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

Ambrose Bierce (1958) once wrote, To men a man is further a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But womans body is the woman. Despite the societal changes achieved since Bierces time, his statement remains true. Since the height of the feminist movement in the early on 1970s, women have spent more money than ever before on products and treatments designed to make them beautiful. Cosmetic sales have increased p.a. to reach $18 billion in 1987 (Ignoring the economy. . . , 1989), sales of womens article of clothing aver mount upd $103 billion per month in 1990 ( in-person communication, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1992), dieting has get a $30-billion-per-year industry (Stoffel, 1989), and women spent $1.2 billion on cosmetic operation in 1990 (personal communication, American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, 1992). The importance of looker has apparently increased even as women are reaching for personal freedoms and economic rights undreamed of by our grandm otherwises. The emphasis on beauty may be a way to hold onto a feminine mountain range while shedding feminine roles. showyness is prerequisite for femininity but not for masculinity (Freedman, 1986). The word beauty always refers to the female body. Attractive male bodies are described as hapsome, a word derived from hand that refers as much to action as appearance (Freedman, 1986). Qualities of achievement and stance accompany the term handsome, such attributes are rarely employed in the description of attractive women and certainly do not accompany the term beauty, which refers just now to a decorative quality. Men are instrumental, women are ornamental.Beauty is a most elusive commodity. Ideas of what is beautiful vary across 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. New York Times, p. C17.Thompson, J. Kevin. (1986, April). Larger than life. Psychology 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 attractiveness in dating behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 508-16. Wernick, Mark, & Manaster, Guy J. (1984). Age 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.