Essay 3 Final

Are there benefits to constructing beauty?

Nicolas Siino

ENGL 1100, Writing Skills Workshop

Professor Young

November 21, 2014

                                                           

           

                                                            "Because You’re Worth It"

 

            Beauty is routinely associated with morality, sociability, kindness and other positive characteristics. It seems that women are not striving for beauty, but rather desire to regulate their bodies in order to appear within the bounds of 'normality'. The actor, athlete, model and advocate Aimee Mullins hosted a TED talk in which she spoke about her many pairs of legs: "It's not fair having 12 pairs of legs" (Mullins,1). Born without fibula bones, Mullins lost both of her lower legs when they were amputated below the knees when she was a year old. Mullins said she grew up learning to walk, run, and compete in sports on wooden prosthetic legs. Her prosthetic legs empowered her and provided insight that impacted the evolution of the common prosthesis.  So, are there benefits to constructing beauty? I believe Mullins has proven that beauty can mean so many things and can differ from person to person. She has been an advocate for beauty construction, which has allowed her not to be viewed as disabled, but rather as a beautiful woman that, despite her physical limitations, has pushed herself physically and mentally to succeed.

            Mullins's first appearance on TED was back in 1989 with her short, powerful talk, which was titled "Running on High-Tech Legs". TED is a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. These conferences have been known to create life-changing experiences for both speakers and attendees and Mullins was no exception.  She explained that "TED literally was the launch pad to the next decade of my life's exploration" (Mullins,1).  At the time, the legs she presented were groundbreaking in prosthetics, which she viewed as constructed beauty.  Rather than mimic human anatomy, she wore woven carbon fiber sprinting legs modeled after the hind leg of a cheetah, and also very life-like, intrinsically painted silicone legs. Through this creativity, it enabled Mullins to view her prosthetics as art rather than as a disability. The word disability is commonly referred to as something that is not attractive to the eye of the beholder.  Mullins's objective is to engage her audience and make the point that she can truly transform people's perceptions of women with disabilities as well as empower people to see the beauty in themselves.

            Beauty can be defined as feeling your best and worthy of attention. For Mullins wearing prosthetics is considered constructed beauty which includes many benefits, such as feeling accepted, desirable, confident, stronger and faster. Over the years, Mullins has guided people in a direction that adversity and change are not to be dreaded, but actually welcomed as exciting parts of today's "new normal." The construction of beauty can give people hope and confidence in themselves, and can lead them to finding what they deem truly beautiful. Mullins gained notoriety from appearing on a TED Talk, which gave her the opportunity to reach out to innovators outside the traditional medical prosthetic community. She asked them to bring their talents to the science and to the art of building legs. She believed that representations of beauty not only impact what the larger society believes about the body, but also how individuals value and identify with their own bodies.

            After appearing at the TED conference, Mullins posed on the cover of ID wearing running clothes and her carbon fiber cheetah legs. This was only one of the many benefits Mullins reaped from her constructed beauty.  She was sought after by fashion designer Alexander McQueen and photographer Nick Knight.  She did a fashion shoot  for the cover of DAZED magazine, titled "Fashion-able" and participated in her first runway show for Alexander McQueen on a pair of hand-carved wooden legs decorated with grapevines and magnolias, and made from solid ash that appeared to be long brown boots. Mullins's next adventure was when she met the visual artist Matthew Barney. She appeared in his film called The Cremaster Cycle.  Mullins realized that her legs could be wearable sculptures, and she began to move away from the need to “replicate human-ness as the only aesthetic ideal” (Mullins, 1). She posed in this film as a half-woman, half-cheetah wearing her woven carbon fiber legs. She also posed wearing legs that were cast in soil with a potato root system growing in them, and beetroots out the top, with a brass toe as well as legs made out of polyurethane to look like jellyfish legs. The purpose of these legs was to “provoke the senses and ignite the imagination”(Mullins,1). As stated by Mullins, “I want to get people to understand that a prosthesis doesn’t necessarily need to look human. It can be a leg that you yourself consider beautiful” (Persson,1). This quote illustrates how beauty as constructed art can change what people may view as not attractive into something that is beautiful and intrigues the senses.  Mullins realized that her legs could be wearable sculptures and transformed what she may have feared, her disability, into something that can be considered beautiful works of art.

            Aimee Mullins has changed the world's understanding of what is beautiful, what is normal and what is physically possible. Beauty can be constructed and Mullins has shown that there are benefits that go along with creating beauty.  Some people may suggest that both women and individuals with disabilities are believed to represent negative, less valuable figures in society. Traditionally, individuals with physical disabilities and deformities have been presented as flawed, not as people with their own identities. Mullins is a motivational speaker that I believe encourages women to discuss issues of beauty, to challenge traditional standards, and to support one another. Mullins once said, "Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can have. It's much sexier than any body part.” (Hudson, 1). Mullins's TED talks can give people hope and confidence in themselves, which teaches them to overcome their affliction and motivates them to construct gratifying values about the real definition of being beautiful.