The Standardization of beauty
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel in which she challenges Western
standards of beauty and demonstrates that the concept of beauty is socially constructed.
This novel attacks the founders of beauty standards. Accordingly, this study is an
attempt to show how the standardization of beauty is one form of patriarchal oppression
in the modern capitalist world. Built on Louis Althusser's concept of "Interpellation",
this research shows how the myth of beauty is constructed and established through
apparatuses like cinema and school. In addition, our reading of the novel in question
using Alice Walker's "Womanism" and Julia Kriestiva's the "Semiotic" and the
"Symbolic" exposes the parameters through which the ideology of beauty takes place.
Also, It investigates the reason behind the behavioral changes that some characters
undergo in order to achieve acceptance in the white community, and it highlights the
destructive effects of the dominant white ideology on black characters. Finally, this
study demonstrates that the novel in question offers some modes of resistance against
the enslaving myths of beauty. It presents an effective example of resistance to the
dominant white ideology in order to pave the way for African American self-
affirmation.
Description
Keywords
Résistance, Racism, Beauty standard, Interpellation, Womanism