James Sears, Staff Writer
A presentation held in the Prillaman Hall last week described the demands of a female’s appearance in several environments.
“I Woke Up Like This: The Societal Pressures of Beauty and Femininity” was held on March 12 in the evening and featured female panelists describing their personal experiences with society’s demands on their appearances in different environments. The environments discussed were the military, corporate, international and educational. Also discussed were activists’ responses to the standards of femininity.
“We’re speaking about the societal pressures on women to look perfect but then also remain natural, which pertains to the discussion about socially constructive standards of beauty and how they relate to femininity, education, relationships and employability,” Yen Rodriguez of the Center for Student Leadership said.
The event discussed the idea of natural beauty versus altering beauty, such as with makeup. The standards of beauty between men and women were also discussed. Assistant professor of education, Dr. Shelbee Nguyen, talked about her appearance.
“I thought about changing my clothes and maybe sprucing myself up before I got here so you could all take me seriously,” Assistant professor of education Shelbee Nguyen said. “But then I thought to myself, ‘That is counterintuitive to what we are talking about and what we want to do.’”
Nguyen said that people do not have rules for beauty.
“If a little girl would come into class and be totally decked out, that would be acceptable,” Nguyen said. “And that in of itself says something to us.”
Nguyen said that people create rules about what is physically acceptable in the education environment, such as not showing bra straps and not wearing yoga pants. Nguyen mentioned three issues with these rules: the rules are distracting to the learning environment, they place ownership on females, and they subjectively objectify women.
Nguyen said these rules can also apply to boys.
“If a boy wears his hair longer than his shoulders in Illinois, he is distracting and needs to cut that hair,” Nguyen said.
Dr. Tanya Brinkley who served in the Georgia Army National Guard talked about managing her appearance in the army.
“The key to appropriate appearance in the army was to meet the standards,” Brinkley said. “I did not wear makeup with the army combat uniform…to me, that uniform is the work uniform and I thought makeup looked out of place; I didn’t think I would’ve been taken seriously.”
Brinkley said that she took measures to keep her weight down to meet the standards in the army.
“I had liposuction done to make my measurements match the army’s standards,” said Brinkley. “I literally took the standards to the plastic surgeon and I said, ‘I need this to happen or my army job is in jeopardy.’”
Brinkley said after she retired, she found that her behaviors were more widespread in the army among both genders. Brinkley also said looking like a soldier does not mean looking like a man, and female soldiers who strive to look male are often not accepted by soldiers of either gender.
“Trying to be something you’re not makes military life even harder,” said Brinkley.
Panelist Ashley McFarland took over and talked about the “Love Your Body” campaign
“The Love Your Body campaign’s mission is to challenge the message that a woman’s value is best measured through her willingness and ability to embody current beauty standards by urging women to participate in “Love Your Body Day,” McFarland said.
When all the panelists finished speaking, the floor was open to questions. One student asked what the main message of the presentation was. McFarland elaborated.
“For me, the purpose of the event was to get all of you men and women in this room to stop looking in the mirror and critiquing what you see,” MacFarland said. “Start looking in the magazines, on television, in film, on billboards, and start critiquing those images and the power structures that proliferate them.”
