How is Beauty Determined?

Throughout the entire novel, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye presents us with a difficult question: how do we determine beauty? As for Pecola, the novel's focus, beauty is exactly how the media portrays it; Shirley Temple is the symbol of the media's portrayal, so Pecola believes beauty can only be obtained by people mimicing this specific female. For Pecola, beauty is determined by white skin and blue eyes.

Your job is to research the topic of beauty and how race is involved. You will find how beauty has been portrayed over the course of history, and see if our views today have become any better than those of many years ago. 

Most of these steps require that you go to my delicious site.

1. Read through the Beauty articles. This will give you a good idea of how beauty is displayed in the media.
2. Read through and comment on Sam's blog post, "The Blackest Eye".
3. Go through some of the posts on the Race Relations blog and leave several comments.
4. On iTunes, search for Organic Beauty Radio, Year 2 Episode 3. Listen to some of this podcast for another perspective on beauty.
5. Read through some of the "Ideals of Feminime Beauty" source, especially page 147 and beyond. 
6. Access the quotes from The Bluest Eye and write a brief summary of what each is trying to get across. Then write a short paragraph relating these quotes to our views of beauty today.
7. Create a new blog post on your views of beauty after researching so far into the topic. Include how your views differ from the media's views, if at all, and write about race's role on beauty, if any.