How do you think Elizabeth’s beauty helped or hurt her? Do you feel men are ever similarly judged by their looks? Has this changed since the time period in which the book is set, in your opinion?
I think her beauty made her a target for men like Phil and the professor who raped her, men who felt a need to bully and dominate her into submission. However, her beauty was also the thing that initally helped make her a TV personality.
1 Like
I think Elizabeth’s beauty both hurt and helped her. It objectified her but it also made her more desirable to the public. I feel that men are judged by their looks also, but maybe not as often or severely as women. The way this comes across now may be different than in the book’s time period, but I think it is still something we deal with. It seems less open now, but still there underneath to some extent, just like sexism in general.
I think it hurt her often. I believe most beautiful women learn to use their beauty to their advantage, sometimes to the good and sometimes not. I think when women have better options for education and satisfying and /or better paying opportunities to support themselves they don’t have to rely so much on their looks.
Elizabeth never seemed to know she was pretty or ignored it because she knew other attributes are more important.
The men who raped/took advantage of their power didn’t do it because she was beautiful, they did it for power and dominance.
I don’t think Elizabeth really gave her looks a second thought because she was so focused on science and the goals she wanted to achieve, but I do think her beauty hurt her in that so many had preconceived ideas that beauty and brains don’t exist in one body. Whether or not this has changed for women is driven more by profession and also by how much of a “good old boys” network exists within that profession. I think men are judged by their looks, but only on looks and not on brains.