Columns

by April Brinkley

John Keats once wrote, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” 

The value of aesthetics in our lives may not be quite that simple, but with one glance at the beautiful people found on television and in magazines and at the abundance of health and beauty products touted, one has to wonder if Keats wasn’t on to something. 

Over the past half-century, women’s roles have evolved dramatically. No longer are we expected to serve as passive, decorative objects. In our contemporary society, options are the name of the game, and women are choosing to empower themselves with active participation in all important aspects of their lives. 

Girls are now taught equality, encouraged to use their “girl power” and, since the passage of Title IX in 1972, provided with ample opportunities for sports participation. These same girls, however, are also still taught as a right-of-passage the rules of and tools for beauty, implying to a girl that, while she may have “girl power,” she’d better learn how to make her appearance pleasing to others if she wants to have “woman power.” 

This is where the “Fem-Fem” dilemma starts. Women feel empowered, but when they try to harness that power for aesthetic pursuits, they feel shallow and guilty.  We are supposed to want it all, but all that we want is supposed to come naturally.

Where women are concerned, double standards have always existed. We may be on more equal footing with men professionally and socially, but aesthetically the double standard remains. Women are expected to be successful and beautiful. On top of this, we are not supposed to show concern about our appearance. (That would be vain.) 

Women are criticized for undergoing cosmetic surgery to fix perceived flaws, yet the results are often admired, if unknowingly.

Largely, women feel guilty for wanting to improve their appearance, as if it is an unnecessary, selfish thing to do—especially since we have achieved (near) equality and no longer find it necessary to rely upon our looks as our collateral for obtaining a means for support (namely, a man).

In Survival of the Prettiest, Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and faculty member of Harvard Medical School, reveals that beauty is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature. Etcoff further demonstrates that beauty is revered and ferociously pursued at enormous cost in nearly every civilization.

In our ever-evolving society, cosmetic surgery and cosmetic solutions have all but become an extension of the health and beauty industry. The existing marketplace is barraged with products often claiming the near impossible. (“Bloussant” really makes your bustline bigger? Wearing an electronic "Rejuvenique" phantom-of-the-opera-style mask can return results resembling a facelift? And--someone please enlighten me--does “Exercise in a Bottle” make you sore if you take too much?) Although it’s not for everyone, at least cosmetic surgery can offer attainable promises with real results for those entering into it with realistic expectations.

It is interesting to note the mere semantics of the “health and beauty” industry. Does one imply the other? Is healthy considered beautiful, or do we just assume that what is beautiful is also healthy? Often, women sacrifice one for the other. The former diet drug known as “Phen-Fen” did a real number on waistlines; unfortunately, it also did a number on many patients’ hearts.  

Overwhelmingly, cosmetic surgery/solutions are beneficial to women (and men) who elect to undertake them. As with most phenomena in our media-mediated world, those unfortunate few with unfavorable outcomes from cosmetic surgery are the ones with the strongest outcries against it. (These usually appear on such reputable talk shows as “Jenny Jones” or “Ricki Lake.”) Thus, the attention-grabbers steal the spotlight, cultivating an erroneously negative image for an industry that aids exponentially more people than it harms. Counteracting negative messages that show the outcomes of cosmetic surgery in a distorted, false light will help enable new cosmetic surgery patients to have the information and the courage they need to achieve their goals.

In life—particularly in women’s role-laden lives—the key to happiness and success is balance. Women who have achieved the balance of health and beauty are wonderful examples for the next generation of women. 

No role model is perfect, though. Both soccer dynamo Mia Hamm and volleyball sensation Gabriella Reese have been criticized for disrupting their respective health/beauty balances: Hamm for taking her shirt off in an overt display of aggressive competition and Reese for her more passive display of flesh in Playboy.

As a woman makes the journey from wishing for a difference in her appearance to actualizing the change, the most pivotal transformation that occurs is within. Although the accomplishment of outer beauty—and the cultural rewards that can follow—can lead to greater self-satisfaction and inner beauty, it is not a means to this end in and of itself. And it is, after all, the realization of inner, not outer, beauty that ultimately make all of life’s pursuits, whether feminist or feminine, worthwhile. 

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