The Beauty Myth

“How can you tell if a blond has been using a computer? There’s white out on the screen!”[1]

In our society beauty and brains seemingly correspond. Our culture is based on the assumption that those who are beautiful are far from intelligent. Those who are attractive and express themselves with emotion and creativity are considered very weak and inferior to those who have indifference to pleasure or pain and are not worried about their looks. This is not the case for women, alone, but also for attractive men. The terms “dumb jock” and “dumb blond” both come to mind.

Women are viewed by many men as lesser beings who are around to be aesthetically pleasing and to answer to man’s every command. Those women who try to break out of the role of servitude and establish a level playing field with men are often seen as radicals, and often mistaken for lesbians or man haters. Those women who are attractive and successful, simultaneously, are scrutinized as bitchy and overbearing.

In the military, those women trying to fit in with men are chastised for the actions. When Lynndie England was witnessed leading Iraqi prisoners around on a leash and laughing and pointing at their genitals, she was made to be the focus of the entire investigation. Never mind that England was a female in a male dominated military and stationed in a male dominated country.

While trying to fit in and be accepted as an equal among her fellow soldiers, England acted in ways she expected would gain her this acceptance. And it did. Her fellow soldiers, and mainly her older boyfriend, who took part in the “atrocious” activities of humiliating terrorists in front on an international level, did accept England as one of their own.

When the pictures and the news of this activity hit the international media, it created an uproar. How could a woman treat these detainees this way? Holding England to a double standard and showing complete disregard for the fact that the terrorists who were not in detention facilities were capturing American soldiers and beheading them on international television. Once a woman tries to inflict some torture or humiliation on detainees who refuse to abide by the Geneva Convention rules, she is ostracized by the international community and called a “bad seed” by her own government.

George Neumayr summarized the events of Abu Ghraib prison in the American Spectator:
“The image of that female guard, smoking away as she joins gleefully in the disgraceful melee like one of the guys, is a cultural outgrowth of a feminist culture which encourages female barbarianism …. This is Eleanor Smeal’s vision come to life.”[2]

This type of response demonstrates an intolerance of those women who try to fit in with men, in a male dominated society. It shows that women are expected to act a certain way because of how we look and how our chromosomes say we should.

Those women, who try so desperately, to fit in with their male counterparts, are viewed as transgressive, and let power go to their heads. The pressures from society to fit in, is what consumes these women. They have to be beautiful, but if they are beautiful they are considered unintelligent. If they are intelligent our society, a patriarchy, will designate them as unattractive.
Instead of embracing differences as attractive qualities, they are interpreted as flaws, ugly and out of place. Our society has created this super-human vision of what we think beautiful is, and the forms of medium are far from innocent in this development. The media in our country has played a vital role in the stereotyping and dehumanizing of women.

Through television shows such as “The Swan” and “Extreme Makeover” women as a culture are taught that we are not good enough the way we are; that, unless we get multiple painful surgeries, we will never be good enough to meet societal demands. Popular women’s magazines such as “Cosmopolitan” and “Marie Claire” which use airbrushing and other photo-altering techniques to make their models appear more “perfect” and flawless, are also major contributors to the perfectionist attitude about appearance that our country has been caught up in for years, nay, decades.

When our culture can put away thoughts of an ideal image of perfection, and begin celebrating individuals for their uniqueness, we will begin to truly understand what it means to be beautiful. Until then, we are stuck with the contemptible view of dumb blonds and dumb jocks.

[1] www.zelo.com/blonde/atwork.asp
[2] Pop Culture is Us: Two Essays on a Theme. Susan J. Douglas and Catherine Orenstein, pg 526. Women’s Voices Feminist Visions.