Marked Women By Deborah Tannen And Susan Sontag - 1119 Words

Are women having more expectations tacked on that include more than beauty, such as a marriage, a family, or a career? Or are women still only expected to be humble yet beautiful? Deborah Tannen and Susan Sontag tackle these issues of women’s beauty expectations in their respective articles â€Å"Marked Women† and â€Å"A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?† Tannen tells of her story in realizing how, in society, â€Å"[women are] marked [by nearly every aspect of their appearances, whereas men, for the most part, are] unmarked.† Sontag explains how beauty has transformed throughout time to only include women and carry negative connotations. These two women analyze these similar issues in rather different ways, however. They utilize different†¦show more content†¦One recent example of this is in South Carolina with Carey Burgess. Burgess, the student body president of her high school, was suspended for wearing a skirt that was too sh ort for her school’s dress code even though it technically abided by the rules. When young women dress to accommodate the warmer weather they can face suspension, but when the young men at school do it, no one thinks twice about it. Susan Sontag analyzes the history of the term beauty and its connotations in her article â€Å"A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?† from Vogue. She begins by explaining how initially, according to the Greeks, a person’s inside matched the outside. If a person was beautiful, the inside was also meant to be beautiful. However, after Christianity came along the two became separated. Now we would be surprised if someone who is beautiful is also talented or smart. Beauty now has negative connotations, making us assume that someone who is physically attractive must also be rude, unintelligent, or conceited. This predominantly affects women, making those who care about their beauty, which is essential in our society, seem sel f-absorbed and superficial. A prime example of this scenario are women who pursue careers in fashion, whether it be design, modeling, or somewhere in between. Those who pursue it are told they only care about theirShow MoreRelatedGender Inequality1640 Words   |  7 Pagesissue: the grievances of women. Feminists have fought against the ingrained tradition of women as housewives with no rights and being looked down upon as the lesser sex. The women’s rights movement in the United States has worked tirelessly since 1848 to fight for rights and break down gender barriers. Misogyny and gender constructs, such as the ideal of beauty, hold women back in various aspects of their lives as discussed in the articles â€Å"Marked Women† by Deborah Tannen and â€Å"A Woman’s Beauty: PutRead MoreSusan Sontag s `` A Beautiful Woman, And A Woman s Beauty : Put Down Or Power Source1281 Words   |  6 Pagessexualized, and passive. â€Å"Marked Women† by Deborah Tann en, â€Å"Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language† by Alleen Nilsen, and â€Å"A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?† by Susan Sontag are three essays that show these negative connotations of femininity. Together, they exemplify that females are â€Å"marked† as pretty, sexualized, and passive. The concept of femininity is associated with beauty. As sontag explains, â€Å"A beautiful woman, we say in English. But a handsome man†. Sontag discusses how beautyRead MoreSusan Sontag s A Woman s Beauty : Put Down Or Power Source?1017 Words   |  5 PagesWomen have historically been seen as sex objects while men have been seen as â€Å"success objects.† â€Å"Marked Women† by Deborah Tannen, â€Å"A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?† by Susan Sontag, â€Å"The Men We Carry in Our Minds† by Scott Russell Sanders, and â€Å"Man Bashing: Trivial Pursuits or a Truth with Consequences?† by Warren Farrell discuss these two sides to gender roles. These essays most effectively argue that women face more challenges in today’s society than men. Women are made to be sex objects