How Important Is Beauty, Why Is It So Essential To Society Compare

How Important Is Beauty, Why Is It So Essential To Society Compare How Important Is Beauty, Why Is It So Essential To Society Compare Your Idea With Other Author's â€" Essay Example > The Importance of Beauty and Social Norms2008Although beauty has been an important aspect of everyday lives of women, it was, till recently, neglected in western philosophical discourse. It was thought that individualism originated from the mind, which was considered distinct from the body. In the postmodern times, however, there is a significant increase in the study of the sociology of body with the replacement of, as one scholar says “the notion of the body as a productive agent by the hedonistic body with its various manifestations” (Bethelot, 1986, quoted in Jeacle, n.d). While in the Victorian ages, the preoccupation with the body was considered to be restricted to the elites society only, the consumerist society has seen the unification of body and individualism on a mass scale with the advent of ready-to-wear clothing, departmental stores, diet and physical education options. Further, in the present times, the wide variety of fashion commodities that are available to a ll sections of the population â€" not necessarily limited to the elite and the bourgeois â€" means that the expression of beauty through commodities follow some standard patterns. In this paper, I will discuss the concepts of sartorial fashion and beauty-enhancing plastic surgery that have become important tools for expressing both individuality as well as group identity. The role of the media, including films, television and magazines play no mean a role in this identification. One of the most distinctive features of visual culture in any society is the evolving dress code, with its variety of fabrics, styles, colors and trimmings. From clothing to footwear, accessories to make-up, body images to hairstyles, the conglomerate that is known as fashion and beauty reflects largely the cultural mores of the society. The origin of the word, fashion, may be traced to the Latin word, factio (which is also the origin of the political term, faction, thus hinting at fashion as a means for p olitical statement) or to facere, which means to make or to do (implying that the word originally signified what people do instead of signifying as now as what we wear). The word facere is also the origin of the word fetish and, ironically, clothes are perhaps the most ‘fetished’ commodities to promote beauty in today’s society (Bernard, 1996). The concern to adapt oneself to the social norms of beauty has defined gender roles, social status and sexual identities in the modern times. Much of what apparently seems to be individuality, however, is shaped by societal roles (Davis, 1994). The way men and women clothe themselves has changed over the years such that fashion has become a means of communication that is quite different from what it was earlier (Crane, 2001). In the nineteenth century, clothing signified social identity, particularly in France and America. In contrast, late twentieth and twenty first century fashion has followed the multi-code societal norms, in which fashion signifies lifestyles, gender identities, ethnicity and age but much less the social status. While nineteenth century French designers made clothes specifically for the local elite, the designers of today generally cater to the global markets, the sensibilities of which are constructed through the use of popular cinema, television and music. Entwhistle (2000) further argues that fashion as a means to identity formation cannot be discussed in isolation to the body since it is through the articulation of bodily identity â€" gender and sexuality â€" that clearly situates one’s societal identity.