Western Obsession With Beauty
In the United States, the concept for what is beautiful is subjective, ever-changing, and ultimately unattainable. Pink pouty lips, rosy, dewy skin, flowing silken hair; America has become obsessed with creating this near-impossible to achieve standard for beauty by which everyone should be judged, women, men, children, and now the dead not excluded. And what is not attainable in life, is made attainable, and almost mandatory, in death. Western obsession with beauty is reflected in how they prepare the body of the deceased.
On the first page of the essay, it is said that that practice of embalming and primping a corpse for its burial has become so “universally employed in the United States” that it is often carried out without any needed approval or consultation from the corpse (pre-death of course), or family. This means that it is just assumed that the family of Mr. Body would, without question, want a …show more content…
The procedure is one made to cater to the States’ growing demand for universal physical beauty. If the corpse is too puffy or fat, tissue and muscle is removed and the body is remolded; if the corpse is emaciated, it’s padded and pumped full of random plumpers and fillers. Its sole purpose is to transform the body and have it be made to be a perfect example of Western beauty, the embodiment of the ideal. I must concede the point that embalming a corpse does dramatically slow its decomposition, gives time for the arrangement of a ceremony, and allots loved ones from far off places a larger window of time to make it to the ceremony. But what about the tanners and the cotton-stuffed lips? The only service it provides is an improved aesthetic. It doesn’t decrease the chance of any sort of diseases being spread, it doesn’t make the body any more sanitary; it just makes it more appealing to look
On the first page of the essay, it is said that that practice of embalming and primping a corpse for its burial has become so “universally employed in the United States” that it is often carried out without any needed approval or consultation from the corpse (pre-death of course), or family. This means that it is just assumed that the family of Mr. Body would, without question, want a …show more content…
The procedure is one made to cater to the States’ growing demand for universal physical beauty. If the corpse is too puffy or fat, tissue and muscle is removed and the body is remolded; if the corpse is emaciated, it’s padded and pumped full of random plumpers and fillers. Its sole purpose is to transform the body and have it be made to be a perfect example of Western beauty, the embodiment of the ideal. I must concede the point that embalming a corpse does dramatically slow its decomposition, gives time for the arrangement of a ceremony, and allots loved ones from far off places a larger window of time to make it to the ceremony. But what about the tanners and the cotton-stuffed lips? The only service it provides is an improved aesthetic. It doesn’t decrease the chance of any sort of diseases being spread, it doesn’t make the body any more sanitary; it just makes it more appealing to look