In order to gain a perspective on society and its norms, roles, and behavior, we use the medium of literary works. After all, what could be a better key to the past than the written word in poetry?

"Treat women with indulgence!

She was created from a crooked rib,

God could not make her quite straight.

If you try to bend her, she will break.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.¹

According to Goethe, the woman, also known as ‘the crooked rib’, can no longer be straightened, otherwise she will ‘break’. This statement implies that there is a natural falseness inherent in women as beings and that they can no longer be straightened. In many cultures, fragility and inferiority to the male sex are attributed to the female sex. We sharpen our focus on well-known poets who were only too happy to proclaim their view of a woman's beauty. The binary gender construct is created again and again according to historically and culturally modified rules and is by no means a natural given. Our social gender is a social construct and is subject to man-made ideas, expectations, and laws. However, gender diversity is increasingly recognized in today's society, and the binary gender system is seen as an outdated model. Despite all the reforms, society is still stuck with the dichotomous, heterogeneous gender system.

‘Beauty' is a myth and assumes the function of social control. Appearance has always been the staging ground for successful participation in society. It is time to redefine 'beauty’!