Monthly Archives: December 2010

“The Book of the Courtier” by Baldesar Castiglione talks about the value of beautiful women. He emphasis that women are for affection and it is very important for women to be pretty. He presents different ways women try to keep themselves attractive by doing make-ups so they can please the mind of men easily. “Do you not see how much more grace a women has who paints (if at all) so sparingly and so little that whoever sees her in uncertain  whether she is painted or not…”(C, 244). This quote shows that women who are pretty has lot of advantage in their life. He also talks about women who are naturally pretty can also be please anybody specially men. “careless purity which is so pleasing to the eyes and minds o men who are ever fearful of being deceived by art” (C,244). It doesn’t matter if beauty is established by doing make-ups or natural, there is advantage to both.

The New York Times Article “Beauty Discrimination During Job Search” is about how women in Israel are being discriminated to acquire a job. Women are to submit their pictures attached with resumes. Pretty women are not always accepted in job as it shows in the article. Pretty women who send pictures with their resume are half like to be accepted for the job as women who didn’t send pictures at all. A study shows that “…call back rates most likely were influenced by the screener‘s jealousy “when confronted with a young, attractive competitor in the workplace.”’

Most women want to be considered as they are the most beautiful than others. So they use different make-ups. Seeing other women more attractive than them can cause them to be jealous. In both readings women shows that there is a competition to be considered as beautiful. They try their best to be the prettiest women. They use different strategies whether it is make-ups, fortunate to be naturally pretty or rejecting other beautiful women in job. However, sometime being pretty can be disadvantaging at it show in the NY TIMES article.

            The paragraph “Woman Exemplify Grace” from The Book of the Courtier by Baldesar Castiglione describes women “inordinate desire to be beautiful.” (C, 244) The author gives many examples of how women want to improve their beauty such as, they use make up.  However, they seem not to realize that men know different tricks used by women. Also, many activities are not liked by males. For example, the author is very sarcastic while talking about make up. “[S]he seems to have put a mask on her face and dares not laugh so as not to cause it to crack, and never changes color except in the morning when she dresses; and, then, for the rest of the entire day remains motionless like a wooden statue and shows herself only by torchlight, like wily merchants who display their cloth in a dark place.” (C, 244)

The New York Times article “Market Watch/Lashfully” by Chelsea Zalopany is about women’ desire to improve their physical appearance. The author describes that many women decide to take a special care about their eye lashes. Ladies  used mascaras to make their eye lashes longer and sexier. However, new technology is discovered. Chelsea explains “[t]he process is surprisingly (and refreshingly) painless — a lash artist assesses one’s existing lash shape and designs a custom style based on multiple lengths, curvatures and widths. Each lash is applied individually (typically 70 to 100 are added per eye) and first-time visitors should expect the process to take one to two hours. The cost runs from $250 to $275.”

 In both readings women use different tricks to improve their beauty, no matter what is the price they have to pay (in first reading the price is being an object of farce, in second reading the price is a huge part of income spend on beauty supplies).