Imani Rodgers

“Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder…but also in the hands of its owner.” Women are creatures of the heart, and displayed as embodiments of beauty in art… yet so many of these “beautiful creatures” go unnoticed. Inevitably one is lead to believe that it is hard for women globally to evoke profound inner beauty, when the world only seeks outer beauty. From paintings to music videos, women are represented as “beautiful creatures” of elegance, seduction, innocence, fierce passion, and vulgar in nature. The image of “beautiful” or “attractive” over the years has evolved in many different ways, and these two terms are coined as the sole definition of women in our society. But taken from certain prospective, these two terms enforce behaviors and cultural contexts that are malevolent, and unbeneficial to women. For example, in the video Beez in the Trap by the American rappers Niki Minaj and 2 Chainz, the women in the video are portrayed as “attractive” video vixens who flaunt their bodies as a statement of vulgar seduction. According to ChaCha.com, “a video vixen is a woman of color who strips off her clothes, and [is] put into a rap video as a prop”. The immense problem to gather from this conveyance of women is that they don’t serve a profound purpose in the video since they are not the main “character” or attribute. Instead the women are used as decoration, like a cheap wreath thrown on the door to make it look more appealing… but no one truly cares that it does serve a purpose more concrete that how it is displayed. On the contrary, there are still forms of art that do not shine a negative light on the essence of a woman’s bodice, and the beauty we posses. In example, John Legend portrays the woman that he is attracted to in his video So High as a goddess. Although the woman is seductive, she also holds a demeanor of elegance. Despite the fact that her body is shown in the video, she is put on a higher pedestal than the women in the Niki Minaj and 2 Chainz music video. In the video So High the actress is similar to a painting from the renaissance period. Even though there was a great amount of skin exposed, and the essence of each woman’s bodice was very attractive…there remained a level of innocence. That innocence is the underlying characteristic that highlights the beauty in women. In addition to innocence, the cultural conflict of women’s beauty is evident in the way dress, in places like Japan, can conceal or expose their bodies. Geisha are the care givers of Japan, and often times they are mistaken as tools of pleasure instead of spirits of service (here lies the misconception that these beautiful artists wishing to entertain through their exquisite talents, is mistaken for a prostitute). A prime example of the life of these women is the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. Their attire requires them to wear elaborate kimonos spun from silk and embroidered with beautiful colors, revealing only the hands, neck, and face. Kimono directly translates to “a thing to wear” and is meant to conceal the bodice, while revealing only what is meant to serve. With Geisha, their beauty lies in the secrecy of their bodies, and the concept of pain before pleasure. For example, in Memoirs of a Geisha, Chiyo (Sayuri) walks the audience through her initial training as a Geisha. During this walk through she conveys the pain caused by grooming her hair with blazing hot steel combs, the painfulness to sleep on small cradles of rice behind the neck, and even taking extreme measures to be physically wounded for the sake of selling her junketsu or virginity to the highest bidding client. Contrary to the concealing of the Geisha’s physical elements of beauty in Japan, women in America are more open about their physical features. In America (present day), elaborate kimonos are replaced by short shorts and miniskirts accessorized with flashy tops and high heels. The essence of innocence is smothered by the ever growing