Prettier Than You 

Dave Macdowell painted "Prettier Than You" sometime in the late 20th century. It stages a collision between a real woman and an ideal of feminine beauty taken from the world of toys. We can read this image as a commentary on the social pressures exerted on women to conform to artificial standards. The painting makes meaning through its dramatic and unsettling juxtaposition. The artist seems to critique the beauty industry and the institutional forces that perpetuate unrealistic ideals. The title itself, dripping with sarcasm, suggests the psychological impact of these pressures. Is this a conservative picture of a woman? Or is it a progressive one? The question cannot be resolved through formal analysis alone. To better understand the image we could examine the advertising campaigns from that period and study feminist critiques of media representation, and the evolution of beauty standards within a specific cultural context. The meaning of art always depends on these things.