Objective Beauty// Emily Otts

    The first essay in The Abolition of Man talks of how schools teach our children what to think, and how to feel about certain things. C.S. Lewis uses a specific book that he changes the title of to explain how children are not taught English in English class, but instead taught specific ideals that is forced upon most children in the school system. He is right about that, and unfortunately this also applies to many other aspects of our world, not just the education system.

    What came to my mind was today's media, specifically when it comes to beauty. C.S. Lewis tells about how children are taught to feel certain ways about certain things, and that could not be more true when it comes to beauty standards. I will specifically be talking of western beauty standards. Many women are lied into believing they must be a certain figure, that their lips and nose must be a certain way, that their skin must be perfect, and that is what makes them worthy. Because of so many women believing those lies, myself included at times, so much money has been spent on products claiming to make them beautiful. Whether they actually work or not, the company does not care. The lie keeps them in business and keeps the women from focusing on more important things.

    Men are not excluded from this either. So many men will be told they must have a certain body image in order to be loved. So many men will obsess over this, spending countless hours at the gym, and so much money on products claiming to work. Both men and women have bought into the lie they must appear a certain way. But as long as you are healthy, why should your image be judged? Not everyone has the same type when it comes to a partner, but why do we believe us ourselves must be a certain type? Media has conned us into believing a lie, and have done an excellent job at it. 

 

I commented on Emmett Bryant and Bug Olsen's posts. 

Comments

  1. Raygan BosterMarch 14, 2022 at 6:47 PM

    I really love this post. Even though there is so much more awareness around this issue, it really has not gotten much better. The ideal body type has been engrained into our brains, males and females alike. That being said, it makes it hard for people to be accepting of others and of themselves, which just causes division and insecurity.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more