Jill Dahrooge

            It is evident that the value of  outer beauty has gained more importance over the years.  According to research in the "Male Beauty Work" article, in 1992 a magazine poll taken by women showed that the inner traits of men beat their outer traits.  However, today if that same survey was taken I am positive that the results would be extremely different.  Girls will say that they only care about a guy's personality and that their inner traits are the most important; yet, when we first see a man we always base our judgments from his looks.  I know many girls would agree, especially teenagers, that we judge guys on how they look when we first see them.  If we like how they look then we will proceed to talk to them, if we don't then girls are most likely to ignore the boy and look for another one to talk to.  Without giving this "ugly" boy a chance to show his personality he is already shut down by how he looks.  It is awful to think that this occurs but it is the reality of our society.  Women spend hours altering their appearance in hope to attract the approval of men.  However, "Male Beauty Work" shows that men are also spending time and money to gain the same approval from women.   There has been a recent emphasis on external male beauty.  Male salons were created in order to fix skin problems, body hair, body weight, and body shape that are portrayed in the media as unattractive.  However, the goal of these salons does not really seem to be to help these men change their looks but to gain their money.  One salon worker told a reporter, "whenever we're treating a customer we're continuously thinking of what we can sell to him next." It appears that the salon workers are not that interested in helping a man change his looks but really only want his money; therefore, their advice and with the help of the media, men's minds are corrupted on the importance of outer beauty. 

            Hair removal was also a big topic covered in both of these articles.  In "Male Beauty Work", a 1999 magazine poll asked women to rank the most unattractive things about men.  Number three was leg hair.  I disagree with this poll because male leg hair seems to be important to girls today.  This might be only true in the culture I live in but girls tend to think that a boy with shaved legs is strange and disgusting.  Unless the boy is a swimmer and needs a hairless body to perform well in his sport, girls today usually find a hairless man weird.  Yet is it extremely important for girls to be hairless.  This idea relates to points in both the article "The Political Economy of Choice Genital Modification and the Global Cosmetic Services Industry" and the film Miss Representation.  The article talks about how waxing has become a painful necessity to women these days.  It continuously talks about the dangers of waxing and how waxing is a form of women "alienating" their bodies, yet it is becoming increasingly popular.  The author Rebecca Herzig gives the example of the customer who violently moves around and yells during her bikini waxes but after the process is complete the customer hugs the worker and says "see you in a month."  This story made me laugh yet I was completely disturbed by it.  It is so insane that women go through all of these painful treatments just because that is how we "need" to look.  What is wrong with our natural beauty?  Miss Representation further discusses this problem and blames it on the control of the media.  The messages our media sends rips apart even the most powerful women like Michelle Obama or Sarah Palin making it even worse for ordinary girls.  Some statistics the film showed were: 65% of women have eating disorders, over 50% of girls at the age of 13 already hate their bodies, and over the last 10 years depression rates have doubled.  The magazines, blogs, and TV shows that judge women solely on their appearance are so large in number that our new generations cannot see past the physical impurities to understand the true intellect of women.  Movies portray women as dumb, sex symbols, and incapable of living without a man.  I like how the film Miss Representation says we are "living in a nation of teenage boys."  Women are not taken seriously if they do not look aesthetically pleasing.

            In order to demolish these stereotypes we need to take down the media.  Women need to take a stand, as well as men.  People need to stop purchasing beauty products and surgeries and find healthier hobbies or else the well being of our future generations will be destroyed.  Girls need to grow up with more confidence and know that they too can be powerful without looking like the unrealistic human beings that are portrayed in the media.  If more money is put into education than into beauty products and advertising, we will have a more peaceful world.