What are cultural ideals for men and women in the Scottish culture such as body type hair etc?

As a cause for concern, the portrayal of unrealistic body types influences not only young girls, but even adult woman. Dr. Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and vice president of the American Psychiatric Association, commented in an interview published in USA Today, “We know seeing super-thin models can play a role in causing anorexia” ( Hellmich 1). Fluctuating between petite, unrealistic thinness to a general acceptance of feminine body curves, Western society has always prevailed upon woman to conform to some type of body ideal.

Of course these observations are general ones, but they allow for a step to be taken out of everyday life and evaluate beauty in a way that has not become desensitized. Since its invention by Garrett Augustus Morgan around 1910, hair relaxers have become an essential part of how African American women take care of their hair (McClain 1). Relaxers use chemicals to permanently straighten hair which makes African American hair that naturally tends to tangle and knot more manageable.

But a controversy has arisen out of this practice as the majority of African American women chemically process their hair rather than style it naturally. It has caused a dramatic change in what is considered beautiful, and the standard for maintaining that beauty among the African American community. The hair care industry that caters to this ethnic group mostly revolves around chemical relaxers, totaling $45.6 million in sales during 2008 (Louis 1) despite the damaging effect it has and can have on hair.

This is because relaxers “leave hair weak and extremely susceptible to breaking and further damage… hair thinning, lack of hair growth, scalp irritation, scalp damage, and hair loss are just some of the complaints from many who experience problems due to the misuse of chemical relaxers” (McClain 1). Relatively cheap, at home relaxers are readily available, as it is recommended to touch up “new growth” hair which becomes noticeable after 6-8 weeks (McCain 1). But for those who can afford it, professional hair stylists can reapply a relaxer every month and extensions can be added to the hair to achieve the look of long, straight hair.

This further adds to the beauty gap, a growing separation of the poor and rich because “poverty has always been visible on the human body… money can now buy perfection” (Bordo 8). In many instances, women will don the relaxed look because natural hairstyles are seen as “foreign or other… because skin color couldn’t change, hair became a way to articulate a sense of American-ness” (Abdullah and Douglas 1). Braids, dreads, and afros are larger seen as ugly and unattractive.

Through acculturation and other cultural changes, straight, flowing hair has been set as the norm for what African American hair should look like (Omohundro 43). Susan Bordo, a professor at the University of Kentucky, lamented “My undergraduate students, whatever their genetic predisposition or cultural heritage, want to look like the women on Friends, hair straight and swinging, buns tight, breasts perky… Your hair doesn’t swing like Jennifer Anniston? No problem- a good “relaxer” will do the trick” (Bordo 8).

In the modern age, African American women are always bombarded by images of celebrities and models, including the majority of those in their own race, that promote this idea of what beauty is and the measures one must go to in order to achieve it. The woman has been both idealized and demoralized in our culture throughout history. Our cultural construction of what the “ideal” woman should look like stems from an “Unhealthy message that one must be physically “perfect” in order to be loved” (Bordo, 8).

Because of this, “we are learning to expect “perfection” and to find any “defect” repellent, unacceptable (Bordo, 3). The majority of women feel pressured to meet these high expectations and thus they decide to physically alter their bodies in order to create a more “perfect” self. Plastic surgery, and in particular breast augmentation is one way to change the body.

We live in “a culture where “perfect” breasts (i.e. Round, large, “perky”) are normalized and fetishized, encouraging women, especially small-breasted women, to view their natural breasts as inadequate or defective (O’brian, 95). According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Breast augmentation is currently the most commonly performed procedure in the U.S. This procedure is not a new discovery; Implants have been used since at least 1895, but more recently breasts have become hyper-sexualized and often used as a source of sexual power.

The majority of women who undergo this procedure are Caucasian, only 20% of all cosmetic procedures in 2008 were performed on racial and ethnic minorities. With high costs, of approximately $3,583 for saline and $4,005 silicone implants, only the financially secure can afford breast augmentation. Like any surgical procedure, there are many dangers involved, and yet this procedure is commonplace in many elite sub-cultures such as the media/celebrity community.

There is much current debate and discussion over plastic surgery addiction and the whether or not “the powerful influence of cosmetic survey advertisements and socio-cultural pressures to achieve the perfect body undermines the ability for women to make decisions about this procedure rationally” (Parker, 57). Other feminists and bioethicists such as Lisa Parker contend that overly restricting and regulating access to breast implants demeans women by suggesting that they are incapable of making decisions in their own interest. My paper is about diamond engagement rings.

Through the example of diamond rings, I attempt to see how images of womanhood in modern societies are constructed. I believe that the diamond ring as a cultural phenomenon can make us understand the following: the meaning of marriage in modern society, the notions of ideal woman under capitalism and the relationship between the women’s understandings of their selves and and capitalism. In my paper I will talk about three aspects of diamond rings.

In the first part I will explore the concepts associated with the diamond rings.