ipl-logo

Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

599 Words3 Pages

What is Beauty? Alice Walker is an accomplished author who experienced an event in her childhood that defined a large part of her life. In the story “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” Walker describes her life and how a single moment changed her view on herself and the world around her. The adage, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” can be interpreted in many ways and provides an explanation for the views and opinions of Walker throughout the story. Beauty has no true definition because no one person can define what everyone views as beautiful. Beauty is not one thing but many things that are determined by the varying opinions of the human race. “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” is about Alice Walker’s life and how …show more content…

Modern advertisements in the media show a single definition of beauty, which is typically impossible to achieve by the average person. When a child grows up around these pictures of what beauty is they start to believe that these pictures and people are normal and are what everyone should look like. When this child grows up and realizes that they do not look like the people they see in magazines and on TV they begin to believe that they look wrong and that they are not beautiful. This can lead to many issues such as eating disorders and depression. People will sometimes go to extreme measures just to look like the people they see on TV, which is not an easy task. Everyone is unique and no person looks exactly the same as another so people should embrace their differences and perceive themselves as beautiful because of their uniqueness and the fact that no one else looks exactly like them. Beauty is not something that only certain people have but it is something that everyone has because of their uniqueness. Modern media is damaging to the youth of today because of the standard of appearance that is displayed. These children grow up thinking that there is only one way to be beautiful when in fact the standard of beauty they see in the media is unachievable by the standard person. People need to embrace the things that make them different and view everyone as beautiful even if they don’t

Show More
Related

  • Malcolm X Homemade Education

    1188 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self." College Writing: Reading & Writing Queens, NY. WordPress.com. 2014. PDF File.

    Read More

  • Anxiety Disorders In Uglies By Scott Westerfeld

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some people don’t realize that and try to live up to the unrealistic standards that we have created in our heads of what is really pretty. In that same article it describes beauty standards as features that are considered “pretty” in today's society. “They determine what is “beautiful”, from body shape, to facial proportions, to height and weight.” (Povey) This shows that the issue of beauty standards is a problem we face today because we can’t change the way we look.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Equality In Harrison Bergeron

    626 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story, George and Hazel talk about the ballerinas they see on television and express how the ballerinas wear masks to hide their beauty. The author wrote, “She must've been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous.” Yes, one person may think the ballerina is beautiful however, another person may think the ballerina isn't beautiful. Therefore, one person is not capable of deciding who is beautiful or not precisely.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Adversity In Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

    758 Words  | 4 Pages

    At some point in everyone’s life they face some form of adversity, it is how they deal with this adversity that defines them as human beings and the paths that their lives will take. Everybody deals with the adversity thats faces them in several different ways, this may be due to their up-bringing, their outlook on life or their perception of the world and what they believe their role is within the game of life. Within the essay ‘Beauty: when the other dancer is the self’ author Alice Walker refers to the fact that after the incident which resulted in her blindness she refers to the fact that people began to judge her not for her innocence nor youth, but for her injury for example when she writes that they will stare at her ‘Not at the cute little girl, but at her scar’ (24). A sense of judgement is apparent in both essays because within the essay ‘ The clan of one breasted women’ Terry Tempest Williams writes about how ‘fatty diets, childlessness or becoming pregnant after thirty’ was to blame for their families problems with cancer, even though it is was apparent that the family was mormon and by religion would not consume : ‘ No coffee, no tea, tobacco or alcohol’ (317).

    Read More

  • Black Women In The 1950's

    735 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ideal of a women magazine model are full of photos with women who are typically white and very thin. Many women will agree that they may feel pressured to dress or look a certain way because of the way the models look. The media can make women feel insecure about themselves and have low self-esteem. The messages in the media says that women will always need to make an adjustment to fit the “ideal” look. Since, the media portrays such images and make women feel like beauty is important women need to make sure they love themselves.

    Read More

  • Body Image Research Paper

    133 Words  | 1 Pages

    In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence

    Read More

  • Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure Sparknotes

    1457 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the book “Two or Three Things I Know for Sure” by Dorothy Allison the theme of beauty is brought to light in a way that is intersectional and develops the story to new heights. Beauty is discussed throughout the book and is one of the main themes. Allison talks about beauty when referencing her family and herself, and the idea of what it means to be beautiful in her mind based on how she grew up and where she came from. Normatively, beauty is associated with outward appearance and one’s identity, however beauty should be recognized as intersectional and include everyone, based not only on their outwards appearance but based on the beauty of their personality and thoughts because every human is beautiful in their own way. Dorothy Alison transforms

    Read More

  • Beauty In The Media's Unrealistic Standards For Beauty

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Beauty' By Alice Walker

    1598 Words  | 7 Pages

    Marissa Miranda Professor Bronstein English 1A 9:15 am -11:20 am Beauty In “Beauty,” Alice Walker discusses the differences and perceptions of beauty and how beauty is valued. Walker uses her article -her life journey as an example of how beauty changes based on how it is perceived. She talks about her child image, the accident, her and her family’s reactions, the desert she was able to see, and how her daughter freed her. She uses the metaphor of the world in her eye in order to redefine what society sees as beautiful in her article.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Killing USftly 4 By Jean Kilbourne

    873 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne discusses the power of advertising and how it has facilitated and legitimized the objectification of women. As a woman and a former model, Kilbourne argues that advertisements are a powerful educational force because they are everywhere. Because of this, the message is quickly processed so it easier to influence someone’s subconscious. Advertisements are also powerful because they sell values and concepts telling society how women should look like.

    Read More

  • Jin Shin Jyutsu: The True Beauty Of A Woman

    3700 Words  | 15 Pages

    Introduction The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years. - Audrey Hepburn Contrary to Sir Thomas Overbury’s belief, beauty is not skin deep, instead true beauty is found within our minds and souls. When we think of beauty we often only see the carnal beauty and we often aim to be aesthetically pleasing.

    Read More

  • Pressure On Women In Society

    800 Words  | 4 Pages

    So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.

    Read More

  • The Nature Of Racialised Beauty In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

    800 Words  | 4 Pages

    Claudia recognizes that if we conform to the Western standard of beauty, we may gain beauty but only at the expense of others. However, Claudia learns to love Shirley Temple; Claudia “learned much later to worship her” (Morrison, page 16) This suggests that the idea of beauty is something that is learned and not natural or

    Read More

  • Roger Scruton Why Beauty Matters Summary

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator claims, that beauty is essential to give us a purpose of life. It has the ability to transform our surroundings, and get us to a higher spiritual level. He explores

    Read More

  • Beauty In Alice Walker's Gift Of Beauty

    900 Words  | 4 Pages

    Until the day her husband said to her, “I thought you made peace with that,” and suddenly she started remembering the important things in life, like the gift of sight and the possibility of never seeing and perceiving the beauty of the desert. Walker's definition of beauty as a wonderful world is revealed as she shares her self-image of three steps of her life: 2½ to eight-year-old, eight to fourteen-year-old, and fourteen-year-old to adulthood.

    Read More

More about Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

Open Document