The Beauty Bias, and Introduction

“The Beauty Bias” by Deborah L. Rhode is a wonderfully relevant book about the injustice of appearance in life and law. It is the assigned reading for a class titled “Law, Politics, and Society” I am taking this semester. I find this topic an important one because appearance (especially for women) is a prominent social construct. It affects women on physical, social, psychological, and financial levels. In a lot of cases, the focus appearance places on women in our society distracts them from life or keeps them from accomplishing career, personal, and academic. It can lead to serious illnesses, life-threatening situations, and for some women major financial debt.

Now what does this have to do with yoga? Yoga is a practice that wakes up the true “Self” (notice the capital S). Not the superficial ever-changing self (your physical body, notice the lower case s). Yoga brings you to that deep place inside where your truth lives. With a steady practice, we find the Self that is independent of your body, weight, height, shoes, outfit, or any other superficial beautification practice (note: by “superficial” I do not mean shallow, I am referring the outside layer of your Self). We practice Yoga to strip away the superficial layers of the body and find the real us. This Self you find never changes. Regardless of how much you weigh or what color your hair is, who you are as a person will never change. That is the inner light that shines out through your cute new lulu lemon yoga outfit. Challenging asanas force us to come face to face with our fears, hopes, dreams, strengths, and weaknesses. It eventually becomes about who you are inside your heart, your intelligence, and what you contribute to society.

I am not putting down superficial beauty, high heels, or appearance enhancing products, it is quite the opposite. I will confess that I am guilty of indulging in all these practices. I love makeup, shoes, diets, pedicures, hair straightening, and the works…. but I want you all (myself included), to remember that you are BEAUTIFUL (men too!) and the way society makes you feel should not effect your everyday life. My goal is to create awareness on the social constructs of appearance in our society. I will be posting the reaction papers I write as I read assigned chapters. Your comments are welcome…..