Montez Beauty
I recognized "beauty" as a theme throughout Montez's "The Arts of Beauty; ow, Secrets of a Lady's Toilet" for its heavy focus on achieving set beauty standards and its inclusion of detailed approaches to meeting these goals. Beauty is constantly fluctuating and evolving, and it is determined by culture and time. The ideals and set requirements of beauty vary and are subjective for every person. Montez highlights beauty goals and step-by-step descriptions for both women and men, illustrating the diversity surrounding the definition of beauty and the emphasis on the importance of it to each person. Beauty is no simple or obvious, and Montez discusses taste with regards to attraction and success in reaching her set goals. Intersectionality connects greatly with concepts of beauty; discussions surrounding the perpetuation of the socially constructed beauty standards and norms are worth further exploration.
"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).