[DRAFT]
We chose “beauty” as a tag for our text and research because The Arts of Beauty; or, Secrets of a Lady’s Toilet focuses heavily on achieving set beauty standards and includes detailed approaches to meet these goals. Beauty is constantly evolving and is determined by culture and time. It isn't subjective to any one person; however, it's ideals and set requirements can be. Montez highlights specific beauty goals and step by step descriptions for both women and men, illustrating the diversity surrounding defining beauty and emphasizing the importance of it to each person. Beauty isn't simple or obvious, and Montez discusses taste with regards to attraction and success in reaching her set goals. I think intersectionality connects greatly with concepts of beauty. Discussions surrounding the perpetuation of the socially constructed beauty standards and norms are worth further exploration of Montez's text.  

Our research questions of focus that relate specifically to this tag are:

• How do the Western standards of beauty define themselves and are maybe redefined in the book?
• What kind of modern resources continues to perpetuate beauty’s standards, of women or generally? Have they changed?​​​​​​
• How does intersectionality and positionality play into definitions of beauty?