Beauty
“It is a most difficult task to fix upon any general and satisfactory standard of female beauty, since forms and qualities the most opposite and contradictory are looked upon by different nations, and by different individuals, as the perfection of beauty” (Montez, 19).
Within my exploration of "beauty" as a theme, further questioning of how Western standards of beauty define themselves and are possibly redefined in this text progressively arose. Definitions and ideals of beauty differ by location, by country and by smaller communities, but Western preferences and expectations have greatly influenced others. Additionally, surrounding the concepts of intersectionality and positionality, I was interested in exploring their roles within definitions of beauty. Just as beauty varies across locations, people's personal beliefs, practices, and preferences contribute to their ideas of what is beautiful, and those are important to recognize and take into consideration as well when analyzing this text and "beauty" overall.