Beauty Trap
Bing Shui (Emma)
First Year Seminar
Professor Chocos
22, Nov, 2011
Most of the media and magazines are about young models with hot bodies and
beautiful faces. Many advertisements are trying to use fabulous models to attract
people’s eyes. Those ads gradually influence people’s thoughts of beauty deeply. They
give and impose on people a definition of beauty, which is tall, thin young girls with
beautiful facial features and healthy skin. They post so many gorgeous images that
persuade people appreciate beautiful faces too much. The pressure is so strong that
even though some people believe the inside is important; they still pay more attention
to the outside. The appearance is a barrier to most people to think about others’true
selves and communicate with them. People who are beautiful are always much more
popular and loved by others. In contrast, people whose appearance are bad overweight,
short, look wired, andwith smallpox on their facesare kept away from others.
Therefore, the good looking people, who are always surrounded and admired by
others may feel sense of achievement, while the ordinary and even bad looking people
feel not confident.With this said, while the media put more and more pressure on
people, their level of confidence and self-esteem decreases.
Alice Walker is a strong example that she was so beautiful girl until an accident
happens to her that changes her life. She used be a cute girl that proud of her looking.
With her beautiful face, she likes show-off, and enjoy others’ appreciation. How other
people admire her and treat her like a princess, made her very confidence. “I can tell
they admire my dress, but it is my spirit, bordering on sassiness (womanishness), they
secretly applaud (Walker, 71).” Her beautiful face brings talent to her that makes her
life full of happy and energy. Also, with her beautiful face, everybody love her, love
her confidence, and talent. With this sense of confidence, she outstands from other
peers; she is so active that she even can make long speech in front of many people
when she is only 6 years old.
However, after the accident, her brother used BB gun shot her face by a mistake,
her life totally turns different only because her face becomes ugly. She is not pretty
anymore, her new face, and this fact change everything of her. With her scary face,
other people do not care about her and she is not popular anymore, there is no
privilege for her anymore.“Not at the ‘cute’ little girl, but at her scar. For six years I
do not stare at anyone, because I do not raise my head (Walker, 72).” Her confidence
is totally destroyed. She doesn’t have the appearance that people think is beauty,
people stare at her scar on her face, instead thinking highly of her with love. The
attitudes people toward her are totally opposite. Her tough situation now is totally
different than what she experienced. What she suffering now, people’s ignorance,
abusing make her so depress and painful. She becomes sensitive and shy; she loses
her confidence, and even fear to look up. Her appearance changes her personalities,
changes her attitudes. What’s more, it changes her life. She is not the cute girl who
shows on the stage anymore, she is live in the feelings of shame and ugliness.
The feeling that from heaven to hell, the heavy pressure from society, and what
other people think about her, make her concern so much about appearance.She says
that “I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty (Walker, 72).” She hates her ugly face,
and despises the critical comments from others. Therefore, the beauty is so important
to her, which means outstanding, confidence, popular and success to her. After the
doctor removes the ugly white stuff from her eyes, “Almost immediately I become a
different person from the girl who does not raise her head (Walker, 73).” She becomes
beautiful again, and then her confidence comes back. She wins everything she dreams,
she become popular, and has speeches on the stage again, just like when she is little.
Her personalities totally change again, also just because her face changes. Her
beautiful face makes her willing to be active and show herself off. What’s more, her
face is attractive and satisfies the aesthetic of public again, those make other people
appreciate and love her again. Her appearance affects her a lot. The attitudes of hers
and the society that influence her life become wonderful.
When Lucy Grealy is a child, she is happy in the hospital although the surgeons
were removed most of the right of her jaw. She feels free because she doesn’t realize
that she is looking “bad”. Also, her little friends are too little to have an idea that
Grealy looks quite different. “It’s the one place I feel justified, sure of myself, free
from the need to explain the way I look (Grealy, 62).” Nobody in the hospital judge
her because they are all patients. Those patients may have more terrible illness, and
more tough problems, so they understand Grealy’s painful, and they do not critic
Grealy’s face.
She never knows that her painful was just started, not only physical but mental.
She leaves the hospital, and had to involve in the society. The media and the society
identity people whether they are pretty or not. She has to receive other’s nasty
comments and wired staring because her ugly face. Her “special” face makes people
abuse on her, and isolate her. “My face that was my own mask, my own tangible
barrier that kept me from knowing the true identity of the joy I was sure everyone but
me lived with intimately (Grealy, 61).”Only depend on her ugly face, nobody care
about her and understand her, no men attracted by her. She cannot have a normal life,
because she is ugly to the society. And with the value of the society, she is critic and
judged by people, the society does not give her a chance to have a happy life.
With the feeling of overwhelming and terrible, Grealy decides to end those
suffering by being a “deep person”. She try to see her and understand her in the right
way which is turning to care more about her beautiful mind, so that she could feel less
painful about her “ugly” face. “On one level I understand that the image of my face
was merely that, an image, a surface that was not directly related to any true, deep
definition of the self (Grealy, 60).”What other look and think of her from her face are
not true, her true self is in her mind.She tries to understand the world and improves
her personality to be an intelligent and talented person. Her abnormal face doesn’t
means her inside, she focus on her true selves, and care less of what other think of her
to realize her own values in the world.
Walker pays so much attention on her appearance that her life is depends on her
face. Until her littlie daughter said a powerful sentence to her, “Mommy, there is a
world in your eye (Walker, 73).” “The world” means knowledge, and personalities.
Walker is so knowledgeable and has beautiful personalities that she used ignore; those
inside beauty make her so gorgeous in her daughter’s eyes. Then, she totally changes
her attitude toward the appearance. She focus on her intelligence, her painful about
her face has left, because she has a beautiful mind. With this new attitude toward life,
she final set herself free, and enjoy her happy life, never worry about whether she is
beautiful or not.
Consequently, the value of people should not just represent by their faces. The
most important thing that people should consider is inside beauties, which are
beautiful personalities. Judging people by their personalities, by their intelligence is
fairer. Therefore, the people who do not have a beautiful face can have the chance and
confidence to realize their dreams and live happy lives. Also, the people themselves
should not care too much about their appearances; they should care much about shape
their personalities and pay more attention to their true selves.
Nowadays, with the importance of appearance, with the stress from the society,
people take too much care of their clothes and faces. They spend too much time on
how to make themselves have beautiful appearances, but ignore their true selves, their
own heart. People should realize that the beautiful faces are contemporary, but the
beautifulpersonalities are permanently. The true beauty is beautiful inside which
means personalities and intelligence. People should working hard to be
knowledgeable and sophisticated, to be a real wealth and beautiful people in mind.
Also, people should be themselves, and do not care too much about others’ thinking
what we look like. In addition, people should understand and appreciate others’
intelligences and personalities, instead judging them only by their faces.
Work Cited
Grealy, Lucy. Mirrors. National Magazine Award, 1963. Print.
Walker, Alice. Beauty When the other dancer is the self. The New York Times
Magazines, 1992. Print.