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Recommended: Essays on beauty standards and its negative effect

Society is often found judging each other based on physical appearance. Beauty and physical appearance play a major role in society today, whether we are aware of it or not. For hundreds of years, women have been treated with disrespect by society. Throughout history, women have been told they need to look a certain way. In the 1900s, women were told they had to be big and curvy to be sexy, and today women are told they need to be skinny, but still have curves in order to be sexy. If someone does not look the right way, they are ridiculed and made fun of, and not being thin enough can lead to major problems with one’s self esteem. Feeling ashamed of how they look and how they feel can then lead to even bigger problems, such as eating disorders. Within the novels The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, and the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, one can concur that society treats people differently based on their beauty, and one’s physical appearance can lead them to feeling ashamed, used, or disrespected.
Tally Youngblood is a teenage girl, about to turn 16 in the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Since she has not yet had her sixteenth birthday, she is still considered ugly, because she has not yet had a cosmetic surgery making her pretty. This operation is designed by the city officials, created to prevent conflict from racism, or some people being unfairly prettier than others. However, the operation causes the uglies to feel ashamed of their natural looks, or disrespected by others. After Tally’s operation gets delayed, she feels more ashamed and uglier than ever, which is shown as, “Tally peered into her mirror all day, noting every flaw, every deformity. Her thin lips pursed with unhappiness, her...

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...be a good thing for those who are more attractive. However, for most people this is not true. Attractive people will be used by those around them, and may feel offended that others do not care about what’s on the inside. Prettier people are also under stereotypes, such as that they are not as smart as less attractive people. When they make first impressions, others might think that because of how

they appear, they must be less intelligent.
In the article by Michael Torrice and the novels and plays above, it goes to prove that society is aware of beauty’s standards and special treatments, but nothing is changing. One could be stunning, yet have a horrible personality and someone else could be less attractive, and have a stunning personality. People are still feeling ashamed, disrespected, and used because of their physical appearance and how others perceive them.

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