Beauty: When The Other Dance Is The Self

Jane has gotten used to cruelty and biased behavior towards her average looks, and develops a miserable self-esteem that believes the only possible way to describe her exterior is “plain”. This self-esteem prevents her from even beginning to recognize that anyone could appreciate her or find her beautiful in any manner. The society’s typical reactions and judgments shaped Jane’s self-esteem, and prevented her from receiving equal treatment as that of a beautiful woman.

When the word “beauty” is used, most people think of a female with a fit body shape, hairless body and light skin color which is wrong because of all these types of attitudes impact on a woman’s life. In “Through the Mirror of Beauty Culture”, Rice argues that we should rethink the concept of beauty and rely on “beauty myth”. The main focus is to explore different methods of how the society and cultural visualizing have shaped women’s appearance. As you may recall, the body plays a major role in a woman's life because it affects her self-esteem, psychological health and character. The author describes a variety of different types of “body projects” or “self-making projects” which people with body dissatisfaction practice to protect themselves

“Beauty” by Tony Hoagland was written in 1998. In this poem, Hoagland expresses his feelings on how women care too much about physical appearances. Throughout his poem he tells the story through the eyes of a brother of a girl who learns to love herself for who she is. Hoagland’s poem stresses the importance that beauty goes deeper than the surface. Throughout his poem, Tony Hoagland uses many literary devices to perfect his poem. These devices include the message, tone, imagery, figures of speech, and personification.

The short story/essay “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” written by Alice Walker demonstrates the story of Alice accepting herself despite her flaws. As a child, Alice is a pretty, outgoing, and messy girl; but that all changes in a matter of seconds. Alice loses sight in one of her eyes, changing her perspective on life for a majority of her life. She went from the outgoing girl whom everybody seems to love, to the girl that doesn’t look up anymore in fear people will see her messed up eye. Growing up in 1947 with her family, she is not a rich child, in fact, almost dirt poor, so her parents can’t afford a car to take her to the hospital, contributing to her losing sight in her eye. Although she tells her parents a reason causing her to injure her eye, it is a lie, so that she is able to protect her siblings from becoming in trouble. Alice Walker demonstrates a theme of lying to protect siblings in her life which I can relate to because I oftenly as a child had to lie to protect my siblings as well.

Almost everyone in the world feels a need to belong. When searching for one’s own identity, the questions of where power lies and who disperses it derive. The choices to separate, conform and individualize play the most significant role in identity because those choices refer individuals to the people they associate with. Deirdre N. McCloskey’s “Yes, Ma’am” and Alice Walker’s “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” relate in finding an identity and self-accepting oneself.

The term beauty applies to each and every person. Today, so much value is placed on a person’s physical appearance. Appealing girls and guys are known to be as gorgeous and captivating, and those individuals who don’t meet society’s standards of “beauty” are scorned or ridiculed. They have control over those who choose to listen, and those type of people are the reason why we haven’t come to realize what the true meaning beauty is. Their definition would be something plastic and naturally stupid, something relevant as a barbie. It is something with not enough common sense to know that all that fake material can potentially damage you. Those who do not agree with society tend not to be a part of it.

A person’s perception of anything is always influenced by their experiences. Alice Walker, the writer of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, is no different in regards to her perception of beauty. Walker uses various stylistic elements throughout her writing to convey her shifting outlook toward her own beauty. She also employs various rhetorical strategies in order to deliver a clear and luring story that keeps the reader engaged as she describes her life as a flashback. Walker uses the accident that happens during her childhood to prove that one’s mindset can be altered because of a profound experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a conceited and arrogant child into a newly reborn woman who sees a new kind of

Everyday people stare at billboards, magazine covers, movies, television, or pictures on the Internet of someone or something that they classify as beautiful. Some things people glance over and other things fascinate them. For example, when Farrah Fawcett’s famous picture of her in her red bathing suit came out; many teenage boys hung that picture in their bedrooms. Their idea of Farrah’s beauty was based strictly her outward appearance.

The central message of this work is that society is obsessed with appearances. The point the author is trying to make is beauty should not be the most important trait of a person. In today’s society everything is based on looks, people are more concerned about a person’s outward appearance. People strive to

Beauty is said to be in the eyes of the beholder, but it is rather society that seems to dictate precisely what is beautiful and what is not. In a masterfully done and chilling episode of “The Twilight Zone”, they comment on what exactly is beauty, and how it is society that defines what is and what isn’t beauty (Serling). This episode of the Twilight Zone depicts a beautiful woman undergoing facial reconstruction surgery and emerging gorgeous by our standards, yet she is rejected by the doctors and nurses that surround her who are hideous to us. No matter how gorgeous a woman may be after her surgery, if she does not align with what is considered to be the norm, then she is ugly. This is especially damaging when false beauty advertisement is taken into account, and how that is the standard to which all women are compared.

Beauty is seen as one of the most important aspects of an individual as it the first characteristic someone notices about a person. Some are treated differently due to his or her aesthetically pleasing or displeasing face and is most evident in the book Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis that takes place approximately in the time period 700 to 450 B.C. In the novel Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis the three central female characters, Orual, Psyche, and Redival, are all regarded to differently based on their physical appearances and this attitude is prevalent in modern society.

Throughout history, beauty standards have been enforced on females. They are taught what the ideal beauty is by the media and current culture of that time. Society creates certain expectations that require women to look a certain way to be beautiful and if not they are considered ugly. They change their appearances in order to conform to the established beauty standard and often lose a part of their identity in the process. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she captures the struggle young girls and women face to meet the expectations that popular culture has on the ideal beauty in the early 1940s.

Feminism plays a large role in many dance styles in today's society. It is a key tool to use while teaching younger students as proved by the women showcased in the films provided as well as in the articles, “The lens in which I look through everything now is feminist theory and pedagogy” (Jennifer Bolt). Throughout the interview, Bolt touched on how she felt as if she had a loss of voice when it came to fighting for the dance program, it connects back to her learning about how women had to fight for their voice in society when she was just a girl. Claire Wooten explained how she tended to steer away from what she called “The F word” (Wooten) when directing her classes due to how announcing feminist theory right off the bat seemed to put people off. Wooten stated she directed her classes from an emancipatory standpoint, attempting to remove herself from the equation to heighten student experience and self-progression.

Who was Vermeer? Johannes Vermeer was a 17th century master painter who was known to create some of the world's most vibrant paintings. His early works include a painting titled "Girl Asleep at the Table." He later painted "Little Street" and "View of Delft”, then “The Procuress”. He also explored mythology in "Diana and Her Companions", and religion in "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha". After 1660, his style changed and became very unique. During this time period Vermeer is best known for his "pearl pictures," which include "The Concert" and "Women with a Water Jug", as well as an exceptional painting named "Girl with a Pearl Earring". His works of art were most likely not created or aided by mechanical devices as many claim, but by

Beauty sets standards for society through appearance, especially in younger generations due to use of social media and picture editing. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” is a saying that has been around for ages (Plato, n.p.). It is an accurate phrase because of contrasting views within particular individuals. Beauty is present in the good deeds of community members as well as the unity exhibited through dreadful events. It is a flower bud breaking through the dirt into the fresh, spring air. To clarify how beauty is viewed, it is often times the exposure of evil accounting for the new appreciation of something beautiful. After recognizing the privileges we acquire, the existence of beauty is revealed and expressed more easily. In current society, appreciating beauty is substantial to