In Your Face: The Culture of Beauty and You

by Shari Graydon, Karen Klassen (Illustrator), Katy Lemay (Illustrator)

Overview

A lively, thought-provoking look at the power and pitfalls of the beauty industry hype. From fairy tales and Hollywood movies to magazine ads, reality TV and the Internet, we absorb the lesson early: being beautiful is the answer to our dreams. It’s harder than ever for teens to tune out the endless media messages promoting unattainable ideals, yet at no time in history have they had more tools to change the message. With In Your Face, Shari Graydon encourages readers to think critically about the culture of beauty both past and present. Whether it’s the different standards for guys versus girls, racial and size biases, the assumptions we have about models and celebrities, or the message that the “right” clothes, makeup, or surgical procedure can make you a better person, Graydon’s unbiased look into the realities behind our ideals will help teens deconstruct the beauty industry hype. Fully rewritten and redesigned from the 2004 edition, In Your Face has been updated to reflect the heightened pressures of beauty in the digital era—both good and bad—to shape our self-image. The appealing magazine-style format, stylish illustrations, and conversational tone will draw readers into this empowering exploration of the complex subject of beauty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554516667
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Shari Graydon is an award-winning writer, educator, and activist who has authored the bestselling Made You Look and edited an essay collection for adults, I Feel Great About My Hands. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Karen Klassen is an illustrator and painter who has worked with a variety of editorial and advertising clients. She lives in Calgary, Alberta. Katy Lemay is a collage artist whose work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines. She lives in Quebec.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	4
1	Once Upon a Time	7
2	The Eye of the Beholder	20
3	The Young and the Healthy	37
4	Suffering is Optional	48
5	Double Standard	67
6	Beauty Power	83
7	Opportunity or Knocks?	97
8	Competition 24/7	109
9	Flogging Fantasies	126
10	A Day in the Life	144
11	Beyond Image	159
	Notes	165
	Acknowledgments	172
	Photo Credits	173
	Index	174

Introduction

Introduction

Beauty rules.

And not just in our fantasies. Do you ever get the impression that the girls and guys blessed with knock-'em-dead good looks are much more likely than everyone else to fall into fame and fortune?

Turn on your favorite TV show, scan a few magazine covers at the local corner store, or check out the singers who make it big: chances are the faces and bodies you're looking at are more attractive than most of the people you see walking down the street or hanging out in the hallways at school.

Every day, in a thousand ways, we're reminded of how much easier the world seems to be for people blessed with the right hair, face, and body parts. You can't help but wonder whether your own life would be just that much better if the reflection looking back at you from the mirror every morning were a bit more like Brad Pitt or Jennifer Lopez, and a bit less like your Uncle Howard or Aunt Lou.

And yet, ideas about what's 'beautiful' change all the time. Your closet probably has evidence of the fact that fashion is awfully fickle: what's considered cool and desirable one month can be 'so over' the next. And not everyone has the same tastes: not here in North America, and certainly not in other parts of the world. Open up any history book or foreign magazine: you'll see people whose looks may be admired in their own countries, or would have wowed their friends in the past, but wouldn't turn heads in your crowd.

Ever ask yourself why? Why then, and not now? Why there, and not here? Why that look, and not this?

Even though the standards of beauty -- not to mention the methods for achieving it -- have changed radically overtime and across cultures, it's pretty clear that the desire to look hot is hard-wired into human nature. Art in the tomb of an Egyptian nobleman who lived around 2400 BC shows a slave beautifying his feet; a couple of thousand years later, Cleopatra, an acknowledged babe of her day, was big into eyeliner; and aspiring hotties of the 21st century can choose from a seemingly endless array of beauty aids.

In Your Face sets out to discover:

• why we're so fascinated by beauty;
• what we've done over the centuries and across cultures to stand out, fit in, and measure up;
• who gets to decide what's hot and what's not; and
• what forces and sources shape our views.

We'll examine the beauty lessons we learn in everything from bedtime stories to blockbuster movies and check out the vast and varied definitions of beauty from all over the world. And our exploration of the enduring appeal of the young and the healthy will help to explain some of the wild and wacky things people have done in the past and are doing today in pursuit of looking good.

We'll compare the gap in the beauty standards applied to guys and girls, and shine some light on the power games that have been played in the name of beauty to keep some people in their place. Along the way, we'll look at the advantages and the disadvantages (yes, there are some!) of being judged a hot property.

In Your Face goes backstage at beauty contests -- both the kind that focus on tiaras and prize money, and the kind that happen every day in school hallways and bathroom mirrors. We'll also open the vault on the folks who get rich by making the rest of us feel insecure, and expose the gap between what we see and what's actually achievable. And we'll check out the impact that being beautiful had on the lives of a couple of great-looking teens.

Understanding the powers and pitfalls of trying to look our best won't necessarily inspire us to toss out the tweezers or hair gel. But putting beauty into perspective can definitely help us to stop feeling so controlled by it. The treatment -- if not the cure -- includes valuable reality checks and alternative beauty tips; great strategies for wrestling your feelings about image pressure to the ground.

Editorial Reviews

[Review of previous edition:] An insightful examination into our consumer culture... clear and honest.

BC Parent - Elizabeth Shaffer

[Review of previous edition:] Eye-opening guide aimed at teens that encourages them to start thinking critically about the beauty industry.

Ottawa Citizen - Elizabeth Payne

[Review of previous edition:] Does for young girls what Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth did for their mothers. Written in an upbeat engaging style... Puts into perspective the pervasive images of beauty pumped into our collective consciousness.

Toronto Sun - Sandy Naiman

[Review of previous edition:] Essentially, In Your Face: The Culture of Beauty and You endorses the old adage that handsome is as handsome does--but readers won't mind, because it does it oh, so beautifully! In her down-to-earth manner, author Shari Graydon puts on a show-and-tell of beauty past and present. Over the course of eleven chapters, [she] models healthy skepticism of beauty products and procedures, so that readers, in turn, will begin to exercise their critical thinking skills with respect to the politics of beauty... about "putting beauty into perspective" so that readers may make informed decisions... While the author arrives at a predictable conclusion, that personality and attitude are of greater value than appearance, she skillfully avoids tired clichés and takes the reader on an exhilarating ride... The concerns driving this book have less to do with a reader's arrival at a final destination than they have to do with a reader's cognitive journey. Highly
Recommended.

Canadian Materials - Julie Chychota

This book for preteen and teenage girls addresses the issues of gender and beauty in our culture. It does seem that things are easier for beautiful people. The concept of beauty is part of our lives from a very early age. Female beauty and helplessness dominate the media, especially for children. The Disney princess line sells $3 billion dollars worth of products each year. Fairy tales associate beauty with goodness and ugly with evil. This has a dramatic effect over a lifetime. Ideals of beauty have changed over the ages and differ widely even among contemporary cultures. It is entertaining to see examples of ideal beauty for the Greeks and Egyptians and how the most popular hairstyles have changed over time. The multi-million dollar beauty industry promotes the idea that there is always something that needs to be improved in a female’s appearance. How can these stereotypes be dismissed to reveal the real personal beauty that is more than skin-deep? The operative concept here is making choices that promote confidence and breaking free of media ideals. This is a very thoughtful look at gender roles and inequality, with lots of information and suggestions to help young women make healthy, constructive choices. Reviewer: Kristin Harris; Ages 11 to 16.

Children's Literature - Kristin Harris

This excellent book written for teenagers explains the beauty myths believed, consciously or unconsciously, by most people in North America. Canadian professor and activist Graydon explains how the media create and exploit beauty images to sell products. She looks at how our image of beauty has changed historically, and how ideals of beauty, size and shape differ depending on gender, age and nationality. The fact that she writes from a North American point of view may stretch the reader's own viewpoint as well. Both genders will find this book interesting because it reveals the double standard of beauty and explains how men are now being exploited by the media in the same way as women traditionally have been. Everything to do with beauty standards, from fairy tales to beauty pageants, movie stars and the audience's expectations, is discussed. The layout of the book and the use of graphics and photos make it appealing to the YA audience, and the bibliography and index at the back of the book make it useful for school papers. This author knows what she is talking about and the content of the book will provide her YA readers with new insights. KLIATT Codes: JSA--Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Annick Press, 176p. illus. bibliog. index., Ages 12 to adult.
—Nola Theiss

KLIATT

Gr 6 Up-Self-empowerment through personal choice is the message of this lively survey. Graydon examines our fascination with beauty and the people and forces that determine our views of what we see as beautiful. From fairy tales to television, mythology to Miss America, fashion to fine art, "beauty rules," she acknowledges, "and yet, ideas about what's `beautiful' change all the time." Written in a breezy, conversational style, the book looks at double standards for men and women and the resulting effects on careers and health. The author traces the concept throughout history and in various cultures, touching on corsets and foot-binding, plastic surgery, steroids, and cosmetics. Graydon exposes the fickle side of the beauty industry without unnecessary blaming. Each chapter ends with a list of "Image Reflections" to consider. Black-and-white photos and reproductions depict historically changing views. Thought-provoking cartoons open each chapter, and sidebars add punch with quotes and factoids. Extensive reference notes add to the book's research value, enhancing its broad appeal to teens dealing daily with their own place in the beauty culture. Helen Reynolds's "A Fashionable History of Costume" series (Raintree) features bright color photos of changing artifacts.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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