Beauty Cuts More Than Skin Deep Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beauty Cuts More Than Skin Deep - Essay Example In the article, the author tends to indicate that the practice of beautifying oneself is more or less a recent trend. Though this is not expressed directly but the indication and focus on more recent techniques such as Botox indicate that the author is analysing the situation in a recent perspective only. People have been in the race to beautify themselves from ancient times. There are indications to suggest that cosmetics were utilised by affluent men and women alike in the ancient Egyptian civilisation (Winter, 2005). Not only this, the practice of denying the usage of cosmetics and other beautification agents has been just as strong. In her article, Cannold (2012) suggests that the onus of using makeup or beautification agents and denying it falls squarely on women. However, this may not necessarily be true. The denial of using beautification agents is just as rampant in men as in women. Studies have indicated that the usage of cosmetics is more of a personal or individual affair than a gender related affair. The author indicates that women use Botox and other beautification agents but deny it in front of other women. She also implies that women are not concerned with Botox usage in men but instead are concerned with the use of such agents by other women. However, if this phenomenon is looked at in detail, it could be recognised that none of us, whether men or women, want to admit our fallibility to age. As indicated before, the use of beautification agents is not associated to gender anymore (Robertson, Fieldman, & Hussey, 2008). Instead, the old values are being replaced by new values where men and women alike want to deny the usage of any beautification agents. The author further develops her argument by presenting weight as a means of differentiating between women’s social groups. Cannold (2012) suggests that women of one weight category will socialise with each other only in order to justify their own weight. This serves as a weak argument since this argument can be generalised to nearly any gender and their socialisation patterns. It is relevant to note that men will only socialise with other men who share common physical characteristics. For example, body builder men will socialise with others who are conscious about their physical well being. This argument can also be extended further to espouse the third gender. Members of the third gender will only socialise with members of the third gender since they resemble physically. Hence, it could be concluded that physically similar people will socialise with each other whether you talk about men, women or about the third gender. The author extends her argument to indicate that women utilise beautification agents in order to fit into their social groups where 50 year olds seem like 40 year olds. Again, it could be argued that men tend to be just as choosy about their appearance and this can be demonstrated by looking at the corporate sector. Restricting the argument’s sc ope to women alone is rather lope sided since male corporate managers do their best to look and as fresh as a cucumber (Gimlin, 2002). Present-ability is one of the most esteemed characteristics of the corporate world especially at the higher levels. This applies across the board to men and women operating in those domains (Low, 2008). The author’