Beautiful people, or how someone has to be ugly Essay

Submitted By Seville1983
Words: 1095
Pages: 5
Open Document
People have been admiring beauty since the dawn of civilized society. Whether it is the Roman Empire, or the Victorian era Britain, people like looking at other people. But is physical appearance the only way we can define beauty? As Carla illustrates in the play “Beauty,” being “pretty” can come in all shapes and sizes, like being charming or being super intelligent. Does anyone care about those things, though? Have we really become that superficial as a society? Or have we been drilled intensely into an unrealistic image of beautiful by the finest marketing executives Wall Street can buy? Certainly big business has done a bang-up job of scaring many a person into buying expensive products and pastes. If the play “Beauty” represents one thing, it’s that beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder.
As Bethany put it, “Jealous. The ogre of jealously” motivated her to seek the unattainable dream of being a beautiful person, but as Carla put it she was already “pretty” and “charming” in her own way. So then why wouldn’t she be happy with a great personality? Because our culture is telling her this over and over in subtle messages. Take for instance someone like Princess Diana. She had grace, and beauty. She was a kind and compassionate humanitarian. She pretty much had the whole package deal as far as a beautiful person was concerned. When she died it was considered a world tragedy. People wept in the streets. Now take someone like Mother Teresa. She was just as much a humanitarian as the princess was. In the name of the Catholic church she did all kinds of good works in poverty-stricken third-world hellholes, where hope was at its bleakest. She spent a lifetime doing good works for those less fortunate.
When Mother Teresa died it was only a week and a half after the princess had passed away, and yet no one seemed to notice, or care for that matter. She spent just as much if not more time helping people, and she was completely overshadowed by the death of what society deems as a more “beautiful” person. Likewise someone like Tyra Banks or Cindy Crawford are household names, yet someone like William Sturgeon (the inventor of the electric motor) or Alexander Parkes ( the inventor of plastic) are by and large unknown names. Modern society as it is today places far more value on physical attractiveness than big brains or “charming” personalities. Just as Bethany is a public account and is successful her work is not seen as valuable because she’s not easy on the eyes. She’s not Carla. She’s not beautiful and therefore her efforts are deemed not as worthy as being a fashion model. Carla would like nothing more than to have a life like that.
Carla, unlike Bethany, sees her good looks as something of a large anchor on the relationships she really wants as she says, “Well it’s not what I want. This is me, Carla. I have never read a whole book. Page six, I can’t remember page four. The last thing I read was The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPerfect.” As she says “Only beautiful guys approach me, and that’s to borrow my eye shadow. I barely exist outside a mirror!” She can’t attract smart men because her beauty scares them off. Her character represents a stereotype of blond bimbos and generally beautiful people lacking in any kind of substance or personality. Her good looks generate an atmosphere around her which pushes away any real relationships of substance. More importantly though Carla’s description of Bethany earlier in the play represents something far more important than people realize.
Think about it this way: typically, views on what is beautiful vary from society to society. This has more to do with the definition of society than the definition of beauty. A society is simply a group of people bound together by common beliefs and sentiments towards things of cultural importance, such as beauty, liberty, power, etc. There is room for variety and room for change, but if everyone believed vastly different things with
Show More

Related Documents: Beautiful people, or how someone has to be ugly Essay

Beauty essay

Andreen Anderson Mr. Layan Writing/ Debate December 1, 2014 People in society think that there is a standard of beauty that suggests you have to look a certain way. One must constantly compare themselves to other people or celebrities. But what individuals don’t know is that it’s a figment of our imaginations. We bring ourselves to a level in which we think if we don’t look like someone, we must not be beautiful enough to fit the standards in America. Our society promotes a certain image of what…

Words 1063 - Pages 5

Comparison Of 'Savitri And Satyana A Hindu Myth'

and has parents who are blind because of a spell. Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, Retold by Selina Hastings, a story with characters of an ugly woman and a knight named Arthur. When Arthur feels frustrated a loathly lady asks to help out, but only with a catch, he must find one of his best knights to marry her. The theme in Savitri and Santayana is to never give up on the people you love, no matter if their family or not. In Sir Gawain and the loathly lady, the theme is to not judge someone before…

Words 765 - Pages 4

Definition Essay Beauty

most people know or care about. So what does beauty mean? On “12 Questions on Beauty… Answered by Kids.” 8 year old Sylvie said, “ There are three meanings, first one is looks, like if you are beautiful or ugly. The second is how you are on the inside, like if you are mean or electric, smart, or quick. The third is like music or art, Like something someone makes that is beautiful.” These three examples, let people know what makes them beautiful. First, pretty stuff can make us appear beautiful, or…

Words 781 - Pages 4

Beauty In The Bluest Eye

Pecola Breedlove a young African American girl living in the 1940s longs to feel beautiful. Especially in a time where because of her skin color she’s defined as “ugly”. Pecola lives in a world that inflicts black on black racism like a second language. Pecola lives a life filled with disappointment, abuse, poverty, and self-hatred. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison demonstrates the devastating effects that the media has on African American dark skinned females. The media gratifies being light skinned…

Words 845 - Pages 4

Essay about Verbal Abuse

when most people hear the word”pain” they automatically assume that it is physical pain that is being dealt with. People fail to realize that verbal abuse can scar a person for life. Parents or family members who verbally abuse their children can cause major self-esteem issues. Everyone has experienced this whether they were the victim, the attacker, or just a witness. I always asked myself why I put myself down. If people will give me a compliment about my clothes, work or simply how I look, I’m…

Words 642 - Pages 3

An Analysis of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Essay

to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, The Author Sandra Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza’s deals with beauty as a part of her identify. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world turns up side down. Her views on beauty changed from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life. Esperanza has low self-esteem, she says, “ I am an ugly daughter…

Words 795 - Pages 4

Beauty: Angelina Jolie and True Beauty Essay

Beauty In my opinion, blind people are quite blessed. Their blindness allows them to discover true beauty without being swayed by the phoniness of many physical appearances. Anyone can revise their physical appearance to look more beautiful. They can buy fake eyelashes to make their lashes look fuller, they can buy hair extensions to make their hair appear longer, and they can even pay a plastic surgeon to have their breasts look seductive. In our world today, you can go from looking…

Words 1228 - Pages 5

Research Paper

What Is Beautiful? 1 Katie Betterton Mr. Halter What Is Beautiful November 5 2014 What Is Beautiful? Imagine a world where makeup did not exist, and no matter your size you were treated the same, not looked down on or felt bad for. Imagine if clothes did not have anything to do with status, and we only wanted to stay thin to be healthy. What if people fell in love with people for their inside beauty only? Girls would not go to such extremes to meet these beauty standards. They would not think that…

Words 1604 - Pages 7

Snow White Vs Cinderella Research Paper

In just about every Disney movie there is a beautiful princess that every young girl aspires to be. Snow White and Cinderella live different lives but share a similar situation, they both have older women in their lives who want nothing more than to make them miserable. Cinderella has an evil step mother who makes her dress in rags and keep up with the house. The queen in Snow White is so vain she wants Snow White dead just because her mirror tells her that Snow White is the fairest in all the…

Words 742 - Pages 3

Comparing Beauty In Republic And The Symposium

on people who believe in beautiful objects. He describes two types of people where one “believes in beautiful things, but doesn’t believe in the beautiful itself” and the other “believes in the beautiful itself, and can see both…

Words 1351 - Pages 6