Monday, Feb.4 ~ Women and Media: The Beauty Myth

First, let's listen to Pretty Hurts by Beyonce, covered by

Read the lyrics. As you listen, do Journal 13

Pretty Hurts Lyrics: 

Mama said, you're a pretty girl
What's in your head it doesn't matter
Brush your hair, fix your teeth
What you wear is all that matters

Just another stage
Pageant the pain away
This time I'm gonna take the crown
Without falling down, down

Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Perfection is the disease of a nation
Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Tryna fix something
But you can't fix what you can't see
It's the soul that needs the surgery

Blonder hair, flat chest
TV says bigger is better
South beach, sugar free
Vogue says
Thinner is better

Just another stage
Pageant the pain away
This time I'm gonna take the crown
Without falling down, down, down

Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Perfection is the disease of a nation
Pretty…

Journal 13: Beauty is the battlefield...

Write a paragraph reaction to the quote below: 

"Beauty is the battlefield where God and

Satan contend for the hearts of men." 

 -Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Now, a little fun. 

Discuss: 

What do you think these women are saying with this hilarious video? 

How do you think it has been received? Why?

EQ: What is The Beauty Myth

A: This was a term coined by Naomi Wolf in a book by the same name, published in 1990. Click here for the Wikipedia page. Wolf was the leading spokesperson with the theme that women should have "the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic pressure, and even legal judgments regarding women's appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically." She goes on to say that "the effect of the constant barrage of sophisticated images of beauty and countless products to achieve social desirability have produced deep in the souls of women “a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsession, terror of aging and dread of lost control.”

Journal 14: Let's read this article and work through the questions as Journal 14. We will continue this in class tomorrow.