Respond to "The Ugly Truth About Beauty" by Dave Barry (Longman text, pp. 368 ff.) You might build on the pre-reading journal entry as well as #5 on page 371. OR Along the lines of Mrs. Makovsky and Mrs. Ferrill, post a reaction to an opinion/editorial article, such as we sampled in class. Be sure to indicate title, author, and publication data.
20 comments:
Commercials and ads are everywhere at all times. The people portrayed in these ads are usually ones that the general population would deem attractive. Because of these commercials and ads, teenagers and people who see them believe that they should look like people on T.V. Certain physical traits have become more important than others. For example having perfect shiny hair is an object of desire, along with a toned skinny body and clear skin. Men may envy big muscles also. As long as commercials and ads are around, nobody is going to be completly satisfied with their apperance.
Male and female attractiveness dictated by mass media is a big part of how we view others and ourselves. The men and women are tall, thin, and fit. They have bright white teeth and accidently perfect hair. An ever present smile and laughter is attractive and sells products from clothes to gum. The man must be strong and smart. The woman must either be smart or a little on the ditzy side. But a huge part is their ever present happiness and vivacious way of life.
~Aubry
Last weekend, the main event of the month premiered, the Super Bowl. Millions of viewers in the United States tuned in to watch the Giants attempt to thwart the Patriots for an unlikely scenario. Or so it seemed. We like to watch the game behind real time so we can fast forward through the game and watch the commercials (Devin’s parents). In truth, it seems the most valuable entertainment during the Super Bowl are the commercials themselves; so how is beauty portrayed to the billions of viewers who take bathroom breaks during Eli Manning’s offensive drive to avoid missing the commercials? One particular commercial stands out in my mind. Victoria’s Secret put out an add displaying a gorgeous woman wearing a black duo of practically nothing. But what was enticing about her? She was about as big around as one of my legs, she had brilliant, shiny hair and skin that was masked by make-up but appeared flawless. Being in a room where the guys slightly outnumbered the women, there were ungentlemanly words exchanged between the fellows and the expected reaction from the woman, “You guys are filthy pigs.” But in their mind, they were only wishful that they could get a reaction like that from men. So naturally, Victoria’s Secret is where they are shopping this weekend for their undergarments. The advertisement worked, but is that a healthy image to send the women and men of America? It is not different when the girls in the room obsess over the godly figure of Tom Brady and make the guys in the room only dream of the same female attention. However, the apparent balance of ideal figures of men and women in the media does not mean that a healthy message is being passed on to the youth of the country. Boys who don’t look like and throw a football like Tom Brady will feel they are doomed for the inevitable chasing of girls in their future. Similarly, girls will feel unworthy of chasing if their curves are not like those of the supermodels they see on T.V. As a male, I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t find the Victoria’s Secret model very attractive, but I believe something needs to be done to counteract the impression the media leaves in the minds of the youth of this country.--Devin
Dave Barry certainly got the guy’s morning preparation right in dealing with beauty when saying that all that guys really do is shave, and sometimes they won’t even do that. I don’t know what girls do in the morning, but Dave Barry is probably pretty close with their morning regimen. It makes sense when hearing about the times that some girls get up in the morning to prepare for school when it is sometimes an hour earlier than most guys. I wake up for school at about 7:30 for school when I have first off. My friend who wakes up at a similar time has a sister that wakes up at 6:00 when she has first off. Although I do not know if this is true for most girls, it certainly makes me wonder what they could possibly do with the hour before most guys get up at. Overall, I thought Dave Barry’s article was funny and pretty truthful. --Sean Burke
"The Ugly Truth About Beauty" by Dave Barry is a true reflection on life. TV advertisements definitely portray a certain type of attractiveness in men and especially women. While true, it is sad that so many women are so focused on what they look like while men could usually care less. I think this is party due to the fact that commercial advertising focuses more on how women should look instead of men. While men in advertising usually have looks beyond the average man, there are entire magazines and books devoted to how women should look and like Barry said, a "multibillion-dollar beauty industry devoted to convincing women that they must try [to look like Barbie]." Women feel like they should always ask others how they look just to get the confidence boost that should come with the answer. --Ali
In Dave Barry's "The Ugly Truth About Beauty" (Longman text, pp. 368), he concludes that women do, in fact, hate themselves and their appearance. Sadly, I think he is right. But, he is wrong about why. Women do not try impressing men, but other women.
Barry argues that a woman's obsession over details men never notice is unneccesary, but it is not. Men may never notice fingernails, but trust me, women do. The modern world discusses this sisterhood of women. But men, don't fret. There is no such sisterhood. If there was though, the sisterhood would be more of a violent civil war, characterized by frequent coup de tas, and Shakespearean assassinations, than a peaceful conglomeration of the female sex. So, the french tips are not for Robert in fourth hour, but Sally in first hour.
Barry, being the man that he is, thinks a woman's world revolves around a man's world. Poor, sad little Barry. Women don't care that much. Think. Why do teenage girls date as much as they do? Is it because teenage guys are such a delight to be around? (no offense :) ) It's because the other girls will think there is something wrong with them if they don't have a man. Certainly, like Barry says, we look at Barbie and Barbie looks at Ken, but Ken is plastic and the only one really looking at Barbie is the seven year-old girl, who in ten years will be trying to look like Barbie, so that other girls will "play" with her.
In short, if women would just deal with the insecurity, acting kindly toward one another, we could spend less money on the haircuts, the fingernails, and the eyebrows that men NEVER notice (unless, it's some sort of garish attempt at sending a signal to the Mars Rover). Though Barry may have come to an accurate conclusion, his cause is not to his effect. –Ashley
Every day we are faced with seeing attractive people. Not merely on TV or in magazines, but right here in the halls of Arapahoe. To every person, someone else is attractive. However, it seems that more and more attractiveness is defined solely on physical characteristics. Images of perfectly proportioned, perfectly toned, colored and perfectly whitened teeth women are all we see. And whose arm do they happen to be dangling from? The attractive man who has the intelligence of a soap dish, yet, somehow, young men aspire to be him, why? Because of his attractive looking accessory. Mind you, if you ever sat down to have a conversation with either of these people, it would be equivalent in substance to making an attempt at speaking with someone in a coma.
All these images seem so outwardly positive, but one must analyze the underlying negativity that truly resides within them. It used to be that all women had average beauty. It was simply an accepted fact that all women were average, because there was always someone more attractive and less attractive than they. Thus, they would move on in life to have an average job and marry an average husband, and this was everyone’s average life, and no one really complained. Now that you factor in this whole idea of "attractiveness," there is a very thin line drawn on the ground. One's distance from this line varies directly with the amount of clothing one wears. In other words, the more clothing you wear, the farther you are from the line, the less clothing you wear, the closer you are to being attractive. However, it is possible to cross this line. And once you have crossed the line you once again become unattractive, perhaps maybe even more so with distaste and labeled lewd. Thus it seems impossible for one to ever do anything right in the ways of becoming attractive, yet no one can realize this, everyone is too dumbfounded with wasting time and money on trying.
Thus, the ones who are already insanely attractive secretly know they are, but would never say it and waste brain cells trying to uphold this ideal. The normal looking people lack self esteem, and unattractive people, particularly the overweight, use this whole idea as an excuse to blame all of their problems on, and give a false, arrogant front of self confidence, and cry and continue to eat mass amounts of food when alone.
What's worse is the amount of money wasted on trying to look attractive. Why can't intelligence be attractive? What ever happened to the old fashioned boys and studious, intelligent girls who fell in love simply because they shared the same values and ideals? This may be going out of style simply because of how unattractive that situation seems to people, and how much scholarly work is ignored and time wasted on pulling off the "perfect" look. The difference between today and back then? Nobody is really any more or less attractive, just back then everyone believed that they were, they really truly did, and maybe no one was around to tell them otherwise, but it's really our fault for allowing people to define attractiveness for us, when the only attractive aspect they see in us is our money. –Jordan Senior
Quite obviously, everyone has the desire to look perfect. Everyone has the secret hope that they will wake up one day and look amazing. As Devin acknowledged, this last weekend the Superbowl was on. I felt like most ads were focused on making people feel bad about themselves but in a good way. The advertisers wanted us, though mostly women, to feel like they need to rush to Victoria’s Secret or like places in order to have a complete life. They try to make us envious of those people on the ads by portraying them as better people than us. This usually brings out the worst in people because they get upset when they buy an advertised object and don't immediately have every guy in the world drooling over them. It's surprising to me that people keep rushing back to these stores after their initial failure. They seem to think that they just must be doing it wrong and that with enough makeup or enough of the right clothes people will eventually like them. --Brian K.
Instead of responding to Dave Barry's article, I will comment on an article I found in the Denver Post on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The article, "Baltimore kids are getting paid to learn," came from the Washington Post, and the author is unknown. This article explains Baltimore city schools' plan to pay students who attend tutoring sessions and show improvement. The program is targeted at kids who have failed high school assessments. The majority of the kids that will have access to this program come from lower income homes. While some think that the new program will improve test scores, others think that the bribes will have little effect on the education. The unknown author criticizes those who do not agree with this program, yet bribe their own children.
I agree with the unknown author that many kids are bribed to do well in school, even if it is not the school that is directly rewarding them. However, I question if the program will work because it is set up to reward those who failed in the first place. When students see their peers failing, improving, then earning money, they may be tempted to fail a test on purpose . For this reason, I see a possible flaw in the idea and doubt that this will have a large impact on the improvement of Baltimore schools. Also, when parents reward kids, it is individualized to the student. If a school were to start rewarding students, all students would have to be rewarded the same, and any differences would have the ability to create problems. For these reasons, I commend Baltimore schools for being creative in the search to better education, however I think there are better ways to improve schools other than bribing students.--Christine D.
Personal attractiveness is obviously greatly influenced by ads, magazines, and all forms of media or this idea would not come up in conversations and prompts nearly as much as it does. It seems to be an accepted fact and though everyone acknowledges it, many are still drawn in by the allure.
Ads focus on 'perfect women' (tall, skinny, tan, perfect teeth and hair, and plenty of curves but only in specific places) because they find men more susceptible to visual advertising, though women are often guilty of this too. The perfect man (tall, muscle-y, tan, with perfect teeth and hair) appears now and then too.
Why are these images so influential? Because people are surrounded by media 24/7 and because everyone wants what they can't have. Nearly every photo is retouched before anyone except the photographer sees it, so though everyone may want this form of perfection, it is literally unattainable. Sadly, when a person is vegging in front of the TV or flipping through a magazine, they aren't likely to keep in mind that the images they see aren't reality, though this could be the solution. This doesn't seem to be happening any time soon though, so society will continue on this way. --Monique
Dave Berry talks about how women try to make themselves look perfect for men; how many days they spend on painting their nails in a lifetime, yet men don't even notice. But the thing is...women don't care if the men notice their nails. We do it for ourselves, not for guys. Trying to look like a Barbie is not exactly healthy for any women, but there is nothing wrong with keeping yourself in shape. Men are just as big of primpers as women are, yet they just do it in different, less obvious ways. –Jennifer W.
What does it really mean to be beautiful? To women, it's looking better than all the other women on the bus, while for men it's being buff and powerful. But these images are only implanted in our brains because of the media. "The Ugly Truth About Beauty" by Dave Barry explores how society affects our thoughts about appearance. He brings up the fact that if Barbie was a human she would be so out of proportion that it would be hard to live, while young boys play with half human half whatever dolls that are mighty and proud.
The women men seem to flaunt over are Jessica Simpson in her old movies and Angelina Jolie. But the one thing women don't seem to understand is that most men don't expect women to look like that because they are now "...some type of genetic mutation.". While it doesn't seem that men are as pressured to spend an hour everyday getting ready for the world, the assumption is that they find some clean clothing and head off on that day's adventures.
Men and women have different perspectives on beauty, but if we looked back on the primitive states we would probably find the same thoughts in both genders. –Jessica B.
Dave Barry Response:
Television commercials and magazine adds are seen by almost every single person in the country. To say they had absolutely no influence on personal attractiveness would be a complete lie. People subconsciously react to the television and ads. What you see there is how society is portrayed as and how everyone fits into some category of society.
There are stereotypes, yes, but everyone falls into one of them and the commercials and adds just promote different ones. However, there are also general traits in men and women that everyone is attracted to due to human nature.
WOMEN:
Personality--assume the type of date or future
Hairstyle--assume their stereotype and amount of obsession with looks
Makeup--amount of obsession with looks and obsession to impress
Clothes--stereotype
MEN:
Clothes--show personality and stereotype
Personality--how well they fit with the woman’s to get along
Hair--for looks
--Amanda Dennis
Women in all parts of the world and of all time periods think/have thought about beauty. However, beauty for women hasn't always meant being tall, tan, and, thin. At one point in time it meant being pale and plump. When did that change and why?
Will our current view of beauty ever change? I don't think in America it ever will. Every part of society shows how obsessed American women are with beauty. Commercials, ads, and Oprah show are filled with signs of beauty. It would be difficult to change something so concentrated. It would be impossible to not be affected by the desire for beauty all around us. These different commercials and shows suggest that every mind of every woman revolves around her self-image. These commercials insert and engrave society's definition of beauty into the minds of females.
I read a story where a young girl was getting the autograph of a model. The girl looked at the model's picture and said, “I wish I looked like you.” The model then looked down at her own picture and responded, “I wish I looked like me too.” This shows how women will never be satisfied because they are striving for the status of “genetic mutation,” comparing themselves to Barbie and airbrushed photos. There will always be the small voice whispering, “not good enough.” –Jenny S.
Television commercials and magazine ads have a big influence on the way men and women view themselves today. Poeple in these ads are mainly attractive, skinny, prefect skin, hair teeth... pretty much have no flaws to the public eye. Women look at these ads and feel that this is what you should look like in order to look attractive to men. So women feel they are too fat or not pretty enough. As Barry says, men can not answer when a women asks how they look because the woman feels they are either lying or just saying to make them feel better. No matter what, because of these ads, women will feel they never are good enough. Men get this same discouragement when they look at ads. Male models have the tight abs with their shirt off, no chest hair, not balding, and have perfect hair. Men feel they have to live up to these standards or they are not considered hot to women. These ads are making men and women feel down about themselves because they never feel attractive enough to the opposite sex. --Shannon
The concept of what is and what isn’t beautiful is not necessarily something new that advertisers have created, although advertisers have had an impact on what the public perceives as ugly or beautiful. Based on the culture surrounding them (movies, videos, photography, paintings, and commercials/advertising), people have created today’s standards for what a man or woman should look like. It is interesting to note that the standards of beauty have changed significantly over time.
Someone mentioned earlier on a post that people hundreds of years ago did not really care about what they looked like. In my opinion some people did care about what they looked like; the difference today is that products designed for beauty enhancement are more accessible to the average person than they have ever been. Before, only wealthier citizens had the means to wear and own makeup and fashionable clothes. Lower-class citizens were more concerned with where their next meal was going to come from.
Today the majority of women wear makeup and fuss over their bodies in search of what they think a beautiful woman should look like. This obsession over external beauty can be quite damaging to a person’s psyche, particularly if, for whatever reason, he or she cannot possibly live up to current “beauty standards.” --Sasha Drury
David Berry, in my opinion, is one of the most genius people on this planet. His essay "The Ugly Truth About Beauty" is so spot on that it's scary. The media around us does indeed influence what we think of attractiveness and attractive people, and women especially are influenced by this. According to Hollywood, every girl should be a size 0 with so much makeup on her face that she looks plastic. David Berry is genius in putting down this terrible portrayal by the media. --Chris Berghoff
Dave Barry hit the nail right on the head in his essay, "The Ugly Truth About Beauty". Barry manages to take all available stereotypes of men and women and fuse them into a comical, satirical essay. By exposing the materialistic nature of our society, the reader sees just how sick and shallow we are. Barry's witty observations bring to light just how ridiculous our sense of beauty is, espically concerning women. At the conclusion of this article I was left fully agreeing with Barry when he notes how damaging this materialistic view of external beauty can be, and the immpossibility of one living up to our modern day "beauty standards". Overall, American society's perception of beauty today is unrealilistic and shallow, and it will only continue to worsen in years to come.
-Kyle Newman
Whenever you turn on a TV, go anywhere in public, or even drive, you are smacked across the face by advertisements. Each one of these advertisements is meant so sell something, and in our society beauty and perfection are the best ways to do this. Who would want to go buy a case of beer if the advertisement showed the true effect: a fat belly? No one would spend fifty dollars on a t-shirt if it wasn't advertised as being the best and being able to make you the best as well. I fall into the advertising scheme far too often, although I agree with Jen and don't think it is a bad thing to try to look good or take care of yourself. But the true question is: What does looking good really mean? Does it mean you must wear the brand names or buy the most expensive makeup? That is something that will never be truly answered because advertising will never cease to exist. --Megan
Dave Barry manages to effectively portray the humorous contrast between male and female priorities and stereotypes in "The Ugly Truth About Beauty." Whether it is Victoria’s Secret, Coors, Abercrombie, or Nike, advertisers all play off each of the gender's tendencies. It reveals the superficial materialistic values that have been instilled in our lives. Our sense of beauty has been distorted to the images that have been ingrained into our minds from a early age. People no longer formulate their own opinions, but they absorb what they're supposed to think in order to supply massive corporations with billions of dollars in make-up, clothes, shoes, and accessories. This is in part some of the reason why many people in the Middle East loathe the American people as a whole. They see the Brittney Spears's bust popping out of the television, and all the little girls following behind, and they are disgusted. Dave Barry effectively portrays this aspect of our society, and is essential to our self reflection. --John Ellison
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