Kuczynski's Argumentative Essay

Every day, women are told that *this* is what they should look like. “Nobody stops to think girls like this are gleaned from a huge pool of beauties, and then gleaned again and again...and then given the best makeup...and then airbrushed to death.” (Source D). Many women paint their nails and dye their hair to feel beautiful, sometimes going to the extent of breast augmentation and lip injections. Women idolize celebrities and aspire to like them. “Of course, women have long tried to look like cultural icons, whether it’s Twiggy or Angie Dickinson. But there is something much more chilling in the way that patients today see Pamela Anderson, an obvious and proud consumer of cosmetic surgery, as a paradigm of beauty,” Alex Kuczynski said in her book, Beauty Junkies. Kuczynski herself has had her share of cosmetic surgeries, “but gave it up after a bad experience with lip augmentation” according to NPR. Kuczynski is onto something- we do associate beauty with wealth and fame when that’s not what beauty should represent- or what beauty should be represented by. The Roman poet Martial wrote to a woman, “While you remain at home, Galla, your hair is at the hairdresser’s; you take out your teeth at …show more content…
In “Beauty is Filthy Rich” by Fran Lebowitz, it is argued that “Nobody looks like Amber Valletta--not even Amber Valletta.” This is because Valletta never shows her true colors to the public because, as a model, she’s expected to look beauteous all the time. Many women get plastic surgery to look like a better version of themselves, but plastic surgery is just like PhotoShop- you’re just altering your appearance to make people think you’re something that you’re not. How can we call this beauty? How can we call a lie beautiful? Beauty has no real definition, but surely our society shouldn’t find beauty in