A Woman’s Beauty

Today for class, I had my students read Susan Sontag’s essay, A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source. After that asked them to discuss the following question:

The last woman I tried to get a date with was incredibly beautiful. You should have seen this girl. She had big brown eyes chestnut hair and a face like a young mary tyler moore. for a long time, I didn’t ask her out. not because I was shy or anything, but because I felt like the only reason I wanted to go out with her was because she was so beautiful, which is a totally lame reason to date someone. For that reason I didn’t ask her out and I didn’t even get to know her for a long time. Eventually, however, I bumped into her at a party and struck up a conversation. Turns out she has a really great personality, smart, funny, doesn’t talk too much, etc. At this point I said to myself, ok this is good. I should ask her out after all. Of course she turned me down. most of you know me, can you blame her?

so my question is this: Was I stuck in the trap that sontag is describing in her essay? or put it this way, do you think I was assuming that a woman as beautiful as her is unlikely to have a good personality (which sontag seems to be arguing we do) or was I avoiding the trap because I waited to see what her personality was like before asking her out?

I was hesitant about sharing a personal experience like that with my class. But I had a feeling that it would work and it turned out pretty well. I got a fairly decent discussion going. About four or five students were actively engaged and the rest were paying attention. For one thing, I think that dating is something that all my students are interested in. Female students usually have some kind of opinion when it comes to issues of beauty or a woman’s role in society.

I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that teachers don’t often share stories like that with their students. I also have a feeling that, if done right and not in a “creepy” way, teachers can make their students feel like a part of a community. The end result of this, maybe, just maybe, could be that students will be inspired to contribute to the community and not view the class as just a chore.

Just a side note, I personally feel that this exercise would have worked just as well if the above mentioned female had decided to go out with me. Oh well. Better luck next time I guess.