The Woman Behind the Mask Essay

Social media has distorted the views and minds of young women in our society today. Due to being of the female gender, the author of Mascara, Aurelie Sheehan, empathizes with women by diving into the routes and tasks of their everyday lives. When first skimming over and reading Mascara, the mind picks up a routine of young women getting ready for an event. Sheehan is attempting to portray and reveal to the reader that society has put a false image in the minds of young women—if they are not perfect, they are not good enough. Women have been corrupted by society into thinking they must be perfect and have become overwhelmed with doing the simple day-to-day tasks or they will not be accepted in this world. Many men today do not realize that the media is having an effect on how they see women and how they believe women should look. The author is trying to express the fact that women believe they have to become something they are not. This goes back to the title Mascara, which is the Spanish word for mask, and that is exactly what women do today. Women today have become overwhelmed and insecure, and due to the corruption in society and the media they have been tricked into thinking they must be perfect. Today many women have become overwhelmed with doing the simple day-to-day tasks. Most women get up one to two hours before actually starting their day just to feel and look presentable. Throughout the story Mascara, the phrase â€Å"and then she† is displayed in almost every sentence. This story is not just about someone’s routine but it is in fact a list. A list that most women feel they have to go though everyday or every time they are going to go out somewhere. Most women have a false perspective of what they have to look like due to the corruption in today’s society and media. The overwhelming idea that society and the media have put into young women’s minds make them feels as if they have to keep changing who they are. Many people think that women enjoy and are happy to doll themselves up everyday, when in fact everyday they are overwhelmed with trying to look a certain away for either the morning or for going out. A young woman is carrying out a routine of forty-nine things she need to do before going on a date. Needing to do this forty-nine item routine before going out has insecurity written all over it. In the last sentence of Mascara it says, â€Å"And then she went to him† young women today feel as if they need to be all dolled up for a guy. When in fact guys like girls for who they are and not for who they are trying to be. Which goes back to the title Mascara† which is the Spanish word for mask and that is exactly what women do today. They put on a mask. When the young woman in this story is putting on her makeup she applies eight items to her face. Applying all of this to her skin shows the reader how insecure she is to show her true and real self. The saying,â€Å" Yeah. She is pretty now but have you seen her without her makeup on?†, plays a key role in why so many girls are insecure with themselves. Many young women today are afraid of what others will say about them if they show their true self or their true face and this is what the short story Mascara is really about. Thinking she needs to do a forty-nine item routine to her body before going out in public, tells the reader that young women today are always being judged and ridiculed by their piers and by society. This is why young women are so insecure with themselves. Every girl today feels as if they must be perfect. No matter what every girl looks like or who they are, women will find at lest one characteristic that they would change about themselves if they could. Women are rarely happy with who they are and feel as if they need to be perfect to be accepted or liked. The sad truth is that many women will not accept that there is no such thing as perfection. Many have come close to achieving perfection, but they will never actually achieve it. â€Å"And then she realized she had forgotten to weigh herself† the woman that is being spoken about in this story does not feel perfect because she thinks she needs to weigh herself, and in weighing herself it would tell her if she has reached the weight perfection or not. Media today with all the health and weight loss magazines are very misleading to young women into thinking they must be a certain weight and have their body look a certain way or they are not skinny enough. Women have taken this false image to heart and have put themselves at risk by trying to achieve the unachievable â€Å"perfection† statues. â€Å"And then she looked in the full-length mirror†¦.and then she turned to the side to look form a different angle.† Even after completing her whole routine, she has to look in the mirror to see if she had missed anything or if she needs to change anything about herself. Women feel as if they do not just have to weigh a certain amount but also have to look a certain way too. Many women feel the need to possess certain qualities of perfection, such as perfect height, perfect weight, perfect looks, and perfect skin. These thoughts do not just randomly pop into women’s heads, it is society and the media that is putting these false hopes into their minds. For example in every magazine or on every poster the models in them have perfect bodies and you cannot find one flaw in them. There are no overweight or imperfections in the models in this form of media, which has corrupted women into thinking that looking anything other than what they see in this form of media is n ot acceptable. Many men today do not realize that the media is having an effect on how they see women and how they think women should look. The media has also put a false image in men’s heads in thinking that all women need to look the same or they are not good enough. This has put pressure on young women today because they think they need to look and be someone that they are not. A lot of women do not just wake up and look like they do every morning. Many women go though long routines and list to obtain their looks. This is displayed in the short story Mascara because a young woman does a routine of forty-nine items just to go on a date with a guy. She does not just do every thing in her routine once but rather does a few of them at least two times. Men do not realize that women put a lot of time and effort into getting ready, which men take for granted. Mascara is short story that displays the truth on what many women do before going on a date. Many women go though long routines to get ready so they can feel good about themselves. Many women have become insecure with themselves due to the false and negative images in the media that is displayed around them. Many women feel as if they need to look and act a certain way to be accepted and to not be judged by their peers. From how media shows how women are suppose to look, many women have become insecure with themselves, and feel the need to be perfect when in fact perfection is unachievable. Women today have become overwhelmed and insecure due to the corruption in society and the media, into thinking they must be perfect.