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Tubercular Venus: When the Beauty Standard Was Dying
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jm__87 9y ago"Yet, in reality, beauty standards are a set of norms that reinforce the gender and class status quo in a patriarchal society." Can you please expand on this? That is a very strong statement.
- GuiA 9y agoThere's a whole article after that sentence expanding on this my dude.
- kstenerud 9y agoThe premise is silly and forced. The reason why the "tubarcular" version of beauty declined is because the rich and famous stopped dying from tuberculosis. The reason why the flappers wore far less clothing, of different material, and cut their hair short is because the rich and famous were afraid of disease carrying bacteria, not because of some proto-feminism. We saw a similar beauty movement in the 1990s with the "heroin addict" version of beauty. Whatever physical aspects distinguish the rich and famous are the things that become the next beauty and fashion standard.
- weberc2 9y ago> Beauty standards at first seem like the natural by-product of society, just an aggregate of society’s aesthetic opinions and sexual tastes. Yet, in reality, beauty standards are a set of norms that reinforce the gender and class status quo in a patriarchal society. It is a handy implement in the toolbox of oppression. I don't know how to take seriously an article that begins like this. Cultural notions of beauty are not part of a grand conspiracy. What an absurd claim.
- pjc50 9y agoOppression doesn't actually require conspiracy, just an inflexible role structure enforced unthinkingly by people being conventional.
- weberc2 9y agoI'm very skeptical, at least for any meaningful definitions of "oppression".
- jm__87 9y agoI kind of get what you're saying, but to be fair, there are certain characteristics that women find more desirable in men and yet no one would say that men are being oppressed because of this.
- pjc50 9y agoThe desire exists in a context of social, economic, physical and legal power belonging to men as a class.
- scotty79 9y agoCould you rephrase your point? I have trouble understanding what you said and how it relates to what the person you were responding to said.
- GuiA 9y ago> there are certain characteristics that women find more desirable in men and yet no one would say that men are being oppressed because of this. I have a male friend who's far on the left side of the bell curve in terms of height, and he has shared plenty of life experience with me that contradicts precisely this (and not just in terms of his relationship to women as well, but also to peers, employers, etc.). It certainly goes both ways.