Cultural Event - "The Beauty Myth"

The cultural event I attended was an event held at the Gender Equity Center. The event was a discussion led by the Philosophy professor, Jessica Mayock. The discussion was about the unrealistic beauty standards that women face today, due to the definition of beauty that our society has that not many woman fulfill. Jessica Mayock discussed many issues regarding this topic, and why this has become a problem in our society today. For example, she mentioned how women are raised in a way that "trains" them to act a certain way, such as "throwing like a girl", instead of throwing correctly - all women have the ability to throw, but since we are raised in a way that teaches us that it's unfeminine to throw a ball correctly, we are trained to throw balls in a "girly" way. This phenomenon also applies to many other characteristics of women, such as enjoying makeup and clothing. While growing up, girls learn that wearing makeup and fashionable clothing is what girls are supposed to do, and that is what makes a woman attractive. Many girls really enjoy makeup and fashion, however, as Mayock stated, do girls really enjoy these things, or is it just manifestation of things we have been told and observed? We also discussed how our society's narrow definition of beauty affects women today. Generally, what is perceived as attractive, or the ideal woman, is a woman who is tall, slender, tan, has blonde straight hair, etc. Many woman do not fit into this definition, which has caused the majority of woman to experienced significant insecurities and lack of self confidence. Many of the women in the conference shared their experiences with dealing with society's standard of beauty, and how they feel about it. Many mentioned how they feel insecure about their weight, and how they envy other girls that have their desired weight. Others stated that they felt as if they had to wear makeup, or felt strange not wearing makeup since woman are basically expected to wear makeup. Mayock explained how all of these issues with appearance are due to the fact that society has created a very narrow standard of beauty. She also mentioned that this narrow standard of beauty is worsened due to the media as well. Overall, I think this discussion was very enlightening and it I think it was very interesting to learn about how society has programmed women to act a certain way and the effect that the narrow beauty standard has on ourselves and others.