The Bluest Eye and Lipstick Jihad

Many people think how they look will develop their identity and how they feel about themselves on the inside. In the bluest eye, Picola feels ugly, people tell her she is ugly, and she correlates her appearance with her whole being, that she is ugly. She desires blue eyes, and she feels that if she has blue eyes that will make her pretty and accepted and that she will feel pretty on the inside too, but after she thinks she has the blue eyes she is still worried that they are not blue enough. She still has insecurities, similar to before she had blue eyes and struggled with insecurities about being ugly.
In Lipstick Jihad woman also deal with their outward appearance throughout the entire book. Moaveni explains that Tehran is one of the most popular places for plastic surgery and that many women and even men have work done, she even states, "It all seemed so affordable and safe that I felt obligated to get something done." Moavani explains that the people of Tehran have an obsession with beauty which seemed extreme to her; the makeup rituals, eyebrow tattooing, collagen lips, nail decorating, even her cousin Mira thinks she neglects herself just because she does not wear makeup and go to the beauty extreme that the other women pursue. The women of Tehran are under such strict limits about what to wear and how to act on top of being raised to conform its seems that the woman may be using their outward appearance to shape how they feel about themselves on the inside, by creating an identity for themselves. Movani explains that the women are obsessive with their face because they feel they have to overcompensate for their veil, and sometimes a chador, and that is why they wear so much make up...etc. This relates to individuals being contextualized in their cultural situation becuase many Iranian woman in Tehran seemed to be raised to be a wife, they don't usually get an education, and when they are married they are not usually permitted to work. Therefore they have restrictions on what they can wear, but they also want to be attractive to the opposite sex to find a husband, but all in the meantime their self identity gets lost and confused, which is one of the main points of the book Lipstick Jihad.