Midterm

Midterm Essay:
The Ugly Truth about Beauty

The essay, “The Ugly Truth about Beauty” by Dave Barry is obviously an informal essay. Barry’s humor is catching and keeps readers interested while stating his claim, the idea of women’s perception on beauty. There are some points where he touches on a man’s perception only to bring it back to a woman’s so called thoughts. The issue of women, who Barry explains, to think of themselves as “Not good enough.” The main concept of the essay revolves around women and what they think of themselves. Women tend to revolve their lives around trying to look good or live up to whatever idea of looking good they may have. Barry humorously goes on to say that women have a complex psychologically due to the infamous Barbie. Women, although Barbie may not be the all time idol being compared to, do tend to compare themselves with other female figures that may seem to look gorgeous to them. What a lot of women don’t realize is that these so called beauty’s of the world are one way or another fake. Mainstream society has trained women to believe we should look like this causing the pressure to upkeep one’s appearance. This may not be something rewarding because usually whatever new makeup or haircut may be unnoticeable. Barry makes this a huge point, making sure to mention the multibillion dollar industry that is up kept by the faint idea that we may look like the so called Barbie or super model. Men hardly ever have the issue of having to go through the strain of so called trying to look good. This is mainly because men don’t care the way women do. Why is it that men are so careless of the way they look no matter how awful or great that may be? One of the reasons could be the way they are portrayed in an early stage of life. It could be the toys they play with. Barry mentions the toys his son plays with in contrast to the unrealistic Barbie. The toy is ugly yet has a great sense of confidence, something that may be carried on through life by the child. This leaves the question open to the idea of maybe fixing a women’s stereotypical appearance with replacing the current Barbie with a more common looking figure of a woman. The issue of a woman’s appearance is loaded because so many issue may underlie, but Barry definitely points out one of the most important view of society that affect almost everyone.
I agree with Barry in most aspects of his essay. I feel women do spend entirely too much judging themselves as well as other women. Insecurity may be a reason but this may be brought on at an early age. I grew up on Disney, the princess and the castle then the happy ending. As a child this was my perception of happiness. Then I grew up and reality kicked me in the face. This could be what happens to most females. Society as a whole is led like a flock of sheep by whatever billboard adds may be up on the freeway this month. It’s sad to see when young girls pack on make up in middle school because it’s what’s out there. There is always the idea of looking like something better, why can’t women just learn to be happy with what they have. The fact that someone else may look better at a party or at work is always lingering, causing women to seek whatever solution there may be to their so called problem through plastic surgery or expensive makeup. Men are at fault here too though. Barry lightly touched the fact that men want to see a woman in this perception society has for women. He rejects the idea of this being true, but people this is the truth. Men pay as much as women do to see the super model in the new movie, or to buy the expensive clothes and cologne to impress the desired female at work. Men too are starting to become more and more self damning as women are. These maybe because society has put out the image of the Brad Pitt look alike in every commercial nowadays. This causes some men to look at themselves twice, forgetting the almighty self confidence they may have had once. As a whole a woman or a man’s physical appearance may be so important because of the slight idea of what people may think or the image of perfection broadcasted everywhere. Women go through excruciating things in order to appear similar to that perfect image. We need to learn that every person, including that image, have faults that should be better seen as differences. We wouldn’t be such a beautiful species if we all looked like the ever so aimed at perfect image.