THE BEAUTY CANON. NAOMI WOLF.

Naomi Wolf’s essay the beauty myth. The female identity. Create ideals of femininity,
these ideals that create beauty standards change from one society to another. For
certain societies a woman must be thin, in Africa a woman can be overweight. All
women from all societies, are forced to feel that they must comply with mainstream
beauty standards. These beauty standards will dictate your behavior daily. Women’s
identity. In societies that are still patriarchal societies, women are valuable if they are
beautiful. Your identity is defined by beauty. 2nd wave feminism is success? According
to Naomi Wolf it is. According to NW “Beauty is last belief system that keep male
dominance intact”. In the 19th century we have seen how women get empowered.
After the success of the 2nd wave feminism, men started to make women feel weaken.
The best way to weaken women is through mainstream beauty standards. The beauty
myth is about creating, standard features for female beauty. An attack against the
success of feminism. She considers that the beauty myth, is a tyranny to subordinate
women to men. She considers that the beauty myth has existed historically, but still
oppress women. “It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that
traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-
hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definite of ‘the flawless beauty’”.
The beauty myth regulates the relationship among women. You need to be this
flawless beauty to be able to establish relationship with men and women. She is going
to single out what she calls the perpetuators of the beauty myth. Tv and films,
women’s magazines, internet & social networks, pornography industry, money-
oriented fashion and beauty industries and their advertising. You have to look thin,
smooth skin, take care of your hair, better if it is long, flawless skin, white, blonde,
small nose. Western canon of beauty overview. In societies like our western society,
you spend most of your lives being unhappy, Naomi is telling that most women are
unhappy, because most of their lives they are not young. Naomi is telling that average
women like you who have constant pressure, you have to physically comply with
standards, but most of the time you cannot do that. Most of the time you think that
you are old, that you are ugly. Most of the time you feel anxiety, lack of self-steamed,
and self-hatred. Do not comply with beauty standards. The pornography industry
harms the women images. It is what men expect from women. NW considers that
pornography is very negative, also she considers that the beauty industries, are
conspirators of the beauty myth, they are businesses. By forcing women to buy things
that they do not need, to comply with the beauty myth, with standards of beauty, to
look less ugly, less old. She is telling that the pressure on women is too high, they must
comply with the beauty myth. The canon of beauty is the major obsession of women, it
becomes in certain cases the most important factor in their lives. This is what happens
in Western Societies. Women are rules by their beauty. The beauty myth is also
negative because can lead women to unhealthy behavior. A diet, eating healthy, and
do exercise is positive for our health, however, sometimes the pressure of the beauty
myth on women lead women to an obsession with these activities. Sometimes it is not
enough to reach the beauty canon. Women or at least some women are fighting to
reach the beauty myth, it guides their lives, they are obsessed with their physical
appearance. Consequence of not reaching the beaty myth? Obviously, what happens
to you lacks self-esteem, ugly and old. It leads to plastic surgery, anorexia nervosa, and
becoming target of male/social criticism. Failing to incarnate beauty standards, social
criticism in today society of mases, where your individual identity as a woman is not
take into consideration. All what matters is your beauty. This society does not care
about individual identity, all what cares is if you comply with the beauty myth, if not,
then you are going to be attacked by society.
Third wave feminisms, means a diversity of women.
Jhumpa Lahiri, Indian origins.
She writes about Indians as immigrants in the USA. Conflict between the east and the
west. The lack of communication between the east and the west.
Irish woman writer, Eavan Boland, she writes about Ireland, about women, and she
writes poems about Irish women.
Grace Nichols, from Guyana – Great Britain, a territory in South America. Emigrated to
Britain in the 1970s, how a woman feels that she does not comply with the beauty
standards due to her race. She writes poetry about the female experiences of
immigrants. Writes about black women, women of color, how much they suffer in the
Western Society, in White society.

JHUMPA LAHIRI (1967- ) “SEXY”

Main message for you as a woman? Why did you find that this story is interesting in
this gender studies? To be loved by a man. Lack of sisterhood among women. Woman
being brainwashed internalized in these beauty standards. These standards have been
internalized. Belongs to the collection The interpret of Maladies. Also, a story of
adultery, extramarital affair between a man and a woman in Boston, USA. Dev, a
mature man, married man. She is an educated woman, a young, educated working
woman, economical independent. He is from West Bengal. Mutual objectification. Dev
objectifies Miranda, as men objectifies women. Women can also objectify men. How
Dev objectifies Miranda, and in What way Miranda objectifies him? She fetichizes him,
because he is from another culture, because he is more mature than her. Objectifies
him because he has dark skin and more experiences. Of course, it is mainly about how
Dev eroticizes Miranda. Miranda represents the white canon of beauty, she represents
whiteness, what is what she has? Her legs. She has long legs, that is what seduces the
eyes of Dev. American women have long legs according to Dev. We do not see the legs
of Indian women, there are covered by dresses. So, for Dev, he is sexually attracted to
Miranda, because she represents the West canon of beauty. Her legs, because a wife is
sexually accessible for an Indian man. But, the body of the Indian women, must be
hidden with clothes. They cannot dress liberally. For Dev, Miranda represents the
female other. Simone De Beauvoir. She is an American woman. The youth, the beauty
and the whiteness of Miranda. She is sexy in the way that she can wear liberal clothes.
Beginning. Miranda hearing gossips from her Indian Friend. The case of adultery
committed by a man of her family. She cheated on her wife. Also, Miranda is going to
have a casual encounter with Dev? The origin of this sexual love happens where? In a
beauty store, in a shop. What is what Jhumpa is telling about the origin. Something
superficial, in a beauty store, where women go to buy beauty products. Miranda and
Dev are going to date, and have sex, although she knows that she is going to have a
love affair for her with a married man. She is going to be curious about the physical
appearance of Dev. Dev’s wife is absent, he is alone in Boston. We will know that later,
Dev’s wife will return to the USA. Dev and Miranda cannot see each other as they have
been doing. Miranda becomes curious about the physical appearance of Dev’s wife.
Miranda asks him what is your wife looks like? His wife reassembles “an actress in
Bombay named Madhuri Dixit”. Definition of his wife. Who is her, she was a leading
actress of the Bollywood industry in India? Bollywood imitating Hollywood, a very
popular Hindi language. It is a large movie making industry. Very popular. City of
Bombay. Role, to create beauty standards for women, and to regulate women’s
behavior. Indian women they must comply with beauty standards and with decent
moral behavior according to the standards set by Bollywood. She is obsessed with her
wife and the actress. When Miranda is already a lover, she goes to an Indian beauty
shop, very often in Bollywood women, we have scenes of women dancing. She is going
to watch a Bollywood song and dance. “She sees Indian women wearing skirts that sat
low on the hips and tops tied like bandannas between their breasts. Some leaned back
against a stone wall, or a tree. They were beautiful, the way the women dancing on the
beach were beautiful, with Kohl-rimmed eyes and long black hair. She knew then that
Madhuri Dixit was beautiful.” What is the meaning of beautiful? Repetition of the word
beautiful. Realization of the beauty of Dev’s wife. The arrow of beauty can go the other
way around. Embracing the beauty canon of the West. Women from the East are force
to embrace the canon of beauty from the West, because the West rules the world.
How a woman from the west, white American woman, wants to reassemble a woman
from the East, because of their beauty. Why is this happening? Male approval. A man
is the reason, is what makes the beauty arrow to change its direction. A woman from
the West who wants to look like a woman from the East. Provincial origins of Miranda.
Her origins are insignificant, she feels insignificant, but Dev’s wife represents
Bollywood, something cosmopolitan, beauty, attractive. She feels provincial. We know
that she falls in love with Dev. She is infatuated with Dev’s oldness. A woman needs to
satisfy the desires of a man, and she changes her name to Indianized it, form Miranda
she wants to be called, Mira. She also learns the Bengal alphabet; she wants to learn
Hindi words from menus in Indian restaurants. She wants to express her Indian
kindness, her appreciation for Indian culture. She engages in a process of Indianization.
How an American woman like her, makes great efforts to overcome her ignorance
about India. Beauty. Sexual attraction between Dev and Miranda. Admiration and love
from Miranda’s feelings. Superficial values. The relationship between them is
grounded upon pillars that are artificial and very week. Beauty Shop. Does she need to
buy anti-aged creams? No. She does not abandon the Beauty Store, because she has
seen the very attractive older man. She only bought cosmetics to interact with Dev.
The love affair is based on superficiality. What is Miranda’s age? 22 years. The
seduction of the sales assistant, her goal is to make money by selling the beauty
products. “You are only 22 but wrinkles will soon appear on your face […] to remain
young and beautiful.” Seduction of the beauty industry. She wants Dev to consider her
sexy. She buys clothes to surprise her lover. She becomes Dev’s mistress. She buys
clothes that “a mistress should have”. What are these clothes? Sexy clothes. Tight
dress that can be seen the female body through. She buys a rope. Is a silver dress. A
sexy dress. What is what the saleswoman does to seduce Miranda? That Dev “will
want to rip it right off you”. She is living the fantasy of the mistress. She feels like an
adult woman. As a young woman, she feels an adult woman if she wears sexy clothes,
because the man who she is in love with, will love them. Now that I have bought sexy
clothes, the encounter will be very romantic. What happens really? She is wearing gym
clothes. Before his wife, he couldn’t meet that often with him. The mistress is there,
she loves him, He does not need to make efforts to seduce her. Sexually or visually, she
starts to wear gym clothes. Can they meet daily? No. They meet on Sunday. What is his
excuse to leave the Indian home? Jogging. That is the excuse for Dev to visit Miranda.
Perfect excuse to keep their relationship in secrecy. He makes no effort. What is what
he does with her clothes, he rips it off. Dev does not notice that Miranda is wearing
sexy clothes, because the only thing that he wants is that she gets naked, and they
have sex. He keeps her as a secret from his wife. Encounter between Miranda and
young boy. Rohin. Indian neighbor of a friend. What do we know about Rohin? The
gossips about the adultery. Rohin’s father, is the one who is an adulterous man. What
is what Miranda did? He calls her sexy. Rohin calls her sexy because she starts of
model in front of him with the clothes. Miranda has this strange question from this
little Indian boy? Can you wear that dress? The sexy dress that Miranda bought to
fulfill Dev’s desires. She obeys and wears it. Surprised by Rohin precocity. Then
Miranda asks Rohin what is sexy? Definition of Sexy: “Loving someone that you do not
know […] that’s what my father did. He sat next to someone he didn’t know, someone
sexy, and now he loves her instead of my mother. Why is it important? That Dev called
her sexy in the first place. No American man. Therefore, it is so important. The word
sexy, does not have a meaning like Beauty. She incarnates beauty standards. For
Rohin, only a mistress can be sexy, but these white mistresses, threaten the ideal of
proper femininity. She is dangerous for the stability of an Indian family. She will never
be beautiful as a mistress, mistress is only sexy. After Rohin’s encounter she feels guilty
for having a sexual affair with a married man. Miranda felt special, because Dev calls
her sexy, however, knowing the Indian definition of sexy, she feels guilty. She realizes
that Dev will never love her, she is only an erotic object. She cannot be beautiful. She
will never fulfill Dev as a wife. We see in this story how an identity crisis is undergone
by Miranda. She is vulnerable, although she is white. The journey of Miranda from
Ignorance to Experience, from being Naïve into maturity. She finished with the
relationship. Although she loves him, Dev wanted to control Miranda, but did not want
to know her better. Only as an object to satisfy his sexual appetite. Miranda realizes
that Dev used her for sexual purposes. Miranda was happy before, now she is not
happy any longer, being sexy only means that a man abuses your American youth,
beauty. She reaches self-knowledge.

EAVAN BOLAND’S “ANOREXIC” (1980)

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder suffer by men and women alive. Anorexia’s in
women. The thin woman refuses to keep a normal body weight. She has a disturbing
picture of her physical appearance. Distorted image of their body shape. Your body is
too fat, not attracted, and in order to look more attractive, you engage in self
starvation. Afraid of being fat. What is what you are afraid of? Gaining weight. It leads
to health complications. A manorial, mental problems, and even death. Best literary
work on the perspective of an anorexic woman. Who do we have in this poem? A
female speaker, a woman undertaking a war against her own body. The female
speaker has an angry and a violent war against her own body. Self-starvation in order
to win the war for the anorexic woman against her own body. A witch. She calls her
body a witch. She calls her body ‘she’. Alienated from her own body. The bell jar, how
Ester feels alienated by her own body. Suicide. Division of the self, the body vs. the
mind. The body is the enemy of the mind. The body is not her body, because she hates
her body, it is a witch, it is a ‘She’. She wants to kill her body. Her body is her enemy.
She wants her body to die. Detached from her body. What happens in the mind of an
anorexic woman? That she hates herself. The only solution to respect herself, is to
destroy the part of herself that she dislikes, her body. The suicidal woman, like the
anorexic woman, cannot love herself, the only solution is to destroy the part of herself
that she hates. Her own body. Symbols of Christianity. In the book of Genesis with Eve.
She uses symbols of Christianity in order to discuss the life of an anorexic woman.
Food, hunger and starvation. Symbol, the most important one it’s the reference to the
Original Sin. To return to that rib, to abandon the female body. The rib means purity.
Allusion to the original sin. She wants to be an Eve, returning to Adam’s rib. Genesis,
the bible, in which Eve would return to Adam’s rib. To return to the bone, to forget
about the fact that you have a sexual body as a woman, that you have sexual
attributes. Comes from a country like Ireland, very religious. She also uses Christianity
to tell us that it creates guilt in women. Hungry of food the same way you are hungry
for sex. You have to liberate from the hunger of food. Irish woman, food sexual desire,
you have to get liberated. Particular war initiated against her body. Against her
curveless, her genitals. That is the part that you have to destroy. The female body is
sexual. What you need to burn is the witch in yourself. Salem Witchcraft Trials. Some
women were accused of being witches. Burn them alive. Anorexic woman needs to kill
the witch who is inside the anorexic woman who is hungry. My body is a witch and
flesh. Witches were a danger against God and Christianity. In the mind of the anorexic
women, hunger for sex the same why hunger for food. Denying the desires of her
body. Food, and sex. You need to punish your body. That is what makes you a sinner.
She feels that she needs to be punished by needs of self-starvation. You need to
control temptation. You need to sacrifice your body in order to empower your mind.
Dichotomy. Division of the self. Punishing your body. This poem is a social critic.
Society forces women to be thin, to control their body weight. But the speaker of the
poem is so affected that she destroys her own body, she considers that her own body
is evil. She feels empower by destroying her body, the witch inside her body. Mentally
empowered. Traditionally in patriarchal societies witches has been forced by man to
be burnt alive. Your mind has internalized that you are unworthy, a sinner, ugly, that
you do not need anyone. You do not need someone to kill it, you can kill it by self-
starvation. Women are brainwashed. She is capable of killing and punishing her own
body. Sinless = Foodless.

GRACE NICHOLS’ S POEMS

Collection The fat black women poems.

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