Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure

Two or Three Things I Know For Sure

Allison illuminates the fact that we as women must appreciate each other and our beauty before we can truly cherish other forms of beauty around us. “Two or three things
I know for sure, and one of them is that of we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men see as beautiful, that we don’t even know what it means to us. If we can get to the point where women feel beautiful even if they don’t fit the societal ideal, it will allow us to open our minds to all other forms of beauty.
Morgan asserts in her article, “Women and the Knife”, “Rather than aspiring to self-determined and women-centered ideals of health or integrity, women’s’ attractiveness is defined as attractive-to-men...”(119). This ties in to a story that Allison tells in her book about a conversation with her sister. She had always thought her sister was beautiful and was jealous at the attention and admiration it entailed. Many women are envious of women that men view as beautiful...even lesbian women who possibly would have a different view of female beauty. Society ingrains in everyone what the standard of beauty is so much that we don’t even know why we believe it. As Allison talks with her sister, she discovers what it meant for her to be attractive growing up. She was constantly harassed by boys and goaded by mothers and sister who didn’t want her near their sons and brothers. People assumed that she thought she was better than them, without her having to say a word. So while Allison wanted to be just like her, she dealt with “...the hatred that trailed over her skin like honey melting on warm bread”(78). Though this story points out that beauty has its cost as well, the power of being beautiful holds a great deal of weight in our society as individuals and social beings.
“...a woman’s pursuit of beauty through transformation is often associated with lived experiences of self-creation, self-fulfillment, self-transcendence, and being cared for.
The power of these experiences must not be underestimated”(Morgan, 120). This is a major reason so many women are now choosing to have cosmetic surgery. But, as
Morgan also points out, “elective” surgery is now becoming less of a choice for women.
As more and more women transform their bodies into society’s ideal figure of femininity, the higher the standards become. If women begin seeing many other women having