Honors Project-Jamie Cucci & Mike Decaro

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.”

Judy Garland

What is Beauty?

• “I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?” – Jean Kerr

• “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.” – Kahlil Gibran

• “Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.” – Sofia Loren

Beauty in American Society

• As an Innate characteristic

• Something people are born with

• You have beauty or you don’t.

• Mainly female? Google search “beauty” – women, statues and puppies. No men.– Beauty and the Beast?

Beauty Products

• Beauty centers on women…or scenery. But not men.

• But is beauty “unnatural?”– Much work is

required to achieve, or maintain, beauty.

Unnatural Beauty?

• The natural person is “loud, fat, hairy, smelly, and UGLY.”

• There is a huge effort, illusion and business centered on beauty.

• Trying to make all people the same?

Is Beauty a Constant Idea?

• Look at beauty pageants, TV commercials, magazines.

• The models look the same.

What is this Ideal Beauty?

• Women define beauty

• Thin; not outwardly strong

• Lots of shiny, glossy hair, only on her head

• These are the new “real women.”

Quickly: Current Male Beauty

• Tall, or taller than women

• Tanned and Muscular• Thin, but not skinny• Fantastic hair, well

kept, and only on the head.

Ideal Beauty

• Young: Under 25• Large Eyes• If White, tanned.• If Black, light.• The Ceramic

Barbie• Disturbing

Thought: A Child with Breasts?3

African-American Beauty

• Constantly changing• Argument: Dark skin

vs. light skin• Dark has a negative

connotation – back to era of slavery

• Attempting to look White?

A-A Beauty

• Texture of hair: • early 1900s -

straightened, European style

• 1960s – Black pride, embracing natural. The Afro – opposite of white style.

• Current – perms, but long and straight is still “good hair.”

Portrayal of A-A Beauty• 1930s – depicted with

excessively large breasts, wide hips, and thick thighs – not beautiful to media.

• (Aunt Jemima. And that was it)

• But that is precisely what many black men find beautiful. Now, many black women have sickly thin weights. However, bulimia and anorexia are still more common in whites.

So what’s the difference?

• For whites, beauty is tanned, thin with long, straight shiny hair and large eyes.

• For blacks, beauty is light, thin, with long straight shiny hair and large eyes

Now, For Something Completely Different

• Middle Eastern: Vast cultural differences form whites, blacks.

• Country: Egypt, modern.

• One of the more progressive Mid-East countries – Westernized.

Egyptian Style

• The belly dance– A celebration of the

beauty of women and the body.

– Video Compilation. Various dancers and styles

– “To live is to dance; to dance is to live.”

• Snoopy

Egyptian? Beauty

• Is the Egyptian idea of beauty different than the American and European style?

• These are pictures of Miss Egypt 2004 and May 2004. Do they resemble Europeans?

Egyptian? Beauty

• Very European LookLighter skin than most Arab nationsHair: long and straightThin, not very muscular

In a different culture, beauty is very similar. Why?

Globalization

• MediaSpread the same

ideals throughout the world

Everyone can see what beauty “looks like.”

Selling the same cosmetic products everywhere

Egyptian Style

• There is a beauty in simple, clean execution, in using a movement in it's purest, simplest form, that transforms the dancer. There is a joy and grace in simplicity that is more powerful than any complex ornamentation. When there is no camouflage, no busy distraction, it is the dancer themselves that is revealed. -- Aziza Sa'id

Works Cited

• 1 What Is Beauty, Anyway? De ClarkeExcerpted from a speech given June 25, 1983 at the Myth California Pageant, Santa Cruz, California. www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/Nikki/BeautyClarke1.html

• 2 A Twisted Perception of Beauty by Kim Campbell– http://www.harlemlive.org/writing-art/essays/twisted/twisted.html

• 3 Aziza Sa’id’s Middle Eastern Belly Dance Site– http://www.zilltech.com/FAQQuotesArt.html

• 4 Beauty Quotes– http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_beauty.html

• 5 “BEAUTY & STYLE” Ebony; 60.12 (Oct2005). p98F.

• 6 Taylor, Mikki and Edwards, Pamel. “beauty” Essence 36.2 (Jun2005). p3c-48.

• 7 Morgan, Joan. “Natural Woman” Essence 36.1 (May 2005). p64-70.

• 8 Kunzig, Robert. “Style of the Nile” Discover 20.9 (September 1999). P80-83.

• 9 Smith, Roberta. “Ancients, briefly modern and human.” New York Times 146.50591 (10/25/96). pC32.

• 10 Gray, James J, Ford, Kathryn and Kelly, Lily M. “The Prevalence of Bulimia in a Black College Population.” International Journal of Eating Disorders 6.6 (November 1987). p733-740.

• 11 J. Fan, F. Liu, J. Wu and W. Dai. “Visual Perception of Female Physical Attractiveness” Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 271.1537 (February 2004). p347-352.