Analysis Of Rosalind Coward's 'The Beautiful Body'

Does this dress makes me look fat? Should I need to lose some weight? These types of demeaning statement has went throughout a woman’s head at least once in her life. Throughout time, there has been many different eras and social acceptances. The outside world and the social norm have a huge impact on woman and the way that they are supposed to perceive their body. Rosalind Coward, a journalist, published a piece called “The Body Beautiful.” Its main purpose is to shed light on what people perceive as the perfect body, and that culturally it is necessary to be attained. Coward’s “The Beautiful Body” is effective because she efficiently utilizes the impact of how social expectations and cultural influences sway woman’s perceived ideas of their …show more content…
Fashion changes over the years, and Cowards states,” The abolition of those areas of the body which fashion writing designates ‘problems areas’.” These areas include the butt and thighs, since these are the more emphasized parts of a woman’s body. Coward includes a piece from Woman’s Own with a section stating “Join Norma Knox as she looks at wats to smooth down, gently reshape and generally improve the area between your waist and your knees.” (314). This emphasizes the expectations of how a woman’s body should look. Then, she states that if dieting and eating healthy are not enough, one could always get it trimmed down. With advertising and now media amplify the option of one receiving cosmetic surgery. “Woman’s magazines, beauty books and beauty advice regularly give out information about this,” Coward states. (315). With regards to this section of the piece, Coward hardly uses any references, but she uses good ideas and wording to appeal to an audience, such as the female …show more content…
In the writing, Coward uses the western society as an example. They perceive their women as slim, no excess fat, and well-toned. She states that this emphasizes the ‘well rounded’ and ‘firm ' aspect of how a woman’s body should be. Sexuality, and maintenance of an adolescent figure is another topic that is discussed in this writing. She goes into saying that in this certain culture, or any, women try to maintain an ‘adolescent’ figure. Not necessarily referring to a young girl, but older woman trying to keep a younger looking figure. She touches on the topic of young girls and women, trying to seem as feminine as possible, or getting rid of anything on their body that is considered ‘ugly’. Her goal with this certain topic is to show the readers how a culture or certain aspects of one can influence women to be more susceptible to a perfect body