Intolerance of Americans

To the Diversity Committee,

An overwhelming issue that envelops our society is the intolerance of people based on ethnicity, race, and other general appearances alongside intolerance towards those of different social classes. Citizens who fall into these social groups make up a vast majority of our country. Media like Cosmopolitan and People magazine depict an idea of the perfect woman and encourage young Americans to fit the mold of a cookie cutter type of beauty. Since the beginning of human interaction, an idealistic woman has existed. Literature like the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison tells a story of this idea years before Cosmopolitan Magazine sat on the coffee tables of a large number of adult women and young Americans. The Bluest Eye exemplifies the idea of a stereotypical perfection in a group of African American people that drives them into hardships and even insanity. Through the Diversity Committee at the, a campaign should be made to stop this global and local issue of intolerance. The ideal woman today is seen as a tall blond with an hourglass figure and a perfect face, but this ideal woman does not exist in a natural society, just in our popular forms of media, and to become “perfect” is an impossible task.

In the Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove longs for the fair skin and blue eyes of popular American icons like Shirley Temple, until she drives herself into madness. This text shows us how Americans who struggle to maintain or achieve perfection often fall into depression when they fail. Popular media of every generation has deemed it essential for young people to fit into social norms of beauty and perfection that are almost impossible to reach. Today, when unable to fit into the cookie cutter version of beauty, many Americans develop eating disorders. One in every one hundred women in America suffers from Anorexia Nervosa, and two in every one hundred women have suffered from Bulimia Nervosa, these are two very difficult diseases of the human mind that encompass many members of our country, including some men. Ending this overwhelming issue of intolerance in America’s society is a vital task that the Diversity Committee should seriously consider taking on. If the committee takes on a campaign of this magnitude, it will impact the entirety of at least the Colorado universities if not gaining countrywide attention; considering that this issue affects all Americans. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, around 8,000,000 American people suffer from an eating disorder, this statistic is too important and drastic to let pass. Considering the fact that 95% of people with eating disorders are under 25 years of age, this issue directly affects universities and colleges around the country. The condescending articles of magazines like Cosmopolitan and People seriously hurt our culture, and airbrushed made-up models being the basis of comparison for women in America must stop. If the Diversity Committee at does not do something, whom can we look to for the remedy of this nationwide craze for beauty? In the Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove’s character dreams for nothing more than what society regards as beautiful, and never achieves it. This idea Toni Morrison depicts is not unlike the way many of America’s youth feels on a daily basis.

Every woman hates something about herself; whether it is a social or economic place in society, their race and ethnicity, or something about their body shape, weight, or skin color. If no woman, and not many men, can feel beautiful in their own skin, then our entire nation, as well as our students, is doing something wrong. If popular literature like the Bluest Eye shows a family that is considered ugly based upon nothing but their race, and media like Cosmopolitan and People magazines show us the perfect, yet fake, American women we should idolize, intolerance will never disappear and more Americans will continue to fall into plastic surgery and eating disorders. This issue is nothing short of an epidemic in our society, and something drastic must be done.