Body Image In The Twentieth Century

Written by Kate Chopin, many of her works cross boundaries of what women were supposed to write like back then. Writing and publishing a novel such as The Awakening was very hazardous back in the nineteenth century. When first published, this novel was heavily frowned upon by most people. However, times have changed and this novel is now gaining all the positive publicity that it deserves. This novel shares many themes and motifs, mostly surrounding feminism, especially in the South, which people did not appreciate back then.

I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts On Being A Woman is a humorous nonfiction written by Nora Ephron. Nora wrote about the things that she hates and the struggles of being a woman. As she has gotten older in time she has realized that being a woman is not that easy. Being a girl, I liked it because it is something that all women at some point in their lives will be able to relate to and it suggests that women deserve more credit for what they do. The author, Nora Ephron, starts and ends each section with the things that she does not like about being a woman.

Over time women have faced and overcome multiple obstacles. In this day and age, women have gained the right to vote, receive an education, and make their own decisions about their life. However, women are still faced with the struggle of fitting into societal norms, and this is becoming increasingly dangerous in our mass media society. For centuries, society has made females feel as if they must fit into the barbie doll image created by a patriarchal society. Some women face eating disorders, plastic surgeries, an abundance of makeup, or even the idea of suicide to elude thoughts of being less than ideal in other people's eyes.

Many are forced into sexual slavery, or raped and hurt because of their anatomy. As a general rule in the book the female characters are only valued for their beauty and looks, which is shown when Candide feels as if he has to settle with Cunegonde, the woman he had been chasing throughout his entire journey, after she becomes older and more haggard. The women are all underdeveloped as characters themselves with their stories mainly revolving around the mishaps that happen to them or, the men they have to serve because of their subservient status. One female character stood out the most as a woman who endured so much because of her gender and that was

Killer Women The old days were somewhat different because women had no right to decide anything of their own lives. Unfortunately these stories show in common these two women who like many others are dedicated to their husbands by 100%. Often women are not valued as good wives and are battered and bruised and in other cases are left aside by things deemed men are more important. These stories show us that for many years there is mistreatment of women and divorces.

She does not fit the status quo of what it meant to be a woman during the Victorian era and with that came the tenacity and strength which forced the men around her to treat her as an equal. She always spoke her mind which led some to praise her and others to condemn her. She challenged and upset the customs of the time period by presenting herself in a way that would not become normal for another 100 years. Overall, the book represents early feminism and has one of the strongest female protagonists of any historical fiction

Teal Pfeifer in her short story “Devastating Beauty” discusses the effect of portraying skinny ladies/models that are wear dress size 0 or 1 as the ideal body size in most advertisements. The author points out the fact that,this can be damaging to most women, especially young women who view these adverts. The young women who see these adverts begin to feel displeased with their bodies, and a vast majority of them venture into different kinds of diet. She further emphasized that adult females are not the only ones affected, but also young girls (Pfeifer 2). According to Slim Hopes, about 80 percent of girls below the age of ten have either been on a diet before and have stated that they want to be skinner and more pretty.

In the early nineteenth century, John Steinbeck wrote a short story titled “The Chrysanthemums” that broke ground on the repressed sexuality of women in that era. Women of the nineteenth century were extremely repressed by the patriarchal society that was in power in that era, so they often were not able to express their femininity and their sexuality. The Nineteenth century woman that “The Chrysanthemums” follows is Elisa Allen, a middle aged farmer's wife. Elisa dresses rather mannish in the beginning and throughout most of the story, excluding of course at the end of the story when she wears a dress to go out to town. Elisa is also exuberantly passionate about her chrysanthemums and her sexuality and femininity is linked directly to her flowers.

Women participated in footbinding and wore corsets to look beautiful for society and men. These women may have never known their true beauty or worth because they were restricted to those practices. They both were a sign of status and the traditions had to be followed to be able to marry or fit-in in society. Both of these practices played a role in deforming a women’s body and making it difficult for her to participate in any daily activities, which forced the women to depend on the assistance of a man to take care of her. This oppression of women is still in practice today in the 20th century.

The fight for equal rights has been a battle long fought for women all across the world. In his book, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck does a superb job at portraying the social outlook of women in the 1930’s Salinas River Valley. During this time, a woman was deemed inferior to man and they had very little rights compared to men, though they were making a climb up the social ladder. Women had recently gained the right to vote nearly a decade earlier in 1920 and were continuing to change their daily life, but things were not progressing as quickly everywhere.

One major change was women throughout the 1920s. The most important reason was equal suffrage. For the longest time, women were not allowed to vote because they were not recognized as worthy members of society. Many people, men and women alike, thought this was very unfair. On August 18th, 1920, women were granted their rights through the 19th Amendment.

All of the makeup, hair products, perfumes, etc., are completely hurting women’s overall body image and self-esteem. Trying to live up to such nearly impossible standards is so taxing on women. Tyler is a six-foot tall, beauty, who has posed for Maxim magazine in just her undergarments, yet she found it important to tell young women not to look up to super models and to embrace their curves. I found this so interesting since she has actually been considered to have supermodel stature and looks, yet often jokes about her ‘freakishly tall stature’ or being an ‘amazon’ or ‘giant’. Her tone is definitely one of a sarcastic feminist.

Vlogging, as Joy has done over the years, is extremely time consuming and will ultimately clash with the time needed to be a top dancer, let alone the restrictions against videoing company classes and activities. As we all know, she has also been extremely unwise in some of her comments. In my view, she made a huge, life-changing blunder by going to the press instead of sorting things out with the Bolshoi. She has owned up to burning her bridges there and says she is at peace with it now, but it must at some level grate on her every day. I admire her courage and tenacity to have risen from those ashes.

She created an environment where we could be ourselves and where we were rewarded when we did well and pushed to be our best selves always. We also had a lot of fun. All of the girls were so sweet and talented, and I think being with Coach Jones brought us close together. Her best friend was a breast cancer survivor, so our team was called the Pink Panthers. We showed our support for breast cancer month by wearing pink jerseys, hair bows, socks, shoelaces, and sparkly monogrammed sweatpants.

In the late 19th and 20th century, prejudice and discrimination played a huge role in slowing the rate of development in America. Sexism and racial discrimination were the biggest issues, and sadly both still show up in our daily lives on media and news. Society today has branched out more and allows a more open mind concept. A long time ago women 's opinion and ideas were not taken seriously. They were not considered intelligent, and the only place for a female was in the house with no voice of opinion.