete for mens attention while men are to aggressively seek sexual
relations (Gandio 114). The fact that women are expected to look good for men is
disgusting. This thought that in order to get attention and to be noticed then you have to
be beautiful. Women should not have to compete for a mans attention nor try to even
look good for them. I like to feel comfortable in my skin, I like to feel beautiful and that
is why I like to attempt to look good. I dress up and get all dolled up because I feel
comfortable and beautiful not because I need to impress a man or in fact anybody. My
culture puts so much pressure onto women that they expect us to just please and please
but what about us? Gandio said men seek for sexual relations, but if a woman were to
seek for sexual relations she would be considered a hoe. Everything a woman does or
thinks is judged for, so how do we make ourselves fit into this very judgmental culture
that has so many boundaries.
As a child I didnt care about how I looked, because I was too young to
understand the importance of looking good. And I believe little girls should never have
to worry about that at a young age. I remember volunteering at an elementary school and

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as I was giving snacks to the kids, a little girl refused to eat her snacks. I asked her kindly
why she didnt want to eat, and her answer broke my heart. This little girl who was so
beautiful said, I dont want to get fat. Thats when I thought how bad media presents
society with such unrealistic body types that promote, women even little girls to look like
them. Being fat is not exactly something media considers sexy or beautiful. When
puberty hit me I got so busty it looked like I gained a few pounds, and I absolutely hated
it. I started to get stretch marks in between my thighs and it made me so insecure with my
body. I was already having insecurities about my image and then my family began to
tease me about how big I got. I related to the article My Hips, My Caderas by Alisa
Valdes-Rodriguez, because her family didnt accept her appearance either, I would make
myself puke up rice and beans. I tried shaping myself to be accepted; so I worked out,
ate less, and sometimes tried to make myself puke. It is hard to feel comfortable in your
own skin when you get judged so cruelly. If you are skinny, you are considered anorexic.
If you are have a little fat, you are considered fat. Women are and will always be judged
but it should be on us to look pass it and love our self, because no one else will.
We live in a society that has manifested the idea that models should have specific
features such as being tall and a waistline no larger than a two. The perception that a
model has to be tall and skinny has become a harsh reality that younger generations grow
into and enviably accept as their standard of looking normal. My height was always
something people teased me about. I would be called oompa loompa or even midget.
Imagine a little girl who loved looking at fashion magazines get so depressed over the
fact that she could never look and be that. My height was something I just had to live
with. There was no way I could try to make myself grow. I have faced many issues with

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my height. I love to shop online, but it is also really difficult because the models are a lot
taller and thinner so the expectation of the clothing when I try it on is often times not
what I expected. They are either too long or I just look odd in it. However, its not just the
models online but when Im actually at the mall shopping, I would look at the
mannequins and find an outfit cute but it ends up being the same case. I read an article
online from The Independent news about these girls who noticed how skinny a
mannequin was and how it should be something women should worry about. First of all
I think people deserve some kind of response. They should look at the mannequins
because they are not the best portrayal of womens bodies(Buchanan). Media should
give realistic features of the appearance of an average woman. Beauty comes in all
shapes and sizes and as a culture of many obligations and judgments and we need to
understand that to feel acceptance.
Appearance and beauty plays a very important role in our individualistic society.
We live in an era where it is all about what looks nice and neat. Its all about how you
look and how you present yourself. The culture of appearance and beauty views beauty in
a distorted way due to the mistaken belief that outer appearance reflects the type of
person a woman is. It is tragic to think that we have to look a certain way to be attractive.
In this harsh culture of beauty, we really need to dig deep. Everyone is beautiful,
fascinating and complex. When it comes down to what really matters to us, it is the
person we are and the person we strive to become, our physical appearance can only
carry us so far. We need to accept each other, and we need to accept ourselves because
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.

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Works Cited
Buchanan, Rose Troup. "Topshop at Centre of Row over Body Image as 'shocking'
Skinny Mannequin Photo Goes Viral." The Independent. Independent Digital
News and Media, 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/topshop-at-centre-of-row-over-bodyimage-as-shocking-skinny-mannequin-photo-goes-viral-9827771.html>.
Etcoff, Nancy. Survival of the Prettiest. New York: Doubleday Books, 1999.
Gandio, Jason. Rhetoric for Radicals a Handbook for 21st Century Activists. Gabriola
Island, B.C.: New Society, 2008. 114. Print.