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Hayley Thomas
Shelia Fielding
WRTC 40
February 16, 2016
Is Being Beautiful Worth it?
In 2013 it was reported that woman spend an average of $15,000 on beauty supplies
throughout their lifetime. (Hack, How Much Do Women Really Spend on Beauty Products).
Woman are constantly feeling required to keep up with the beauty trends in todays society.
Cosmetic surgeries, makeup, and the latest hairstyles are just a few expectations that are given to
woman in regards to their physical features. Our society has made maintaining beauty a major
priority for woman. Thousands and thousands of dollars are spent every day on beauty
companies products that will supposedly increase a womans self-confidence. The rhetoric of
both Shari Graydons Opposing Viewpoints argument and Hayley Thomas PSA relies heavily on
the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to demonstrate that while cosmetics can make
woman feel more comfortable with themselves, the title of being beautiful is simply not worth
the overall investment.
Throughout the article, The Pursuit of Beauty is Harmful, Shari Graydon attempts to
demonstrate the overall damages cosmetic industries are causing. The article highlights how we
are living in a time where woman and young girls are becoming obsessed with maintaining this
image of beauty. Graydon explains that while it seems companies are attempting to increase
ones confidence and self-image, their main concern is really how they will succeed at getting
consumers to spend the most money. Cosmetic companies have put a specific definition on
beautiful: skinny (but not too skinny), fit (but not too fit), perfectly straight or curly hair (no in
between), no wrinkles, no rolls, no individuality, only perfection. When woman try everything
possible to meet these standards in a healthy way and fail, they turn to a variety of harmful habits
to make them possible such as eating disorders, multiple surgeries, and thousands of dollars

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spent on various types of makeup. Graydon wants to convince her audience of woman and young
girls to think before making huge financial investments towards something extreme they think
will boost their self-esteem, such as cosmetic surgeries. These surgeries not only are an extreme
investment, but too many mistakes happen too often drowning womans self-esteem. Rather than
feeding into the medias harsh definition of beauty, allow every woman to feel comfortable and
beautiful in their own individual ways.
In order for Graydon to gain any support from her audience it is crucial to establish a
credibility for herself, provide enough examples and statistics for her argument to be logical, and
evoke a sense of emotion. Attempting to make the audience trust her and further read her
argument, she develops a sense of credibility from the very beginning. She describes that the
British Fashion Council recognizes the responsibilityto use healthy models aged of 16 years
or older. This specific quotation allows for the audience to realize that other agencies and
countries are seeing the same problem of the definition of beauty becoming harmful and
damaging, and something must be done about it. With such an important company such as the
British Fashion Council, Graydon heightens her argument of a crucial need for change even more
dominantly.
In addition to this sense of credibility, it is necessary for Graydon to provide her audience
with examples and statistics to truly enhance her argument. The author uses the statistic that
Girls who are affected [by eating disorders] are 12 times more likely to die than those who are
not [affected] (Bear). This specific statistic demonstrates to the audience that this condition is
something that needs to be taken seriously. This definition of beauty is costing woman their lives.
The blame cannot be but upon the women herself, but these over powering industries instead.
With incorporating real life examples that grab the audiences attention, Graydons argument

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become a personal one; It makes the audience recognize the true reality of the problem, and how
common it is.
The biggest component that Graydon has to involve through her article is the idea of
evoking an emotion in her audience. In an attempt to motivate her audience, Graydon explains
that The tactics [for taking down the strict definition of beauty] may seem laughably
inadequatebut by engaging [in an attempt] we'll be directing our firepower at the real enemy,
and away from our own perfect reflections in the mirror. Specifically finding a solution to the
problem allows for the audience to see what exactly they can do in order to solve the world wide
problem. It allows for the audience to find who exactly to point their finger at. The audience will
feel moved and inspired to make it a priority to change this serious problem. Graydon realizes
how crucial the sense of emotion is in order to truly gain the most support she can for her
argument.

The PSA, Beauty Is Pain, was created by Hayley Thomas in 2016 at James Madison
University to promote awareness for eating disorders and womans health.
The PSA titled, Beauty is Pain, created by Hayley Thomas, makes woman sit back and
think about what the true problem is; is it you and your body, or cosmetic industries and their
manipulative ways? This PSA allows for woman to see the painful truth concerning eating
disorders and the crucial young age they occur. Beauty is Pain, allows for woman to
comprehend how much they are really spending on makeup alone. It forces woman to question

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whether it is truly worth the financial investment to be beautiful. With this PSA, the author
hopes to inspire woman to want to change their lifestyles and their expensive habits, as well as
ignore the definitions and requirements cosmetic industries put onto them as humans. With
the use of a powerful and relatable image, bold coloring, and mind-blowing statistics, Thomas
makes her argument one that will be remembered.
In order for the author to make her argument reliable, it is crucial for her to incorporate
an established creditability. Directly in the PSA there is a logo at the bottom that reads, Office
of Research On Womans Health. Using this logo, clarifies with viewers that the PSA is
creditable and trustworthy. With the intended audience being woman, including a nonprofit
organization such as the Office of Research On Womans Health brings comfort almost
immediately to this audience. Now with an establishment of trust in the author, woman can view
the PSA with an open and interested mind. Thomas also gains a sense of creditability because of
the creation taking place at a university. It is obvious that scholarly sources were required in
order to make this PSA possible. Such scholarly sources demonstrate the reliability of the PSA as
a whole.
Now that a creditability is established, the author now needs to focus on supporting the
logic towards the argument of cosmetic industries ruining womans confidence. Provided in the
PSA were two specific statistics; 90% of those with eating disorders are woman between the
ages of 12 and 25 (North Dakota State University), and In a womans lifetime, she will spend
$15,000 on makeup alone (InStyle). These statistics support two different examples towards
how exactly the industries are changing woman for the worse. With the first logical example, it is
simply mind-blowing that such a devastating and damaging thing is happening to girls at such a
young age. Including this example makes woman recognize how negatively affected people truly
are from the cosmetic industry. Specifically pointing out eating disorders effect girls as young as

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12-years old does everything to motivate woman to step up to the plate and change something.
With incorporating the second statistic woman are now going to feel obligated to reflect upon
their own decisions and spending habits. This will be a logical example that will stick in their
heads the next time they are buying hair products, makeup, unnecessary lotions, and other
random products that will supposedly make them more confident. Publishing this large amount
of money on the PSA will immediately grab peoples attentions, making them reconsider what
they are spending all their money on, and realizing the money total will add up quickly.
To make this argument completely supportive, the author has to include some sense of
emotional connection with the audience. Whether it be anger, happiness, fear, or sadness it is
crucial for the audience to feel some emotion when viewing the PSA. In Beauty is Pain, two
specific techniques are used in order to evoke a connection with the woman viewing.
Specifically, the picture that is the main focus and the center of the PSA, allows for the woman to
directly relate. Just about every woman has experienced those days where you look in the mirror
and just feel completely unattractive and unhealthy. In this specific image the woman looking
into the mirror has been living with an eating disorder and is clearly extremely skinny; however,
the womans reflection is someone who industries would call fat and ugly. This image also
brings out a sense of sadness for woman who are currently experiencing the same situation that is
involved in the picture. Gaining this emotional attachment with the audience allows for them to
feel obligated to support the argument due to the relevance. Beauty is Pain, also uses red
lettering on specific phrases in order to focus the audiences attention on to the overall main idea.
More specifically, the phrase, Stop letting the industries define you, clearly states the main
idea that the author is trying to get out to the audience. This allows woman to step back and
really think about how true this statement truly is. It evokes a sense of astonishment in the
audience, making them want to know more, as well as increase their support.

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Written and visual components are crucial in making an argument affective, especially in
an audiences perspective. The Pursuit of Beauty is Harmful and Beauty is Pain, help
establish the argument that cosmetic industries are ruining the self-esteem and confidence of
young girls and woman. The PSA comes off more convincing because it is something eaily
understood, simple to look at, and extremely relatable. It really highlights how these companies
are convincing consumers to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on surgeries, products,
and other unnecessary items in order to promote their business, rather than truly promote care for
their customers. The overall investment that woman put towards trying to fulfill the beauty
definition put on by these industries, is simply not worth it. Such investments can end with
serious financial issues, and even more serious, death. Woman need to feel comfortable with
themselves and not allow these money hungry industries to define what true beauty is.

Work Cited
Curtis. "ANAD." Eating Disorders Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016
Graydon, Shari. "The Pursuit of Beauty Is Harmful." The Culture of Beauty. Ed. Louise I.
Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "How
the

Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image." Herizons 22.1 (Summer 2008).

Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
Luaxan. "Anorexia Paint 5." By Luaxan on DeviantArt. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
Mychaskiw, Marianne. "Report: Women Spend an Average of $15,000 on Makeup in Their
Lifetimes." InStyle.com. ZergNet, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.