Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?

We live in an era where our world revolves around fleeting images on Instagram and with the female clothing and cosmetics industry marketed by influencers aka online personalities. Pressure on women to look good is greater than ever before. Failure to comply with these demanding socially acceptable...

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Main Author: Lock, Jing Wen
Other Authors: Winnie Sung
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137444
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1374442020-03-26T02:54:53Z Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification? Lock, Jing Wen Winnie Sung School of Humanities whcsung@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Philosophy We live in an era where our world revolves around fleeting images on Instagram and with the female clothing and cosmetics industry marketed by influencers aka online personalities. Pressure on women to look good is greater than ever before. Failure to comply with these demanding socially acceptable appearance norms will render women despised and rejected. This paper aims to discuss if conforming to beauty and appearance ideals would render women to participate in their own self-objectification. Inspired by Nussbaum, I attempt to develop an account of self-objectification which includes internalization of the male gaze and non-sexualized objectification. The core of this paper argues that conforming to feminine norms of appearance results in reduction and dehumanization, that are two necessary and jointly sufficient conditions to constitute self-objectification. I will demonstrate this by explaining how isolation and self-alienation culminates as reduction, and eventually leads to dehumanization where women lack self-determination and perpetuate an image of inadequacy in their natural appearance and body. I will also raise an objection then respond to it. I will conclude to assert that when women conform to feminine norms of appearance and idealistic beauty standards, they are participating in their own self-objectification. Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy 2020-03-26T02:54:53Z 2020-03-26T02:54:53Z 2020 Final Year Project (FYP) https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137444 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Humanities::Philosophy
spellingShingle Humanities::Philosophy
Lock, Jing Wen
Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
description We live in an era where our world revolves around fleeting images on Instagram and with the female clothing and cosmetics industry marketed by influencers aka online personalities. Pressure on women to look good is greater than ever before. Failure to comply with these demanding socially acceptable appearance norms will render women despised and rejected. This paper aims to discuss if conforming to beauty and appearance ideals would render women to participate in their own self-objectification. Inspired by Nussbaum, I attempt to develop an account of self-objectification which includes internalization of the male gaze and non-sexualized objectification. The core of this paper argues that conforming to feminine norms of appearance results in reduction and dehumanization, that are two necessary and jointly sufficient conditions to constitute self-objectification. I will demonstrate this by explaining how isolation and self-alienation culminates as reduction, and eventually leads to dehumanization where women lack self-determination and perpetuate an image of inadequacy in their natural appearance and body. I will also raise an objection then respond to it. I will conclude to assert that when women conform to feminine norms of appearance and idealistic beauty standards, they are participating in their own self-objectification.
author2 Winnie Sung
author_facet Winnie Sung
Lock, Jing Wen
format Final Year Project
author Lock, Jing Wen
author_sort Lock, Jing Wen
title Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
title_short Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
title_full Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
title_fullStr Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
title_full_unstemmed Conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
title_sort conforming to feminine norms of appearance and beauty ideals : self-inflicted objectification?
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137444
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