So I know that we discussed Lady Gaga's impacts on society and theorized on her image, but what other modern day things could we theorize about?
An idea that I'd love to theorize about is how celebrities create this image about what it means to be beautiful. Society sees the typical beauty as a skinny figure, so where did this come from? I, however, think the super skinny figure to some girls makes them unattractive. Who created this specific image to beauty? Who is to judge what is beautiful and what is not? This all leads to the question of 'What is beauty'?
What do you guys think?
I agree with Jayme in the sense that different cultures define beauty differently. There is no one definition to beauty. It used to be thought that "plump" women were beautiful and showed their wealth. However, nowadays all that is shown in magazines are really skinny girls that normally do not have curves. This question also made me wonder who and when do people decide that these different types of beauty "go out of style" and are soon seen as unflattering.
ReplyDeleteYou guys have both brought up really interesting points about beauty. Like Jillian said, hundreds of years ago, fatter people were considered more desirable because they lived more lavish lifestyles. As recently as the early 20th century, whiter people were considered more attractive because it meant that they didn't work outside doing labor. I think that one of the reasons that society has come to except really skinny people as attractive, is because of the recent cultural emphasis on living healthy lifestyles, exercising, and losing weight. One of the major problems in America is obesity, and it is possibly that society's current ideal of beauty is an attempt to be as far away from that problem as possible.
ReplyDeleteI think since we live in such a media controlled society people can't get away from images and comments people make on what is beautiful and what is not. teenage girls are known for being super self conscious and it isn't hard to see why. typically magazines show people who are in shape or are really skinny and they usually point out "flaws" with people. but these flaws are usually totally normal on regular people but to look "perfect" and "beautiful" people think you must look these ways. so if the media wouldn't surround us with all this crap people would be a lot happier and a lot less self conscious.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that our culture defines what we think of as beautiful. Our culture also determines what we want to look like, what we value, and how we behave. Although some people want to go against mainstream culture and look or act differently, they are really being directed by culture too. It is providing something they want to oppose instead of conforming to. So, no matter who you are or what your view is concerning popular culture, your thoughts and actions are always to some degree affected by it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that beauty is defined differently all around the world. There are women in Africa that start to stretch their necks with rings from a very young age. Beauty in their culture is dependent on the length of their necks. But the crazy thing is that if they take the rings off their necks, their necks will snap. So, beauty in that culture comes with the ultimate price. But who decided that long necks are beautiful and why does everybody buy into that idea? "Who" defines beauty???
ReplyDeleteAlthough beauty is defined differently in different cultures, WHO defines this beauty in these cultures? How did it all begin? I would be very interested to find out how the stretching of a woman's neck came to be appealing to that country.
ReplyDeletei really like what nicki was bringing up about beauty in different cultures as well as what extremes people will go to for 'beauty.' Like african women who stretch their necks, Chinese women who would bind their feet, or women in our culture today who starve themselves and develop dangerous eating disorders to look 'beautiful.'
ReplyDeletei think that these ideas begin because someone, or a group of people begin to find some trait attractive, then the idea spreads until everybody agrees that it is attractive. Then people will begin to do extreme things, because everyone wants to be beautiful.