Power and Promiscuity: Woman has never looked so Good
There are several myths in this world in regards to
beauty as told Naomi Wolfe in her writing "The Beauty Myth." One myth being that as
women gain more power, they have to abide by the standards of beauty. But this
can be the case inversely also, meaning that as women adapt to the standards of
beauty they gain more power. The inverse of the myth is dealing with the here
and now, while the myth has to deal with progression over time. This is because
in the working world today, you don’t have to abide by the standards of beauty
that society sets forth, but, the more beautiful you are, the further you can
get faster. Women see that beauty will get them power in life faster, whether
it is in the work place or just simply more power over the male sex in general,
so women conform to the standards immediately and see a quicker gain. If you
were to track the power that women hold over time, with the increase in power
you would see that the beauty standards increase in general along with it.
The next part of the myth is that chastity was used to keep
women’s power down. The less sexual freedom she has the less power she has.
This is definitely true, because men in general are highly affected by the sex
appeal of women, and the more sexual freedom that the woman has, the more
control that she would have over the man who can think of nothing more than the
fantasy between them that usually will never be. The next part of the myth also
supports this idea. The beauty myth isn’t about women; it’s about institution
and power. The men are the ones who created this myth, because as their desires
raise the standards of beauty the women rise to meet them, and when this happens,
the free willed women have the sexual upper hand. In the patriarchal society
today, the power of the male has dropped and has come to a more even level with
women than it has been in the past, and this is because men’s deepest desires
will make them give up anything, including their power.
A film that shows the power of women would be “Failure to
Launch” starring Mathew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. Trip, played by
McConaughey, wouldn’t move out of his parents’ house and it was up to Paula
(Parker), whose job is to make people move out of their parents’ house and move
on in life if the parents hire her to do so, to do just that when Trip’s
parents hire her services. How she does this though is through manipulation and
the use of her beauty as an aid. If she was not deemed beautiful by societies
standards, then she never would have been desired by Trip in the first place.
But since she possesses such qualities, she has the power over him and makes it
easier for her to change him a little bit at a time through manipulation until
she gets her desired goal. Even though Trip in the movie was changing and realized
it, he got over it and stays with Paula because of her beauty and the appeal of
sex. The man is used to having casual sex often and when the woman gave up
herself easily, she had no power over him. But Paula on the other hand held out
from him. This helps show the chastity issue of the myth. When women are not
free to explore their sexual interests in life, they possess no power. But when
they can have sexual encounters with any person that they choose, men have lost
some of their power and the decision is left to the hands of the woman and
makes her the prominent figure in the encounter.
Another aspect to the myth is that beauty is about behavior,
not appearance. Appearance is important, the woman’s physical beauty is a
factor in how a man sees them, but how they act and what they do is very important
to. If the man and the woman have nothing in common and the night is spent in
casual sex, such as Trip in “Failure to Launch,” they have no power over the
man. When the woman though can relate to the man, the attraction becomes so
much more than the seemingly superficial judgment of looks, it become a comparison
of what each loves and enjoys, and that is what creates the true desire. In the
movie, Paula goes on a date with a clients’ son and he is in admiration of her
beauty. The guy is a huge Star Wars fan, and when Paula starts talking about
Star Wars and touches his hands, he can hardly handle himself. It was the
behavior, not the physical beauty of Paula, that made him so giddy and created
his huge desire for her.
The myths about beauty in society are generally true and can
be seen in so frequently. Women can make it far in society now a day with or
without following the societal values of, but when women do follow such values,
the make it further and faster. So perhaps the statement that the myth isn’t about
women is untrue. It is true that men and their prominent desires help along the
myth, but women know about the myths and the desires and play them to their
advantage, so the myth supposedly is about women after all.
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