ipl-logo

Real Women Have Curves: Unrealistic Beauty Standards Vs. POC Communities

1627 Words7 Pages

Gianna Constantine
Ernest Stromberg
HCOM 452
05/15/2023
Real Women Have Curves: Unrealistic Beauty Standards vs. POC Communities
Eurocentric norms have traditionally molded beauty standards, frequently excluding POC and fostering a sense of inferiority and marginalization. In Josefina López's play, Real Women Have Curves, the effect of Eurocentric beauty standards on POC communities is eloquently portrayed. The drama exposes the negative impact of these ideals on physical image, self-esteem, and cultural identity through the experiences of the characters. This essay will examine the play's exposure to the widespread effects of Eurocentric beauty ideals by examining the problems of the characters, the cultural setting, and the play's broader …show more content…

I grew up in a home where men were not present in my life, and I was raised by POC women some of which had old-fashioned views like Carmen. I know and watched how Eurocentric beauty standards have impacted the women in my life and even myself. I’ve gained a lot of information, history, perspectives, and experiences in how beauty standards impact different people, and feel this was an interesting and important issue to discuss and bring to light in this paper based on my extensive knowledge on the subject.
This is an important question and issue to discuss because this is something every woman deals with from a young age. Beauty standards impact even the smallest of girls and many are and were raised and shown the type of treatment Ana receives from her mom, especially in POC families. Women are constantly being told what they should and shouldn't do, how they should act, eat, respond, and just exist in general and beauty standards are yet another part of how society controls …show more content…

The beauty standard Latinx women are held to is ridiculous. Carmen believes her daughters need to lose weight and fit the beauty standards if they want to get married. In this article, the author captures this part of the mother very well, “In the film, we see the contrast between the ideas of Ana’s mother, which through what she sees on TV and has seen in her community along her life, dreams of which virtues men look for in their would-be wives. This idea may well depart from men’s real ideas about women, and specifically Latin women, where they may value their voluptuousness, wit and affection”(Adolescence and the risk of stereotypes: Real women have curves ... - USAL). She wants them to get married and have children like she did but her old-fashioned way of thinking I believe is her downfall in

Show More
Related

Why Looks Are The Last Bastion Of Discrimination

342 Words | 2 Pages

After reading “Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination” by Deborah L. Rhode and “The Makeup Tax” by Olga Khazan, both readings focus on the concerns of appearance discrimination. Appearance discrimination can be validated, yet it cannot. For instance, it is valid to appearance discriminate an individual when an employer is interviewing him or her because it is the first quality employers examine. An employer is often likely to not hire an individual if he or she comes into the interview wearing informal attire, in contrast to an individual showing up to the interview with formal clothing. Nonetheless, it is not okay to validate appearance discrimination when it comes to an individual’s weight.

Read More

Summary Of Culture Of The Thin Bites Fiji Teenagers By Ellen Goodman

521 Words | 3 Pages

Ideas of what beauty should be are a simple influence by the media. These ideals can be a simple commercial that projects the image of beauty as thin, certain skin type, and hair length. A lasting impression is made on all who view these images. Fiji was once unbiased as to weight and outward appearance of others. The women would greet each other without remarks or negative tone toward one another.

Read More

1984 Rhetorical Analysis

1776 Words | 8 Pages

A majority of the population was ugly even though the idealistic standard of beauty was far above the average person living there. Instead of tall, muscular, light, and carefree people, most ended up being dark, small, and unattractive. This relates largely in the current society because magazines portray thin to be beautiful, and until the last decade has this beauty standard started to change. When things as simple as a beauty standard are different from the current world, it allows readers to think upon the idea of living in a different

Read More

Barbie Dystopianis Duhamel Analysis

805 Words | 4 Pages

They both critique our culture’s misogyny and rigid standards of beauty. In “Losing Bodies”, Susie Orbach argues that modern Western beauty standards have a profoundly negative impact on women, encouraging women to take drastic measures to conform to the mainstream ideal of beauty. Duhamel refers to this in her poem, “The Limited Edition Platinum Barbie”. Orbach also claims that gender roles dictate what behavior is acceptable for women (248), as does Duhamel in her poem, “One Afternoon When Barbie Wanted to Join the Military”. Although these works express similar concerns, they are presented very differently.

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

Ideal Beauty In Catherine Pigott's Chicken-Hips

1408 Words | 6 Pages

Every individual cares about how they appear to others; their shape and in this informal, narrative essay titled Chicken-Hips, Canadian journalist and producer Catherine Pigott tells her story on her trip to Gambia and her body appearance. In this compelling essay the thesis is implicit and the implied thesis is about how women are judged differently on their appearance in different parts of the world, as various cultures and individuals have a different perception on what ideal beauty is. In this essay Pigott writes about her trip to Africa specifically Gambia and how upon arriving there she was judged to be too slim for a woman. She goes on to write about how she would be judged differently back home by mentioning “in my county we deny ourselves

Read More

Real Women Have Curves Play Analysis

865 Words | 4 Pages

Both the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez and the movie adaptation make an attempt to communicate the message of female empowerment through their respective protagonists, Estela and Ana. Men resolve most of Ana’s problems, whereas Estela relies on herself and other women. The play conveys the theme of female empowerment because it is female-centric, successfully addresses the issues of body image, and focuses on women’s independence and self-validation. Lopez’s play serves as an example of what can happen when women uplift and depend on each other, as opposed to men.

Read More

Real Women Have Curves Essay

992 Words | 4 Pages

The movie “Real Women Have Curves” tells the story of Ana Garcia, a high school graduate on her way to pursuit the American dream. Ana lives in barrio in Eastern Los Angeles, she is a brilliant student whom teacher really admire. Although she wants to go to college, her family, especially her mother, Carmen, tells her not to. In her mother’s eyes, Ana is a spoiled child who only thinks of herself. As the movie rolls along, the conflict between Ana and Carmen grows larger and Carmen turns into Ana’s biggest obstacle in achieving her American dream.

Read More

The Body Project Joan Brumberg Analysis

1033 Words | 5 Pages

A girl can be seen as beautiful and attractive, but continued to be shunned - all because they don’t wear the latest trends in fashion (but what if they like wearing solid colors or nerdy shirts from Walmart?). They may have a great personality that would attract many suitors in the nineteenth century, but if it is not up to the status of some people, they’re deemed unworthy. It is honestly one of the saddest things I have witnessed and experienced. Through The Body Project, Brumberg explains how American girls have shifted from judging a girl through her personality and internal character to judging through her appearance.

Read More

Dolores Del Rio: Racism In Hollywood

1256 Words | 6 Pages

According to the Mansfield News, Rio was considered “a real Spanish beauty” that possessed “the sexual attraction, the beauty of face, the attractiveness of figure, [and] the racial characteristics” necessary to master her role in “Carmen” (11). The word “Spanish” utilized to describe del Rio was foreign enough to appeal to U.S. audiences--who favored American whiteness--but not “too ethnic” to be associated with blackness and the working class. Del Rio’s “racial characteristics” allowed directors to view her as an “acceptable” Latina (11). Because Eurocentric beauty standards were foregrounded and idealized worldwide, Hollywood allowed del Rio to become one of the most successful Latina actresses of the decade. Dolores del Rio possessed light-skin, was white-passing, educated, and associated herself with the elite, as she had “parents of Spanish nobility” (11).

Read More

The Use Of Societal Standards In Libba Bray's 'Beauty Queens'

980 Words | 4 Pages

In Libba Bray’s novel, Beauty Queens, the reader follows a group of beauty pageant contestants who find themselves stranded on what appears to be a desolate island in the middle of nowhere. Overcoming all odds, the beauty contestants survive, find their true identities through their near-death experiences, and take down the pageant industry. Throughout the novel, the girls learn to stop caring about societal standards and accept themselves for who they are. Libba Bray uses beauty pageant contestants to illustrate the pressures of social norms that women face. Society’s status quo imposes unrealistic standards and expectations in a society where women are shamed into hiding their sexuality, creating false personas, and adhering to eurocentric beauty

Read More

The Use Of The Hypothetical Perfect City In Plato's Republic

511 Words | 3 Pages

During Book 4 of Plato’s Republic, the focus of the discussion taking place revolves around Socrates’ hypothetical perfect city and its contents. The use of the hypothetical city aids the discussion in allowing for application of virtue, ideas, and their definitions to society before extending the argument to the individual. After having debated justice, defined the good, and outlined the education of the guardian class, it is time to circle back to Justice. Upon laying the foundation of this hypothetical city, it was time to look for the virtue within it. However, Socrates and his argumentative opposition still lacked an agreed upon definition of justice, and the ones utilized previously in discussion stemmed mostly from the ideas of what

Read More

Stereotypes In The Film Real Women Have Curves

711 Words | 3 Pages

The Chicano heritage is a very familiar culture known worldwide. In the chicano culture, women have very dwarf opportunities available to them. The women occupation is to stay home and clean and cook around the house. In addition, to a chicana women who is the smallest of the women in the family her job is to supervise the mother. Considering this, in the film; Real Women Have Curves, Ana Garcia is trying to find her own identity which ends up becoming the struggle of a lifetime under stifling weight of many identities pushed upon her by not only stereotypes of her community, but also her family's old-world cultural beliefs.

Read More

Analysis Of Marge Piercy's A Barbie Doll

1480 Words | 6 Pages

Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” takes a sarcastic approach to backlash at society and send the reader a message about what beauty really is. In “Barbie Doll”, A Barbie doll is used to show and symbolize what society views as what a female should aspire to become “perfect”. “Barbie's unrealistic body type…busty with a tiny waist, thin thighs and long legs…is reflective of our culture's feminine ideal. Yet less than two percent of American women can ever hope to achieve such dreamy measurements.”

Read More

Summary: The Realization Of Western Beauty

982 Words | 4 Pages

Question: To what extent can ideas of beauty in the western world said to be bound up with notions of race? In late modern times, the idealization of Western beauty spread to various areas in the world with globalization despite having different sense of beauty of cultures. The Western beauty, which is high eyebrows, large eyes, high cheekbones, a small nose, a narrow face (Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, Druen and Wu, 1995, p. 268) and anti-ageing body, enforces itself with magazines and advertising that are published worldwide.

Read More

More about Real Women Have Curves: Unrealistic Beauty Standards Vs. POC Communities

Related Topics

Open Document