Kaylee Rucker College Composition and Research Summary/Response Essay October 18, 2016 Beauty Standards Has society affected how men and women view themselves? In Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Dave Barry’s essay entitled “The Ugly Truth about Beauty,” Barry explains the difference between society’s standards for women compared to men. Barry’s article explains the difference in the societal standards in appearance that men and women face; Barry correctly states that society has high, specific standards for women, but he incorrectly states that men would find putting extra time into their appearance degrading.
The psychological impact on emotions from outward appearance differentiates by gender. Men don’t spend much time thinking about what they look like or what they can do to improve their looks. Pulitzer Prize winning American author and columnist Dave Barry says, “Their primary form of beauty care is to shave themselves, which is essentially the same form of beauty care they give to their lawns” (Barry par. 3). Most men don’t even think about how they look compared to other men; women often compare themselves to other women. A possible explanation for this could be societal reasons. Women grew up playing with Barbies and the only point of the dolls was to make them as pretty as possible. Men grew up playing with ugly action figures and the point of them had less to do with their looks and more to do with their super powers. Another factor could be that the beauty industry is dedicated to making women believe they need to look like the women in the magazines, which is not realistically achievable by most people. Men find other ways to boost their self confidence, like their lawn care.
One of the points Barry makes in this article is that women grow up with dolls like Barbie and also a huge beauty industry that both make them feel obligated to look a certain way. He says, “But women grow up thinking they need to look like Barbie, which for most women is impossible, although there is a multibillion-dollar beauty industry devoted to convincing women that they must try” (Barry par. 8). I had a Barbie head when I was younger that was made for little girls, like myself, to do her hair and makeup. I loved doing that. I would then try to make myself look like her. Now, years later, my little cousins all play with their Barbie dolls too. The reality of the situation is that none of us have Barbie’s face and we’re never going to look like that, but that never stopped and of us from trying. Another point that Barry makes is that men spend little to no time worrying about what they look like because there’s not much that they can do about it. He quotes, “If, at the end of his four-minute daily beauty regimen, a man has managed to wipe most of the shaving cream out of his hair and is not bleeding too badly, he feels that he has done all he can, so he stops thinking about his appearance and devotes his mind to more critical issues, such as the Super Bowl” (Barry par. 5). Growing up, I always wondered why it would take my mom much longer to get ready than it took my dad; my dad always complained about how long it took her. My mom would then get irritated and tell him that when he had to do his hair and makeup every day that he would then have a right to complain. Looking back at those conversations now, I realize that my mother didn’t have to do her makeup every day. She just felt that was what she needed to do. I believe that society has put that standard in place, so if my mother came to work with no makeup on she would be seen as being lazy and unprepared. A man would never be judged for not waking up early to put products on his face. Another opinion Barry writes about is that men don’t try to look like celebrities because they realize that is a waste of time. He states, “I’m just saying that you’re not going to get a group of middle-aged men to sit in a room and apply cosmetics to themselves under the instruction of Brad Pitt, in hopes of looking more like him. Men would realize that this task was pointless and demeaning” (Barry par. 9). It is true that men don’t spend as much time as women do on their appearance. However, I don’t believe that is because they realize it’s “pointless and demeaning.” I believe they don’t spend time and don’t worry about those aspects because there’s nothing else that they can do so there’s no decisions to be made. Women have the choice every day of whether or not they put on makeup. Then they must decide how much makeup to put on and if they want to really change how they look or just wear light makeup. Men don’t have any choices to make; therefore, they don’t worry about their appearance as much as women do because there’s nothing they can do about it anyway.
In conclusion, Barry’s essay talks about how society has caused women to view themselves and how men don’t see much importance in putting excessive effort into their appearance. He also talks about how men would find trying to make themselves look like celebrities degrading; however, men don’t have makeup so men don’t have the option to try to change anything about their face. Barry’s article explains societal standards for both genders and the reasons behind their self-esteem.
Works Cited Barry, Dave. “The Ugly Truth about Beauty.” Delta College, Delta College, 2008, https://www.deltacollege.edu/emp/pwall/documents/theuglytruthaboutbeauty.pdf.