Notion of Beauty Among Women and Their Everyday Life

Abstract

In todays world, while women have greater power, legal recognition, professional success, exposure, and so on, young girls and women are subjected to a totally different sort of social control, which may be just as restricting as the classic image of homemaker and wife. Its the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection which traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness and self-hatred as she tries to fulfil societys impossible definition of the flawless beauty (Wolf, 2013). The notion is such that beauty is not a simple and unitary cognitive continuum but rather a complex multi-dimensional construct. There is more to beauty than a simple good-bad judgement of attractiveness. The cultural gatekeepers have a major influence on the definition of attractiveness, which in turn helps to form the landscape of beauty (Solomon et al., 1992). Thus, this article intends to explore the various patriarchal manifestations behind the close nexus of patriarchy and capitalism which aggravate the oppression of women and affect their health and psyche by defining beauty standards for them.

Keywords: Social Control, Beauty Myth, Patriarchy, Capitalism, Self-Consciousness, Cultural Gatekeepers

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