“Why Women Smile” Amy Cunningham’s article “Why Women Smile” states the reason of every woman’s constant-smiley face and the subliminal message it has within the society. She does this by sharing her personal experience in this matter in an honest, bold - but at the same time - fancy way. In my essay I will analyze her approach to the subject and the methods, like metaphor and tone, she used to convey her argument. Cunningham starts off the article by stating that she’s trying to stop smiling after “nearly four decades,” instead of using the phrase “for my whole life,” with this wording she’s giving away her age to the readers as if to let us know that she’s experienced, wise, so she knows what she’s talking about. The period after the word
For me, is kind of ironic that while talking about smiling she points out the women’s movement and connects it all together. I think she’s implying that women smile “to get and maintain” control over ourselves, that it is a defense mechanism of ours to use our charm, which what has been why we’ve been step over before, for our own good. By “archetype” she portrays that women don’t have any other choice but to follow the standard that’s been set up for us and that’s why whenever we’re frowning or mad, we’re told to smile. The coma after “This isn’t entirely a bad thing,” sets a pause and opens the opportunity for the sarcastic tone on the next expression, “of course.” And the comas embracing “studies show” give her the time to pause and clarify that even thought she might be experienced, she doesn’t know it
Also by “her work” I feel that she’s referring to history, like the women’s movement, where we’ve had to work ourselves up and through society to be socially and politically recognized, so now, as a woman I’ve got to work to keep up the façade – all smiles – to remain “recognizable” within the society as indeed, a woman. When implying that culture has done the “dirty work”, Cunningham is, once again, referring to historical context, women being objectified throughout history have impacted us while growing up, making us believe that by always smiling “promiscuously” is the only way that we’ll be able to get what and where we want to. Society has added up to the dirty mind, dirty perspective, dirty standards and roles of women. “Painstakingly” shows how what women, mothers or not, always do is bear with their pain and others’ too. But with the caps on “ENTER SMILING” she brings my attention back to the main point and reminds me of why women smile, because by being created to take care of everyone else – “nature and nurture” – I am not allowed to feel anything but “happiness” at all times, or just can take everybody else’s pain and not show mine. In my essay I’ve analyzed Amy Cunningham’s writing
Amy Cunningham, an editor and author from New York, wrote an article “Why Women Smile” to emphasize on how women are no longer smiling because it is a natural thing, but rather an everyday habit. Coupled with Cunningham’s supported reasons by using logos and ethos, she also uniquely brings in her personal experience by having ethos, making her argument more relatable. A long side with that, societies’ past and present impact on today’s world about women was also included as Cunningham put her own take into proving her point. Although this may be true, there were some fallacies found in her argument leading it to lack of fully portraying the audience.
Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
Carlson, Margaret. “That Killer Smile.” Time 143.6 (1994): 76. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Maureen, her nanny, whose face is riddled with defects, still inspires Coralie to think that, “she [is] beautiful, despite her scars” (10), despite the imperfections she, herself, posses. Then I realized: Isn’t this the true nature of life? Don’t we often look at ourselves, picking out the flaws that we think others will notice? I do this too often, never once thinking that, in reality, people often don’t notice these imperfections or look down on us for them. For instance, Dove had created a commercial that placed women in a position where they had to describe themselves in front of an artist. Accordingly, other women with whom they had met previously were asked to describe them. Of course, the outcome is completely different, yet many women can’t see that. Due to this blind nature, people often try to remove their faults, alike to Coralie, who “attempted to rid herself of the webbing with a sharp knife…” (19), which seems extreme, however many nowadays go through cosmetic procedures to ‘fix’ themselves too. This struggle of accepting ourselves is by no means new—it is an eternal static that doesn’t seem to
Laurie Halse Anderson is trying to tell us that personal appearance doesn’t matter, be beautiful on the inside. It doesn’t really matter what you look like, it’s what you do. If a scientist invented a fertilizer that would solve world hunger, nobody would care what they look like. Melinda is like a seed, doesn’t look like much but something beautiful is inside. Melinda gave up on personal appearance the night of the party; she used to dress nice but after the rape she didn’t. Andy used the “you were asking for it” card a lot, I feel that Melinda tried to make herself look “trashy and ratty” so she wouldn’t be so “vulnerable” (but really Andy is just a pig). Onto the Martha Clan, they thought they had to be perfect, but that made them into monsters
There are many ways people or individuals may feel a woman/man should present themselves, or behave a certain way. Many people act deign or uncharacterized with no internal drive like in the vignettes “Marin”, and “Alicia Who Sees Mice”.
Kim Addonizio’s poem, “What Do Women Want” explores the risk that women have of being stereotyped. By employing the literal devices of imagery and metaphor, Addonizio is able to convey the message that what women really want is to be understood. Though her harsh and honest style. Presenting us with this image, she is making a reference to the kinds of stereotypes associated women that might wear such a dress. Addonizio
Jain, Meera. "The Cultural Implications of Beauty." The Cultural Implications of Beauty. 23 May 2000. Serendip .Web. 12 Jan. 2014. .
The article “Aesthetics of Disgust” by Michelle Meager examines Jenny Saville and the deeper meaning behind her work. Instead of capturing the beautifully perfect proportioned female body, Saville’s work shows them as “distorted, fleshy and disquieting”. These images were better known as visuals of disgust. The article, Mercer examines the different meanings of disgust by reviewing the studies of well-known psychologists. Reviewers of her work responded with shock and confusion. They believed that her paintings were a depiction of the negativity and hatred she felt about the female body. Reviewers even questioned if she hated women’s bodies in general. However, throughout all of the negative comments, some women were pleased that she recognized
... Therefore, instead of losing mental stability because of old memories, one should try to embrace sanity and perpetuate it in life. Moreover, the poem emulates society because people fantasize about looking a certain way and feeling a certain way; however, they are meddling with their natural beauty and sometimes end up looking worse than before. For instance, old men and women inject their faces to resemble those in their youth, but they worsen their mental and physical state by executing such actions. To conclude, one should embrace her appearance because aging is inevitable.
For the past couple of days, I've been wondering what the meaning of this song means. “Crooked Smile” has a lot of meaning to it. I’m here today to tell you why we all should live life to the fullest regardless to our Crooked Smile.
The topic of gender is always a heart-wrenching debacle, but when authors like Kilbourne and Kimmel displays the topics, it shows they are fully aware of the audience, matching it with the correct purpose and stance. They know which types of appeals are most appropriate for captivating the audience’s attention as well. All these elements combined together create an article that surely compels the reader to think twice about women in ads, or regular men, hiding their emotions.
A simple smile, a gazing stare, a firm hand shake or just an unpretentious hello are all forms of communication. While it is essential to the coexistence of the human race, communication is the one thing that is common amongst people of all cultures. Crapo (2013) explained that communication is transference of a philosophies and information from one person to another by ones actions, gestures, and words (Human communication, para.1). Although people use different avenues to express their thoughts and ideas, intercultural communication can be misconstrued when learning to understand different customs. For example, in America, it is not unusual to be convinced that a smile represents happiness. On the other hand, in the Japanese culture, a smile is a mask to conceal their emotions from others. According to the Association for Psychological Science in a press release (2010), researcher Akihiro Tanaka quoted, “… Japanese people tend to hide their negative emotions by smiling, but it’s more difficult to hide negative emotions in the voice” (para.4). Nonetheless, one can interconnect with another person by the use of nonverbal or verbal communication. However, in a comparison of Japanese and Arabian cultures, one can comprehend the dynamics of body language and proxemics and how nonverbal communication is portrayed in modern society and business world by exploring the etiquettes of each culture.
In this section, I attempted to answer the first part of this research question which investigated the textual, social and discursive techniques employed in Snapchat cosmetics advertisement to persuade women. The analysis was supported with Fairclough’s propositions of language, society and ideology. Finally, the discussion of the analysis contributed to answering the second questions of this research, which explores the contribution of textual, social and discursive techniques in affecting women idealized