The Many Faces of Beauty

The Many Faces of Beauty

ENGL.336

            “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” or is it? Delta Zeta Sorority presented “The Many Faces of Beauty,” a Women’s Learning Circle at Frostburg State University in the Lane University Center, Atkinson Room. The sisters of Delta Zeta Sorority discussed the many issues facing women about beauty today on February 20, 2012. Over 50 students attended the event. The presenters of the program discussed the differences in beauty from hundreds of years ago until today.

            Briana Watson, Vice President of Programming for Delta Zeta Sorority and April Baer, Coordinator for University Wellness and certified Life Coach presented the event. Watson began by defining beauty as the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to someone’s mind. Over the years, there have been plenty of perceptions of what truly defines beauty. Throughout the slideshow Watson explained how society puts so much emphasis into physical appearance. Most people start to believe that if they are not the image society portrays then they are not beautiful. As she continues, females in the audience start to frown their faces and turn their heads when she explains how women in the 16^th century used urine to dye their hair, tied corsets which damaged internal organs, and applied poison as makeup.

Watson explained, “Women practiced painful beauty practices in the 10^th century by squeezing their feet into smaller shoes because they thought having smaller feet defined them as being beautiful.”  

After looking at the images on the Power Point, members of the audience mouths began to drop and the mood suddenly shifted.

            “If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her impossible proportions,” exclaimed Watson.

            In today’s society, young girls are taught by the media and other resources that they have to look a certain way in order to be accepted. It all starts with younger girls playing with Barbie dolls that are of unrealistic proportions by having a slim waist, large breasts and long legs.

            Watson stated, “ Society imposes an unrealistic perfect body at a very young age and we should not be striving for this as a society today.”

            Towards of the end of the program, Baer challenged the women in the audience to use a makeup remover cloth and remove their makeup to show their natural beauty. Many women in the audience looked around them to see who was brave enough to accept the challenge. Some females refused the challenge while others embraced the challenge. After participating in the challenge, all the women in the audience were asked to write what they liked most about themselves. Some of the women sat and pondered the question before writing down their answer while others were quick to put their answers onto paper.

            The final question proposed to the audience was, “What can we do to combat this growing epidemic?”

            “Stop saying [sic] certain unrealistic portrayal of beauty expectations that we can’t meet and stop equating people on weight because it doesn’t equate to their character,” according to Janet Adesina, member of the audience attendee.