“It is still
beauty before brains” by Chok Suat Ling is regarding the widespread biasness
towards women who have an appealing appearance despite their weaker skills,
talents and knowledge.
The
writer is not very clear in elaborating the examples given and some of them may
be irrelevant. She stated that usually women with an appealing appearance tend
to get better jobs compared to obese women. However, she failed to elaborate on
whether the women who were more attractive fulfill the job requirements better
than the obese women. The example regarding the British swimmer Rebecca
Adlington and the weightlifter Zoe Smith who had insults thrown at them due to
their physical appearance does not necessarily mean that the people
discriminate them. Since they are able to make the team to represent their
country in the Olympics, it just shows that they are selected based on their
skills, talents and athletic knowledge and not their appearance. Therefore, the
example given is not in coherence to the title “It is still beauty before
brains”.
Overall, the examples given are not clear enough and some do not
illustrate the central idea of the writer, that is, women are being judged
mainly by their looks. The examples given tend to spark ambiguity among readers
regarding the issue. Thus, solid examples that are from reliable sources and
relevant to the issue should be included to strengthen the idea that is trying
to be delivered by the writer.
Good
ReplyDeleteA very refined critique which expresses what the writer had failed to.
DeleteThe case with the athletes chosen for the Olympics is that although they were selected to represent their country to take part in the games, they were still under fire from the public on their appearances despite the fact that they had the skills necessary for the competition. The example is to exhibit the judgement made by the public on women who possess the "brains" but lack in "beauty" by showing a comparison between the judgements made on the two athletes.I do agree with you that the example given sparks ambiguity among readers however the example u mentioned is still coherent with the title.
ReplyDeleteI still do not quite agree with you Benny. Even though both the British athletes received insults due to their appearance, it did not stop them from winning medals or breaking records. According to the article, the British swimmer Rebecca Adlington, won two bronze medals. Despite the insults thrown at her, she was not denied her rightful claim to the medals. As for the example of Zoe Smith, if we look up her biography, we will come to know that she broke the British record with a clean and jerk lift in the 2012 Olympics and is the first Englishwoman to win a Commonwealth Games weightlifting medal. Again this just shows that the people do not overlook her achievements just because of her less appealing appearance. People will definitely judge those two athletes because their achievements have caused them to be widely recognized by the world. However, the society will not be able to put beauty before the brains of the athletes as the title puts it because their results of their outstanding performance cannot be altered. Who knows, maybe the insults are thrown at those two athletes out of jealousy. Perhaps some people are upset that the representatives of their country could not be as outstanding as those two athletes and are just trying to find reasons to belittle them.
DeleteI come to an agreement with you that the examples given are not clear enough and that they do not illustrate the writer's central idea. Examples on how women are actually being judged on their appearances instead of their skills should have been elaborated. Next, the writer was obviously being biased in her writing. She mentioned how females are being judged on their looks and she even compared female and male newsreaders in order to make her statement solid. However, she did not state on how the males are actually being judged on the first impression as well. Plus, she induced provocations among the readers with the sentence, "So, why do we need men again?". Although her points are plentiful, they do not correlate with each other and they do not portray her main title.
ReplyDelete