beauty
Jasmine_Lr
Read the assigned reading and the lecture materials below (including watching the embedded video and listening to the embedded podcast, which is an hour). You'll submit a Google Doc with an activity that asks you to apply what you've learned from the materials.
Assigned Readings
Read the assigned readings below before proceeding with this assignment. You should always take notes as you work through the content, perhaps using a note-taker like this oneLinks to an external site.. Save your notes in a dedicated folder for this class.
chapter 6 beauty I have attached the document below
Read and study the slide deck/presentation below, which defines beauty ideals and its five characteristics.
Then, watch the video below for more examples of the fifth characteristic:
https://youtu.be/ySpytmtCB5o
Now, listen to or read the podcast below, which is about an hour long:
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1029378628/1029634563#
This link will take you to the transcript of the podcast episode.Links to an external site.
Optional video - Just for a fun, from a TV show called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, it's "The Sexy Getting Ready Song":
https://youtu.be/ky-BYK-f154
Being socially constructed, beauty ideals ultimately come down to reinforcing gender expectations--and this goes for men too. The feminine beauty ideal reinforces passivity for women. For example, women's clothing has historically restricted movement, emphasizing a particular look over functionality. As you read in the chapter by bell hooks, simply being allowed to wear pants to work was revolutionary in allowing women to do their jobs comfortably, and this practice wasn't widespread until the 1970s!
As for male beauty ideals, they, too, are socially constructed and ultimately tend toward enforcing the masculine gender expectation of active agency. Men are expected to be big and strong, and exhibit whatever traits represent dominance in the time period. In an era of Marvel movies and social media "health" influencers, the current male beauty ideal is exemplified by an extreme emphasis on large muscles. And just as women have historically been expected to aspire to body types that the majority of women can never actually achieve without major surgical interventions, the male ideal has evolved to inhuman expectations of chiseled muscles and jawlines with no room for softness or weakness.
Ultimately, beauty ideals work to reinforce gender expectations.
As you move through the course, take notes on your copy of the Key Terms/Concepts spreadsheetLinks to an external site..
Key Terms/Concepts in this lecture or readings:
- beauty ideals (the five characteristics)
Submit this Google Doc: Beauty Ideals Activity Google Doc
a year ago
6
