In this issue

Flawless

Difficult Women

\"The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behaviour and not appearance.\" -Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

5 mins

Unbeautiful

THE ingrained order of my adolescent years lay in religiously cropped short hair and ridiculously tailored dresses copied from fashion magazines.

1 min

"Beauty is a Social Construct"

WHITE being considered the ideal of beauty for women, especially in India, is part of a cruel dynamic. White is not a skin colour, whiteness is a social construct. Ancient Greek statues are often assumed to represent idealised white, 'natural' beauty. This is a projection of modern biases. Scientific advances reveal its original appearance: a woman with an olive or light brown complexion and heavily made-up, her hair, possibly Afro-textured.

2 mins

An Experience to Cherish

Growing older gives you perspective and hindsight. You have a long trajectory to look back on and learn life lessons

5 mins

Age-old Formula

Many ageing Bollywood actors get to play romantic leads and action heroes, but actresses still grapple with ageism and gender bias

6 mins

"Men Can Age Without Penalty"

In her landmark essay titled 'The Double Standard of Aging' (1972), American writer and critic Susan Sontag analysed how aging affects men and women in deeply different ways. Society is much more permissive about aging in men than in women. Men feel regret about growing older, while women are made to feel panic and disgust. The double standard about aging denounces women with special severity and measures their worth on the basis of age and looks. Excerpts from the essay

3 mins

The Curse of Being Beautiful

It can be a threat. It can be almost impossible to find work, no matter how good your portfolio is

7 mins

Beauty's Dark Underbelly

The more women succumb to the pressure of living up to the ever-elusive beauty ideal, the more they get trapped into it

6 mins

She's Got the Look

There is enormous pressure on women to look flawless and young. But at what cost?

6 mins

Chasing Perfection

In an ideal society, we will not need the freedom of extreme choice to change the way we look. There will be no pressure on us to look perfect

4 mins

The 'Cool Girl' Burden

Neoliberalism and new femininities: The intensification of beauty standards for women in the digital age

6 mins

'A' Political Pageant

Criteria to determine beauty have been challenged by feminists across the world, but some feel it can be liberating

4 mins

To Behold a Rainbow

The queer community is facing pressure from the cis-normative society

5 mins

'Old' Goddesses

Despite gaunt bodies, sagging breasts and stomachs, goddesses present us with powerful images of old women

6 mins

Self-love and Food

Beauty standards and emotional eating: much better tastes await us

6 mins

Sixty is the New 35

There are product ranges to suit every pocket. No part of the ageing universe is neglected; no woman is meant to remain content with how she looks

5 mins

A Strong 'Sandesh' for the TMC

The upheaval in Sandeshkhali has exposed Trinamool Congress' continued trouble with corruption

5 mins

Found in Translation and Other Things

How a writer rediscovered the power, movement and reimagination of language while translating her father's biography of pop queen and singing legend Usha Uthup

6 mins

Read all stories from Outlook

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