"A Woman's Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?"

When I was a freshman in college, my writing teacher required each student to pick a topic that they wanted to present about and to find an essay that related. I chose the different beauty standards between women and men. There are two components of my presentation that I will post about. The first is the essay I chose was by Susan Sontag entitled “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?”, (The second is a video which will be a separate post). This essay is a very powerful work and Sontag touches on many major points of the differences of beauty standards throughout her work.

Many of Sontag’s points revolve around the notion that beauty has become a top priority to women, their character, and their concerns while men are preoccupied with being strong, effective, or competent. Society has set forth these standards that women must always be more interested in how they look rather than anything else. Sontag talk about women who have reached high levels in their careers such as: doctors, lawyers, and business women, and many of them confessed that they still worry and focus much on their physical appearance regardless of their amazing accomplishments. On the other hand, society also set the standards that men are more focused on what a man does or is and maybe his looks.

My favorite part of Sontag’s essay is when she explains that women are taught to see their body in parts. In society and the media today, bigger lips, bigger breasts, smaller waist, bigger eyes, thin, slender nose and many more features are glorified for women. From personal experience, I have been compared to these standards from society many times. There is nothing more devaluing than being told you do not fit the mold you are “supposed to” regardless of your acceptance of your own self. On the other hand, men are never told to dissect their body and to be certain measurements for acceptance, beauty, attractiveness, or worth. In fact, Sontag makes the argument that small imperfections on a man can make him appear more attractive. A small imperfection on a woman would never get a positive response in the same way. Sontag attributes this to a massive devaluation of women and I could not agree more.

Beauty is power. What is unfair and unacceptable is that this is the only power that women are encouraged to seek. Women are also expected to solely be beautiful objects that are good for nothing more than getting married and having and raising children. Many people find it outrageous and unbelievable when they meet a woman who is beautiful but also intelligent.

Many people believe that a successful woman is only successful because of her beauty. No one ever sees a successful woman as a hard-working, motivated, talented, ambitious woman. On the other hand, a man who is successful is always seen as respectable and inspiring. Nobody expects a man to use his physical appearance to upgrade in either society or the workforce, however, it is almost an immediate reaction for people to believe that a woman uses her beauty to her advantage, to manipulate people with her beauty, and to use that beauty to seek further power. 

Women are constantly being put up against other women. Women are taught to bring other women down to rise themselves up. Additionally, Adiche says that women are taught to see other women as competitors but only for the attention of men. Women are not taught to be competitive with other women for jobs or accomplishments (We Should All Be Feminists). On the other hand, men are not raised to be competitive with other men. This creates an unequal standard for women. Women should be empowering each other, lifting each other up, and on the side of their fellow women, not going against them to get short lived physical attention from a man. 

Society has caused women's beauty to be used in a malicious way. Women are expected to have their beauty at the fore front of their life and actions rather than being used in addition to the beauty of character and the nice, accepting, intelligent, giving, and thoughtful person that a woman should be. 

Link to PDF of Susan Sontag’s Essay, “Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?”:

https://mrglennjchs.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sontag-and-stanton.pdf