Jalynn Reeter English 101 Summary/Response Essay October 18, 2016
Beauty Standards
Why do American women try so hard to reach a standard of beauty that is simply untenable? This is the question Dave Barry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist, asks in the article entitled “The Ugly Truth about Beauty.” Barry talks about the differences between men and women’s personal appearances. Barry states that women are self conscious about their looks more than men are, and that women try a lot harder to look pretty then men do; I disagree with his point about how men form an opinion about themselves early and keep it for when they get older, but I found when he says women never see themselves as good enough and that men care about who’s more manly accurate. Women generally have a higher standard of beauty for themselves than men do, and, therefore, put in much more effort into how they look. Men do not worry about their appearance nearly as much as women. Generally, a man will deem himself as average-looking and then be content with this for the rest of his life; men will not go through hours of worrying about the way they look. Contrastingly, women tend to be less satisfied with their appearance and constantly try to change it. Barry says, “No matter how attractive a woman may appear to be to others, when she looks at herself in the mirror, she thinks: woof” (Barry par. 6). This constant self-judgement of how women look is caused by major self-esteem problems. Low self-esteem in women is attributed to ridiculous beauty standards set by society, causing women to compare themselves to barbie dolls and successful models. Men for the most part do not compare themselves to others and find ways to boost their self-esteem instead. While women may be spending hours on making themselves more beautiful, men don’t notice most of the effort women put into looking a certain way. Beauty standards for women are higher than men's because of the way beauty is portrayed in society, and men do not care about or put in near as many efforts as women do into their appearance. In the seventh grade, boys form an opinion about themselves, and even when they get older they still believe they still look the same; although I do not agree. Barry says, “Most men form the opinion of how they look in the seventh grade, and they stick to it for the rest of their lives” (Barry par. 4). I disagree with this statement because many men care about what they look like all the time. Just like women ask their friends to see if they look okay before going to talk to a guy, men ask each other how they look before they go over to a girl. They care about looks when they go out in public too. I have heard many times that men also get self conscious about their looks just as women would. Although most do not care as much as women, men do care about how they look, and their opinions about themselves do change as time precedes. Most of the time when women look at their own appearance, they think to themselves that they aren’t good enough, and I agree with that. Barry states, “ If I had to express, in three words, what I believe most women think about their appearance, those words would be, ‘not good enough’” (Barry par. 6). I think that women do think, most of the time, that they aren’t either good or pretty enough. Although sometimes there are women that don’t need a man to tell them that they are pretty. Most ladies who grow up with Barbie dolls or watching beautiful, famous people on television, also see that standard as unattainable. In some cases, aptitude just depends on the person, but most women, at some point, have had that thought of never being good enough. Instead of men saying they look better than one another, they will just boast about doing a better job at something or arguing about what job is “manlier,” and I can concur. Barry implies men as he says, “They would find some way to bolster their self-esteem that did not require looking like Brad Pitt” (Barry par. 9). I agree with this statement completely. Although men do care as well what they look like, I have been a witness of some arguments like this statement says. Many times boys will argue about who is either a “better” or “bigger” man. They do care about looks but more, in my opinion, about what makes them more masculine. The essay “The Ugly Truth about Beauty” has a very interesting topic that could lead to many more concerning issues. Dave Barry writes about the debate about women’s self esteem and whether men or women care about looks more can go either way depending on who is talking about it. Even though the standard of beauty is high, women still try to achieve it; I don’t agree Barry saying males forming an opinion young and keeping it though their life, but I do agree when he says women never are happy with their appearance and that men don’t care for appearances as much as mannerisms.
Works Cited Barry, Dave. “The Ugly Truth about Beauty.” Delta College, Delta College, 2008, https://www.deltacollege.edu/emp/pwall/documents/theuglytruthaboutbeauty.pdf.