ONCE UPON A TIME? THE IMMORTAL LURE OF FAIRY TALES-HUMN F009

BEAUTY IN THE WESTERN FAIRY TALES

Western culture emphasizes on the importance of regulating a woman’s body in relation to issues such as dieting, weight and beauty. From a feminist viewpoint, most women have internalized Western standards of body image and beauty, which makes them to experience self-surveillance and self-objectification as various forms of patriarchy obstacle their attempts at empowerment and liberation. Na’s The Fold is typical on how women from different ethnic backgrounds have been attempting to meet the Western standards of body image and beauty hence internalizing modern patriarchy. Na’s article argues that Western standards of body image and beauty are viewed as patriarchal and disciplinary practices that make women self-objectified, objectified and docile.

The Fold narrates how the protagonist, Joyce, struggles to live in America as she tries to assimilate the American culture by adopting the Western standards of beauty. The novel presents Western standards of body image and beauty as disciplinary practices that should be prevalent in all ethnicities (Yi, 2015). Therefore, women from non-white groups should consider these standards as disciplinary practices in order to avoid being labeled as ugly or being excluded. Gomo advices Joyce that in America “everyone wants to look more American” (Yi, 2015). This is the reason why young women in America attempt changing their physical appearance through plastic surgery and dieting in order to fit in. Young Korean American women feel that the American culture has become a consumer where physical appearance affects social acceptance and status. This is because young girls are forced to obtain a body image that is socially acceptable. For instance, in the article Gomo has to undergo several plastic surgeries in order to obtain the physical appearance that is acceptable in the Western culture. Therefore, Gomo used plastic surgeries to obtain confidence and self-empowerment.

Standards of body image and beauty are imposed in young women through various media sources including fairy tales. Some of the fairy tales and media sources not only dictate how beautiful people should appear but also define the cultural norms associated with beauty. For instance, fairy tales such as Snow White, Rapunzel and Ciderella show how Western cultures have influenced perceptions of personal values and beauty. Fairy tales such as Cinderella present a stereotypical model on how a princess should look like, with beauty being a common factor that distinguishes the princess from other girls. In Snow White, the young girl is depicted to be beautiful and glamorous and everything in this fairy tale rotates around the girl’s beauty (Tatar, 2017). Additionally, values associated with beautiful characters in these fairy tales such as courage, intelligence, honesty and goodness are replaced by beauty, passiveness and innocence. Consequently, this teaches young girls the shallow and wrong format that it is only beautiful people that can find happiness and love while those that are unattractive deserve a miserable life.

By following such dictates of beauty standards as propagated by the Western culture, young Korean American female characters and Joyce continue to make their bodies a site for cultural contestation. The Fold present’s Joyce’s obsession to obtain body beauty as an aspect for encouraging “dominant hegemonies” through the struggles one encounters before creating an obedient and docile female body. Joyce has to go through a plastic surgery in order to become accepted and look more beautiful in America (Yi, 2015). Having internalized Western ideals on beauty, Joyce considers herself of not being beautiful enough for John. In regards to this, one could conclude that various disciplinary practices are maintained and internalized without direct surveillance or coercion.

Conclusively, Na’s The Fold reveals that young Korean women have internalized Western standards of body image and beauty, which has forced them to rely on plastic surgery. The novel shows that most of these young women take Botox injections, buttock lifts, breast augmentation and breast surgeries to an extent that disciplinary practices are internalized and normalized. Joyce is an example of how young girls have internalized Western standards of body image and beauty as they believe that for one to be considered more confident and beautiful, she has to obtain White-like features. This shows that people such as Korean American girls lack the feeling of confidence and accomplishment because their confidence relies on the features associated with white girls.

References

Tatar, M. (2017). The Classic Fairy Tales (Second International Student Edition)(Norton Critical Editions). WW Norton & Company.

Yi, J. (2015). Beauty is in the eye of the west: An analysis of An Na’s The Fold. The ALAN Review, 42(3), 48-59.