W131: A Roses Beauty

There is a picture on Facebook of a young woman, holding a rose. You cannot see her eyes for they are purposefully not in the picture. She has the “perfect lips” but shows not a smile. She seems to be beautiful, even though the rose covers most of her face. She has long dark hair, with society calls “perfect cheek bones and chin”. This woman has been effected by society.

When eyes are shown in an image, they lead the viewer to the soul of the image. However, in this image, the eyes are not shown. This shows the viewer that woman does not want anyone to see who she truly is. She is hiding.

A rose is said to represent beauty and desire. This magnificent, red rose is the first thing you see when you look at the image, for it covers most of the image and also covers the woman so it stands out. The purpose of this is to distract the viewer from the rest of the image and focus on the beauty of the rose. However, what else is in the image? The young woman. This woman is behind the flower holding it out, and looking at it. The lady looks deeply at the red rose; she desires the rose; she desires the beauty of the rose. She could be hiding herself behind the beauty of the rose.

As the woman holds this rose, she is behind the rose with not even a smile on her face. Without a smile, she showcases a lack of happiness. By putting the rose in front of her, she is literally putting the rose before herself. This showcases how a young woman can put “beauty” before her happiness.  This adult woman has obviously been effected by the “beauty industry” or she would not be hiding behind the rose, but be equal or in front of the rose.

Who is to say what beauty is? Society creates this “perfect image” or “perfect woman”, which in reality isn’t exactly possible. Society tells us what kind of body image we should strive for. We see images of "perfect women" all around us, on television, in movies, in newspaper and magazine ads and online. The only thing this woman may know is that she needs to be this perfect woman, when in reality, she doesn’t.

The woman with the rose has obviously been affected by society. She wears the pink lipstick and concealer to have the “flawless” skin. She is what society considers perfection. When this young woman puts this image on Facebook, she is giving the world a false perspective of herself, for many do not know, but the spent two and a half hours photo shopping this image.