What do you think of the feminine beauty value? Do you feel its influence on yourself? Please write something on your understanding of the value and its impact.
The feminine beauty value posits physical beauty as a top priority for women. However, I'm not actually influenced by this prevalent opinion.
I've always been taught (especially after entering adolescence) that beauty comes from within. Of course, as a girl, I should always try my best to keep myself fit, clean and appropriately dressed, but I mustn't rely solely on a beautiful appearance and sell beauty for fortune or fame. The development of many core elements in our life, such as diligence, friendliness and integrity, shall always come before the pursuit of beauty.
I reckon that Charles Cooley's concept of looking-glass self might explain the emergence of this value. According to this concept, our self-images stem from our understandings of how others perceive us. We continuously seek the recognition of others, in which our appearance plays a vital role. As for a girl immersed in patriarchal cultures, she might learn in everyday interpersonal interactions about the importance of physical appearance, and thus deem it a correspondingly valuable asset. Bombarded by countless mass media messages, she might also come to believe that skinny models represent the one-and-only ideal body type. The conviction then takes root in her mind, and constantly urges her to develop in alignment with her belief.
Compelling billions of women to attain and maintain physical attractiveness by hook or by crook, the feminine beauty value conjures up a host of worries. The greatest fear is over women's increasingly damaged self-esteem. Millions of women, beautiful and unique, are starting to form negative self-images due to their "dissatisfying" body shapes. For fear that an inadequate physical appearance might damage their self-images, some women resort to extreme measures such as major cosmetic surgeries and harsh diets. To some extent, the feminine beauty value is sacrificing both physical and spiritual beauty of women for an outrageous standard, and thus should be eliminated.