Essay Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag’s essay on the subject of beauty, particularly in relation to women, is a strong and moving piece that also greases the old gearbox and gets the brain going. It takes a strong hard look at how the concept of beauty has been shaped through the ages, from the time of the great Greek civilization to the modern era. The analysis that is put forth that women can never preen just for pleasure is exemplified in so many innumerable ways in modern culture that it is indeed something to despair greatly for. A woman is expected to keep up with appearances, to put on make-up to make them as attractive and pleasing to the eye as possible. No matter how intelligent a woman can be, no matter how strong an individual a woman can be, she will consistently be judged on appearances to a far greater degree than men will. A man has to spend hardly any time grooming his self to be acceptable in appearance for the general public. About the only place that you will hear people complaining about the appearance of a man, in general, is the E! network or publications or television shows which make it a point to be obsessed with fashion and appearance and taste. You would be hard pressed to find an instance where you spoke to a friend about how unkempt a man was after he passed by your vision. This is because for men it is generally accepted that outward beauty is not something to be endlessly striving for, nor is it that for men certain physiques are reinforced as ideal to anywhere near the same degree as women. I have long thought it maddening that cultural ideas of beauty are so difficult to overcome. Women are constantly bombarded with what they are to strive for in the name of beauty. Our culture never ceases to reinforce that the ideal figure is that of the hourglass figure, that make-up is essential. Tabloids and news sources nearly burst at the seams whenever a celebrity woman is caught in public without the proper amount of make-up. How could she look this horrible at