Beauty

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Christie Valentine English 112-049 Robinson March 10, 2010 Research Paper Draft Audience: teen girls and their parents Every day it would be the same; Rachel would come to my dorm room and ask me and my roommate if we wanted to go eat lunch with her. We responded in relief, “Yes, I am starving!” She would surprise me of how much she would eat, but never gained that freshman fifteen. Right before we finished eating Rachel would always make an excuse to leave whether it was because she had work to do before her next or she was suppose to meet someone. At first we thought nothing of it and continued our meal. However, after a few weeks we began to put the pieces together. Rachel would eat an excessive amount with no problem, would leave meals early, and seemed depressed and antisocial. Finally, after one of the meals I followed her to see if she was ok. When I walked into her dorm room I heard her in her bathroom vomiting. At first I rushed to see if she was ok and then stopped realizing she had the eating disorder. I came to find out that Rachel had the eating disorder bulimia nervosa. This disorder is reoccurring episodes of binge eating followed by guilt self induced vomiting. Another popular eating disorder is anorexia nervosa which is the reduced appetite for food or the dismissal of food all together. Anorexia also causes a great psychological disorder along with serious physical issues. (Costin 28-35) Why do teen girls turn to eating disorders? The ultimate reason is because they want to be “beautiful.” But what is beauty? How is it defined? Because teen girls are not told what true beauty really is they pick up a magazine or see a movie and they are convinced that what they see in the media is the definition a beautiful. However, what they do not know is that most of the time images in the media are unrealistic and nearly impossible to attain. Therefore, teen girls work towards these unattainable images in the media and often pursue them in unhealthy ways. The media often turns girls to eating disorders, drugs, or plastic surgery in hopes of being “beautiful.” Teen girl’s views of beauty due to the media direct them in unhealthy paths to achieve this flawed standard. It is important for teen

girls to be informed of what the media does to create these perfect images and to show them what it means to be truly beautiful. It is impossible to have a standard of beauty when such a standard is constantly changing. Different cultures have different standards of beauty, therefore how can we limit being beautiful to an exact look? In China girls at the age of five were forced to bind their feet. Their feet were folded in half and wrapped in tight binding making it extremely painful to walk. The parents often tied their hands to a pole so they would not be able to undo the wrapping. The girls that were lucky would lose complete blood flow and feeling in their feet. Toes would often fall off and bone structure would eventually be destroyed. They were then forced into a small shoe every two weeks until their feet were small and delicate. Women in China with small feet were considered beautiful and delicate. One woman said, “The heel of my foot became odiferous and deteriorated. Because of the pain in my foot my whole body became emaciated. My face color changed and I couldn’t sleep at night.” When she was asked why she put herself through so much pain she replied, “no one wanted to marry a woman with big feet.” European women defined beauty as large foreheads and would pluck the hair line to create this image. In Africa girl’s heads were tightly wrapped in giraffe skin right after birth to keep the long slender cone shaped head. They also put plates in their lips to stretch them and hung heavy hoops off their ears to weigh them down. Originally the African women did this to make themselves less appealing to slave traders, but it then became a standard of beauty. The Burma people thought beauty was defined by a long elegant neck. Girls were forced to wear five metal rings around their neck at a young age eventually got up to twenty four rings creating about a fifteen inch neck. However, the weight of the rings also caused collapsed collar bones and ribs and a weak spinal cord through the neck. Because the women’s spinal cords were destroyed they were forced to wear the rings constantly to merely support their heads. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Romans thought glittering eyes were beautiful and dropped antimony sulphide in them to give them such an effect. However, the drops would dry out

their tear ducts and eventually cause blindness. In the Elizabethan age women were convinced that pale, porcelain skin was beautiful. Women accomplished this by painting their faces with ceruse, a combination of vinegar and lead. “Queen Elizabeth herself used ceruse so consistently that it ultimately ate pits into her skin, causing her to pile the paint on in thicker and thicker layers in hopes of camouflaging her growing imperfection. This in turn, only led to more corrosion, and the Virgin Queen’s face was ultimately so ravaged that she ordered all mirrors banned from the castle.” By the mid 1800s paint was considered cheap so women swallowed a mixture or vinegar and chalk which was poisonous and very dangerous. Women’s breasts have been a huge inconsistency of whether they are beautiful or not. In Ancient Greece women’s breasts were hidden and tightly bound. In Eurasia, The women wrapped their torsos tightly in leather until their wedding night when their husbands cut open the leather and their breasts were finally able to grow. In the 1800’s the curvy body was considered beautiful. Women wanted their breasts to be as fair as their face and necks and often painted on blue veins to create this image. However, by the 1920’s breasts were once again hidden, sometimes even folded over and bound to the body with elastic. With the invention of silicone in the breasts, curvy bodies were back in the 1950’s. Throughout the years women have always fought to be slim. Corsets were used to create a small waist. They were worn so tightly that women would often pass out because there was not enough oxygen reaching their brain. Along with corsets tight lacing was used. Women would not be able to lace themselves up because it was meant to be laced so tight that their natural instinct would not allow them to cause so much pain on themselves. In the 1930’s tapeworms were swallowed in order to lose weight. Also, ligaments were placed in the body to cut off the source of nourishment. The dangers women pursued to achieve a standard of beauty was extreme and still is today. (Hinig)

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