Tiffany Bell

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102
4/1/16
Reflection
I have completed my first view pages of my thesis. Overall Im trying to create good
conversation that doesnt just have my voice or too much of other authors voice. I have used the
They Say, I Say book, and used their templates. Their templates were great to help me
transition from they say to what I have to say. After my conference I have gotten a lot of useful
feedback! I plan to continue with what I am doing but I need to try and elaborate what I am
saying, if it is not common knowledge. As I got to page 6, it got harder for me to tie everything
together. I used part 3 of the book They Say, I Say to attempt to tie it altogether.
Ideal Beauty
To all the girls that think youre fat because youre not a size zero, youre the beautiful one, its
society whos ugly.
-

Marilyn Monroe -- actress 1950s

For as long as I can remember, I have always viewed beauty as important. As a kid I
would constantly watch cartoons and movies with woman who had the same features: bigger
eyes or sexy eyes, perfect eyebrows with an arch, longer eyelashes, slender nose, smaller lips,
curvy body, longer legs, and a small waist with larger hips. Every single one of my childhood
favorite movies consisted of a female character with these features. Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel,

Belle, Jane, Jasmine, the list goes on and on. Now that I look back on the old days, I recall
myself whining and crying to my mother about how I wanted to be beautiful, how I wanted to
have smaller thighs and longer hair. But, what is beautiful? What qualifies someone or something
to be more beautiful or attractive than another?
There are so many definitions of the word beauty. A phrase that is common for beauty is
beauty is in the eye of the beholder. By claiming beauty is determined by the beholder, the
statement overlooks that a person should find beauty in themselves and not rely on others to say
they are beautiful. However our society, culture and family create this standard of beauty for
women and young girls to follow. After watching the video, A New Standard of Beauty, the
speaker Amber Starks gave me the idea to Google beautiful women. I was astounded at what my
result were. It was all different woman, but woman, with the same features I mentioned above. In
her article, Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with
Media Ideals, Renee Engeln-Maddox suggest that Depending on the individual, a range of other
beauty-related attributes may be essential when it comes to meeting the ideal (e.g., flawless skin,
well-styled hair, attractive facial features) (258). In other words, Maddox argues skin, hair and
facial feature matter in the standard beauty. Although I agree with Maddox up to a point, I cannot
ignore that body image and body shape also matter.
I argue that there is a direct correlation with the, so called-- standard of beauty and
womens body image, referring to their weight. The article, Womens Body Image and BMI, A
Look at the Evolution of the Female Figure, outlines how body image has changed in media

throughout a 100 years. Their analysis shows that over the course of time the female icons in the
media have ultimately decreased in weight/size. They use BMI as a weight indicator. BMI is
body mass index; this is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Normal BMI is
around 19, underweight BMI is 16 and lower and overweight BMI is 25 to 30. They show how in
1950 Marilyn Monroes BMI was merely 20 and as the years passed the BMI of the female icons
decreased year by year. In their view, As the size of the average woman continued to increase,
growing to 27.5 in the 2000s, models and actresses maintained what is by comparison a superthin look. Overall models BMI have decreased year by year, in the 1950s the average model
BMI was 20; whereas, models now have a BMI of 16 and below. The point is that media is not
portraying average women, which is having effect on womens self-esteem, creating this ideal
image.
This standard isnt just in magazines, movies and television it is also in music and music
videos. Many of Hip Hop and R&B lyrics and videos portray women with certain characteristics,
such as, lighter skin, curvy voluptuous body and long hair. In my opinion music influences our
generation; we listen to what the artist says and receive their message. Although I believe there
are artist who contribute to the ideal image, I also believe there are artist that give a positive
message to women. For example, J. Cole, a rap artist wrote a song inspiring not only women but
everyone, called The Crooked Smile. J. Cole recites these inspiring words Killing yourself to
find a man thatll kill for you You wake up, put makeup on , stare in the mirror but its clear
that you cant face whats wrong No need to fix what God already put his paintbrush on. He is

not the only artist that wants to contribute a positive message to their fans. Jazmine Sullivan,
Grammy-nominated songwriter and singer was recently on the cover of Ebonys The Body
Brigade issue, along with several other full figured woman. In her interview article with
Huffington Post they write, Sullivan says she acknowledges the importance of promoting
positive messages around body image in her role as an entertainer(Williams). Ultimately, what
is at stake here is young girls and women's self-esteem. All this evidence had me wondering,
how does the standard of beauty affect womens lives?

Work Cited
Balcetis, E., Cole S, Chelberg M. and Alicke M. Searching Out the Ideal: Awareness of
Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-esteem in Women. Self and Identity,
12:1 (2013), 99-113. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.
Engeln-Maddox, Renee. Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life?
Expectations Associated With Media Ideals Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30 (2006),
258-266. Web 27 Mar. 2016.

Saint Louis, Catherine. Up the Career Ladder, Lipstick in Hand. Skin Deep. New York
Times 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Schmidt, Erica, schmidt693.The Objectification of Women and Misogyny in Hip Hop
Music. Department of Womens, Gender and Sexuality Studies. WordPress.com. Web. 04
Apr. 2016.
Starks, Amber. A New Standard of Beauty. Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube,
TEDxPortland, 16 Jul. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Williams, Brennan. Jazmine Sullivans Refreshingly Real Perspective on Body Image
and Representation. Huffpost Black Voices. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. 23 Mar. 2016.
Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Womens Body Image and BMI, A Look at the Evolution of the Female Figure Over 100
Years. Body Image and BMI. Rehabs.com. 28 Mar. 2016.