Beauty
Susan Sontag
Research assignment
• Susan Sontag
• Christian view on beauty
• Greek mythological story of narcissus
Discussion Questions
• What would be the downsides when beauty is
associated exclusively with women?
• Do you agree with the author that the ideal of
beauty is administered as a form of selfoppression?
• What do you think is desirable manhood?
• What’s your definition or understanding of
beauty? Is the notion of aesthetic concept such
as beauty interrelated to other elements?
• Do you agree that beauty is in the eyes of the
beholder?
Susan Sontag （1933-2004）
• an American essayist, literary icon, and
political activist whose works include On
Photography, Against Interpretation, The
Way We Live Now, and Regarding the
Pain of Others.
• In her essay On Photography Sontag says that the evolution of
modern technology has changed the viewer in three key ways. She
calls this the emergence of a new visual code.
• Firstly, Sontag suggests that modern photography, with its
convenience and ease, has created an overabundance of visual
material. As photographing is now a practice of the masses, due to
a drastic decrease of camera size and increase of ease in developing
photographs, we are left in a position where “just about everything
has been photographed” (Sontag, Susan, (1977), On Photography
3). We now have so many images available to us of: things, places,
events and people from all over the world, and of not immediate
relevance to our own existence, that our expectations of what we
have the right to view, want to view or should view has been
drastically affected. Arguably, gone are the days that we felt entitled
to view only those things in our immediate presence or that
affected our micro world; we now seem to feel entitled to gain
access to any existing images. “In teaching us a new visual code,
photographs alter and enlarge our notion of what is worth looking
at and what we have the right to observe” (3). This is what Sontag
calls a change in the “ethics of seeing”.
• Secondly, Sontag comments on the effect of
modern photography on our education, claiming
that photographs “now provide most of the
knowledge people have about the look of the
past and the reach of the present”. Without
photography only those few people who had
been there would know what the Egyptian
pyramids or the Parthenon look like, yet most of
us have a good idea of the appearance of these
places. Photography teaches us about those parts
of the world that are beyond our touch in ways
that literature can not.
• Thirdly, Sontag also talked about the way in which
photography desensitizes its audience. Sontag
introduced this discussion by telling her own story of
the first time she saw images of horrific human
experience. At twelve years old, Sontag found images
of holocaust camps and was so distressed by them she
says “When I looked at those photographs something
broke... something went dead, something is still
crying”. Sontag argues that there was no good to come
from her seeing these images as a young girl, before
she fully understood what the holocaust was. For
Sontag the viewing of these images has left her a
degree more numb to any following horrific image she
viewed, as she had been desensitized. According to this
argument, “Images anesthetize” and the open
accessibility to them is a negative result of
photography .
• Scrutiny---close study or look; a careful and
thorough examination详细检查、仔细观察
pass the scrutiny of the guards
His work looks all right, but it will not bear
scrutiny.
The suspect’s movements were under the
scrutiny of the police.
Scrutinize----v.
The policeman looked in the file and scrutinized
his face for a moment.
• Lament----feel or express grief or sorrow悲叹、痛惜、
因 而遗憾
He laments the fact that the city residents here have
lost confidence in the police.
a lamentable performance拙劣的表演
lamentation----n. mourning
• Flair----natural ability to do some special thing天赋、
资质、特别的才能
a flair for music/languages
be impressed by sb.’s political flair
develop a flair for decorating rooms
Paragraph 1
• How did the ancient Greeks define beauty?
• In what ways does the story of Socrates
support Sontag’s central idea?
• Lamely----weakly, unconvincingly站不住脚的、
蹩脚的、软弱无力 adv.
That was her last lame effort.
At best, the proposal was a lame compromise,
but he accepted.
His counter arguments sound lame.
• Pedagogical----concerning the methods and
theory of teaching教学法的
• disciple---a follower of any great teacher门徒、
崇奉者
The distinguished professor has had many
disciples over the years.
Paragraph 2
• What do modern people think of the relationship
between inner beauty and outer beauty?
• Be wary of ----be cautious of, be careful of 堤防、
警惕
be wary of flatters
• Enchantment----a delightful influence or feeling of
delight魔法、魅力
the enchantment of music
Paragraph 3-4
•
•
•
•
How does Christianity change the idea of beauty?
How is beauty associated exclusively with women?
Do we use the same word to describe man?
Adrift---adj./adv. Not fastened; without direction
漂流、漫无目的；脱落、出岔子
The storm set many small boats adrift.
We are adrift in a sea of new ideas.
The button has come adrift.
The project went adrift.
• Alienate----turn away the friendship of 疏离
feel bitterly alienated
In the 18th century, the colony was gradually
alienated from its mother country.
• Arbitrary---not seeming to be based on reason任
意、武断、专横的
The choice of players for the team seemed
completely arbitrary.
He made unpredictable arbitrary decisions.
Christian View on Beauty
• Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a
woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
• Likewise also that women should adorn
themselves in respectable apparel, with
modesty and self-control, not with braided
hair and gold or pearls or costly attire.
The Second Sex (1949)
• Simone de Beauvoir
• The Second Sex was de Beauvoir's
exhaustive effort to grapple with the
strange predicaments that being a
woman creates for a human being.
The dilemmas she analyzed continue
to obsess and sometimes torment
modern women -- the conflicts
between meaningful work and
maternity, the temptations of
dependence, the painful artifices
conventional femininity requires.
Her work anticipates both second
wave feminism and the reaction to
it.
• De Beauvoir's fundamental insight is that
throughout recorded history, humanity has
been understood as male, with women
situated as inessential others. Man is subject,
women is object. This asymmetry, de Beauvoir
argued, frustrates women's dreams, deforms
their psyches, and alienates them from
themselves.
• “History has shown that men have always held
all the concrete powers; from patriarchy's
earliest times they have deemed it useful to
keep woman in a state of dependence; their
codes were set up against her; she was thus
concretely established as the Other.”
• Attribute to---to believe something is the result of
归因于
She attributes her success to hard work and a
little luck.
• Demeaning----do sth. that make people have less
respect降低身份、失去尊重
I wouldn’t demean myself by asking for charity.
• Overtone----弦外之音、暗示
There were political overtones to the point he
was making.
• Vestige-----a sign, mark that shows sth. was
present残留、遗迹
the last vestiges of the old colonial regime
• Detriment----n. harm
The war caused great detriment to the
country’s economy.
Suicide bombing is detrimental to the cause of
peace.
Paragraph 5
• According to the social norms, what is the
essence of men and women respectively?
What is the stereotypical thinking towards
man and woman?
• In the throes of ---- struggling with some
difficulty
Despite being in the throes of school exams,
Tom still went to the theatre.
Narcissism
• Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings,
depending on whether it is used to describe a central
concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social
or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait. Except in
the sense of primary narcissism or healthy self-love,
"narcissism" usually is used to describe some kind of
problem in a person or group's relationships with self and
others. In everyday speech, "narcissism" often means
egoism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness. Applied to a
social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an
indifference to the plight of others. In psychology, the term
is used to describe both normal self-love and unhealthy
self-absorption due to a disturbance in the sense of self.
• The word narcissism comes from the Greek
myth of Narcissus. Narcissus was a handsome
Greek youth who rejected the desperate
advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment,
he was doomed to fall in love with his own
reflection in a pool of water. Unable to
consummate his love, Narcissus "lay gazing
enraptured into the pool, hour after hour",
and finally changed into a flower that bears
his name, the narcissus.
Paragraph 6
• According to Sontag, “the ideal of beauty is
administered as a form of self-oppression.”
What is your understanding of this remark?
• Idealization----the imagination or
representation of sth. or sb. as perfect or as
better than in reality
The American dream is an idealization of
American reality.
• Complexion----the natural color and
appearance of the skin, esp. of the face
She has a pale complexion.
• Fretful----complaining and anxious, esp.
because of dissatisfaction or discomfort
She asked in a fretful voice why she was
excluded from the list.
He is fretting over his mother’s illness.
• Muster----n. assembly of people
pass muster--- to be considered satisfactory
Such excuses will not pass muster with him.
• Wanting---a. lacking in quality or quantity
He is wanting in moral constraints.
wanting---prep. Without
Wanting a leader, nothing can be done
smoothly.
Paragraph 7
• What is a desirable manhood like?
•
Robert Redford: US film actor and
•
director (1936-- )
•
recent production: The horse whisperer
•
• Dissect---to study very carefully part by part仔细研
究、剖析
His supervisor dissected his work and questioned his
motive.
He dissected the plan afterward to study why it had
failed.
• Unmanly---unworthy of noble birth, cowardly无男子
气概的
• Blemish---a small mark or damaged area that may
spoil the appearance of sth.斑点、疤痕、瑕疵
His reputation is without a blemish.
• Depreciation----a decline in value跌价、贬值
New cars start to depreciate as soon as they are on
the road.
Shares continued to depreciate on the stock market
today.
Paragraph 8-10
• Do you agree that beauty is a form of power?
• How could we shatter the mythology of the
feminine?
• Preen---feel proud or satisfied with oneself 刻意
打扮、精心修饰并自我欣赏
Will you stop preening yourself in front of the
mirror?
preen oneself on sth.沾沾自喜、得意扬扬
• Clamber up to-----climb or move with difficulty or
a lot of efforts（吃力）攀登
The children clambered up the steep bank.
Clambering over the stone walls, we tried to
escape from the wild bull.
• In so far as----to the degree that
I will help you in so far as I can.
We will succeed in so far as we cooperate in
this project.
• interminable----endless冗长的
The drive seemed interminable.
The meeting dragged on interminably.
• Disparage----to speak of without respect贬低、
轻视
I don’t mean to disparage your achievements.
disparaging remarks贬损的言辞
He spoke disparagingly of his collegues.
Gender in the Media
• Task:
• Devise and deliver a persuasive speech exploring
representations of men and/or women in a
media form/outlet of your choice. Your speech
should urge for the support/boycotting of the
chosen media form/outlet. Your speech should
lead your listeners to reappraise their own
position, persuade them to accept your stance,
and move them to take action on the issue.
• 3-5 minutes
• Choose media form , e.g.: the blogosphere,
newspapers, magazine, popular web sites,
television, twitter, feature film etc.
• Gender focus (m/f?) and an outline of the issue
regarding gender representations in your chosen
media outlet.
• Call to action
• Persuasive strategies/devices you will use to
illustrate your points