Western Influence on Beauty
How do the Western standards of beauty define themselves and how are they possibly redefined in this text?
Western preferences and ideals have long held strong global impacts on many topics, and beauty is one example. In Montez's text, she focuses on various preferences surrounding appearance, dedicating chapters to each topic; however, I identified a similar theme throughout: an emphasis on skin color. Ideals, such as those surrounding skin color, body shape, and the ways people dress, are all heavily dependent on one's culture and personal preferences. However, can cultures be influenced by other cultures? When specifically addressing topics of skin color, there are endless examples of oppression and superiority complexes involved in these discussions, and Montez's text illustrates some of this.
"a beautiful woman must be fair" (Montez, 19).
"The forehead white ... the neck should be white ... the whiteness and delicacy of its skin should ... go on improving to the bosom; the skin in general should be white, properly tinged with red, and a look of thriving health in it ... the arm should be white ... the bosom should be white" (Montez, 21-22).
In regards to beauty ideals, and highlighted by Montez's own words, whiteness seems to be a large focus. Although Montez discusses several sections of one's body, the topic of skin color is carried throughout her work. Lighter skin, in cultures across the globe, has been considered a "more esthetically pleasing tone compared with darker hues. In fact, in certain communities, skin lightening creams and lotions are used by individuals with darker skin types to improve overall appearance, portray a higher social level, satisfy a spouse, or increase marital prospects" (Maymone, 593). If lighter, whiter skin is the epitome of beauty, what is everything else? People, women more specifically, are pushed to discover and use every possible method of reaching these set ideals, with one example of this being skin bleaching and applying skin lightening products. The lighter skin appeal created from Western standards of beauty has spread globally, embedding itself within other cultures.
Similarly, Western ideals and standards of beauty are reinforced through magazines, movies, fashion, and makeup, all illustrating an extremely specific body type to the public. In this image above, although there may be slight variation with regards to skin color, their bodies are all practically identical. Even with the small diversity of skin color, it's within a spectrum: no one is extremely dark or pale. If this image of a woman's body is accepted as the ideal for all women, but it is not attainable for everyone, how then are people supposed to feel confident and beautiful in their own body? The perpetuation of the Western ideal of a woman's body creates an unreachable goal for women in general. Montez is providing an instructional guide for women to reach "ideal womanhood"; however, the issue is not necessarily with the process or steps she provides, but with interpretations of these idealizations themselves and the audience she is directing her work towards. Our society sets women's value and beauty in their physical appearance; however, external traits can be greatly influenced by internal ones. In "The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette" by Eliza Bisbee Duffey, she believes that "the morally best [are] the most beautiful, [and] the morally worst [are] the most deformed" (Lennox). A person's morals and invisible traits will eventually become more visible, leading to an individual becoming less physically appealing to others and society when their morals are also less than attractive. Montez, similarly to Duffey, believes that with constant and "repeated immoral thoughts and actions," a person will be left physically scarred (Lennox). So, when moral and internal goals affect your appearance, and then society has set expectations that prioritize this appearance which is, in turn, heavily influenced by Western ideals, it is extremely limiting towards who is allowed to be "beautiful"."The bosom should be white and charming, neither too large nor too small; the breasts equal in roundness and firmness, rising gently, and very distinctly separated ... the sides should be rather long and the hips wider than the shoulders, and go down rounding and lessening gradually to the knee" (Montez, 22).
