Tony Hoagland's Concept of Beauty
Tony Hoagland is an American poet who is known for writing about social themes or issues in contemporary society. Hoagland’s “Beauty” is a critique of contemporary standards of beauty. Hoagland’s sister is the subject of the poem. She used to be beautiful until the medication she was taking caused vessels in her face to erupt. Hoagland portrayed the shift in his sister’s behavior. She used to be highly concerned with her physical appearance. Beauty made her confident and it was from her appearance that she drew her sense of self-worth. After the incident, everything changed.
Eventually, however, she learned to accept herself, which made her feel free. Hoagland found beauty in this moment when she finally let go of her ideals about beauty. “She was throwing something out… now that [beauty] had no use for her. That too was beautiful” (Hoagland, 2012, 50-54). In the poem, Hoagland portrayed societal standards of beauty as a burden for women due to the pressures and expectations that come with being beautiful. Hoagland explores the role of media in setting impossible and unrealistic standards of beauty. The author described how women often looked in advertisements and magazines. “All those other beautiful women in the magazines and on the streets just kept on being beautiful”, Hoagland wrote (2012, 34-36). Nevertheless, women in magazines portray perfection. People must know about the extreme preparation that go into magazine photoshoots as well as advertisements.
Hoagland aims to portray the hypocrisy of beauty as portrayed in the media. In images shown in magazines, it appears that these women are perfect, untouched by anything that does not meet societal standards of beauty. The point, however, is that these still images only portray one aspect of the narrative. Hoagland portrays how the subject of the poem eventually learns to let go of established standards of beauty by accepting certain realities. Hoagland equates letting go of standards of beauty to freedom. The subject of the poem seemed to hesitate at first. It appears that she feels a sense of regret and hesitation, perhaps fear about what life would be like if she does not appear beautiful anymore. Nevertheless, Hoagland witnessed how freeing it was for her to accept her fate and situation and to finally lift the burden of standards from her life. “She said it was a relief, being done with beauty” (Hoagland, 2012, 9-10).
Consequently, she learned to feel confident again despite her misfortune. “My sister… shrugged and tossed her shaggy head” (Hoagland, 2012, 49-50) conveys confidence based on her demeanor. In a way, she learned not to equate her sense of self-worth to her physical appearance and it made a difference in her self-identity, views and perceptions of self, and her sense of purpose. Nowadays, people would go to greater lengths to be beautiful. In the past, people, particularly women, did so by using make up and wearing …
