Rosy Cheeks for the Win??

 When Winston first has sex with Julia in the clearing in the woods he woke up and looked at her and said “Except for her mouth, you could not call her beautiful”(pg.126). Then later when he meets her again and she puts on makeup he said “The improvement in her appearance was startling...she had become not only very much prettier, but, above all, far more feminine”(pg.142). His opinion on her appearance changed drastically between these two occurrences and it was because she put on makeup. He found her more attractive after she put on makeup and appeared more feminine. 

While this was a bigger issue in the past it is definitely still a view of women that is held today. People see it as more appropriate for women to wear makeup. This especially applies to female celebrities. People are always finding things to judge about other people’s appearance and that often includes a lack of makeup on women. There are trends for “no makeup” makeup looks because actually wearing no makeup isn’t seen as something that fits beauty standards or expectations. 

In general there is a very high beauty standard for women that encourages the use of makeup to fit that standard. The portrayal of Julia as being better after putting on makeup and therefore being more feminine also draws on the idea that women should be more feminine/are better if they are more feminine which perpetuates harmful beauty standards and gender stereotypes. While there is more and more pushback against these ideas it is still prominent in our society today.

Do you think Orwell intended for this view of Julia to be a critique on society or if he too viewed women in this way?

Comments

  1. L. MoffittFebruary 23, 2021 at 9:42 AM

    That is a good question. It's a little icky, frankly, that Winston thinks this, but it does remind me of some aspects of the Cultural Revolution in China. Men and women were dressed the same and their hair cut the same to promote the idea that everyone was equal -- except that women were still expected to do the same amount of work as men even if they were pregnant or recovering from pregnancy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Olivia TaylorFebruary 23, 2021 at 9:51 AM

    I think could have been using Julia and Winston's relationship as something we are supposed to admire and respect, or as just another messed up part of the world of 1984. Since they are the protagonists, I would expect that we are supposed to like they relationship, but I also wonder if Orwell uses it as a way to show that the world is so broken that the most normal relationship we see is still really unhealthy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What does this remind me of? Comparing aspects of 1984 to the Maze Runner

     I’m going to compare 1984 to Maze Runner because it’s the only recent dystopian novel that I have read and can actually remember and there is a pretty similar theme with memory. In Maze Runner the characters have their memories erased and while they still have knowledge of the world they have no specific memories of their lives. In 1984, from what we can see from Winston, it seems to be a very similar situation. Winston has vague memories of his past but for the most part can’t remember his life from when he was little and doesn’t have specific memories of life before Big Brother and the war. In Maze Runner regaining some of their memories plays a key role in the success of the characters. In 1984 everything that doesn’t align with the Government gets erased, there is no written documentation of events that hasn’t been edited to fit the Government’s ideas. Whether or not Winston had his memories erased is unclear at this point but the idea surrounding the importance ...
Read more

The Princess Bride and Frindle

Image
 “How many fingers am I holding up Winston? “Four” “And if the Party says that it is not four but five, then how many?” “Four” This exchange on page 249 was very interesting and reminded me of the book Frindle. While I am aware that the point is that they can change what is true, they can control facts, I can’t stop seeing it as they control language. The words four and five in and of themselves are arbitrary, they mean nothing as themselves, their only meaning comes from how we define them. Here’s what reminded me of Frindle . In this book the main character, Nick, asks his teacher where words come from. Upon finding out that people create and define words he created the word frindle to replace the word pen. It becomes extremely popular and gains national attention, by the end of the book it’s been added to the dictionary. While this comparison obviously does not work in regards to changing historical events it does work in cases like four and five, where changing the word really...
Read more

How do we stop this from happening here and now?

     Something that stands out to me about this book or rather the society that was built in this book is the lack of empathy. Empathy just doesn’t exist in their society, it was driven out of them, no one cared about anyone else. People could form connections as we saw with Winston and Julia but they did not really care for each other. Empathy is an important part of humanity and it is the key to avoiding an Orwellian society. If we put people’s lives before profits and power and everything else then I think we'll be fine. There’s a lot that needs to be dealt with in our society and thankfully we have a chance to change the direction we’re heading in but we need to do it soon because we are running out of time. I would say that people need to be the priority and that’s exactly what’s missing from the 1984 society. Without people their society has no reason to exist and if all of the people are miserable or mindlessly being controlled does that really count? While we don’...
Read more