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Introduction
Introduction
At the end of this course, my class was instructed to revise one unit project as part of our last assignment. I chose to revise my Unit 1 Project, the Art Analysis, because it received the lowest grade. When I originally wrote this piece, I did not understand how to integrate sources into my writing properly. Quotes were placed without first introducing the article and it's author, and not enough analysis was provided. Rather than me explicitly bridging the gap between my ideas and research, my audience was left connecting the dots on their own. These limitations are why I lost points, and I aimed to fix them using the rhetorical sourcing method. Once I learned about this strategy and how to dilligently incorporate research, I got perfect grades on my remaining projects and saw my writing improve dramatically throughout the semester. Therefore, my revision focuses on carefully and thoroughly presenting the Grammarly article about metaphors, the verywellmind article about the male gaze, and the Fiveable article about idealization. I also aimed to establish clear connections between these articles and my own ideas about Hudson Westbrook's song, Painted You Pretty. Please read my revised unit 1 project below!
Painted You Pretty: Rethinking "Perfection"
@jules_arbelaez on Instagram: "stay tuned for more!!🫶🏼" (instagram.com)
The first time I heard Painted You Pretty by Hudson Westbrook, I was searching for an audio to use in the background of my Instagram post. This post was a “photodump” to commemorate my second semester at Syracuse University and first season playing soccer there. Finally having come up with a balanced mix of images–big smiles with friends, adorable animals, trips to church, moments with the team–it felt equally important to find a song to complement these memories. As I scrolled through Instagram’s musical selections searching for inspiration, I stumbled across Painted You Pretty. The first few notes of this song introduce a unique and refreshing sound that evokes both calmness and delight. A harmonious blend of guitars creates a dreamy melody that is immediately captivating, and as Westbrook sings, his clear and natural voice stands out with an emotional depth that feels both personal and vulnerable. Something about the song made me feel deeply connected to it, and I found myself playing it again and again.
Lyrically, the artist sings about a girl that he loves every single thing about, essentially serenading her. While this may sound like many other love songs on the radio today, Westbrook leverages metaphors in almost every single line to elevate the lyrics beyond their cliché and deepen their emotional impact. He repeatedly likens this woman to a painting, a comparison that resonates most strongly in the chorus:
"You're picture-perfect, you don't need no frame
And you'll be hangin' on my mind for don't know how many days
Kind eyes with a kill-a-man smile
The kind I ain't seen around here in a while
Usually don't see a work of art in a bar
So, girl, in case you didn't know
God painted you pretty, and I bet you've got a heart of gold"
Hudson Westbrook on Spotify: Painted You Pretty (spotify.com)
There's a lot of research about the effect of metaphors in communication. Alice E.M. Underwood, a former content writer for Grammarly who has several published books and over 10 years of editing experience, explains in her Grammarly article that metaphors allow writers to express feelings and concepts too abstract to put into literal words. In Painted You Pretty, these metaphors demonstrate how perfect Westbrook views the woman he's singing about. Like a picture on the wall, she has become fixed in his mind as a display of beauty, admired and idealized. While this may sound romantic, it also makes me wonder: does comparing a woman to a painting reduce her to an object of external admiration rather than a whole person?
This concept can be understood through the framework of a broader phenomenon known as the male gaze. I had never heard of this concept before discovering an article by Sarah Vanbuskirk, Duke University graduate with over 20 years of writing experience writing about health and wellness related issues. Published on the mental health information website verywellmind, Vanbuskirk's article Understanding the Male Gaze and How it Objectifies Women explains how the male gaze theory refers to the objectification of women in conventional media. They are often represented as passive and erotic figures whose primary purpose is to serve male desire and advance male-centered storylines.
"The argument is that the male gaze controls the narrative, which is that women are not equal actors in the world,” Vanbuskirk explains.
Image #1: Belle as an example of a female character serving the male narrative (Wikipedia)
Meaning, the depiction of women in media often comes from a male perspective, limiting how they're seen and understood. Oftentimes, females aren't represented as complex individuals with their own meaningful narratives, but rather as shallow characters whose actions depend on male influence. This is reminiscent of Disney Princess movies, where characters like Ariel, Belle, and Aurora have storylines that center largely around falling in love with a prince who is drawn to their beauty. It also connects back to Westbrook's Painted You Pretty, which illustrates a male perspective of a woman who is physically admired as an exquisite work of art, but never seems to be fully engaged with as a complex individual. Returning to the chorus, Westbrook mainly praises her external features as "picture-perfect". But it's challenging to learn anything about this woman beyond physical attraction. By likening her to artwork, listeners are prompted to consider that she’s being portrayed as a passive actor fulfilling the male gaze. She appears to merely exist for Westbrook as a flawless item of observation, like a painting.
A key aspect of the male gaze is its emphasis on the flawless depiction of a woman’s outward appearance, often at the expense of her personality and individuality. This is a persistent and universal issue that Fiveable, an educational platform that teaches various academic concepts, highlights in their 2025 article Idealization of Women. The Fiveable Content Team explains that women are often represented in romantic literature as angelic creatures and inspiration for male protagonists, which risks minimizing them to figures of perfection. That is to say, these portrayals suggest that men are drawn to unrealistic, idealized female beauty standards, and that women should embody these ideals to be desirable. This can have harmful effects as women begin to value themselves on the basis of appearance alone, internalizing the male gaze.
While we frequently engage in discussions about the impact of unachievable standards for women displayed in social media and film, we rarely consider how these same ideals are reinforced through music. Songs may not be visual in the same way as imagery, but they are still powerful mediums for depicting the male gaze. There are countless examples of women being put on impossible pedestals as objects of desire, from Dolly Parton’s Jolene and Billy Joel’s Always a Woman, to Golden Hour by JVKE, Heather by Conan Gray, and She’s All I Wanna Be by Tate McCrae. In Painted You Pretty, Westbrook seems to participate in the same cultural pattern of idealization, by comparing the woman he's singing about to a "picture-perfect" painting that's, "hangin' on [his] mind."
I’m deeply familiar with the unattainable female beauty standards that are so deeply integrated into our culture. During my sophomore year of high school, I struggled intensely with my body image and was eventually diagnosed with anorexia–an eating disorder characterized by an extreme fear of gaining weight. I had transformed from being a healthy and confident soccer player to someone who measured her value by how much smaller she was than the girls around her. Restricting calories and exercising at every opportunity, I had internalized the belief that perfection meant being thin and petite, just as the media often suggests. The standards upheld by a society shaped by the male gaze made me feel as though I was never enough, no matter how hard I tried to become “perfect.”
Video #1: Depiction of the societal emphasis on thinness and physical ideals (instagram.com)
Interestingly, the more I listen to Painted You Pretty, the more I realize that Westbrook’s use of the word “perfect” has the opposite effect on me. Rather than feeling diminished or objectified, I feel empowered. Although he compares the woman to a “picture-perfect” object, his admiration doesn’t rely on narrow or conventional beauty standards. Instead, Westbrook emphasizes individual qualities like her “kind eyes with a kill-a-man smile,” traits that feel unique and personal. Moreover, his description of perfection doesn’t suggest that she conforms to an ideal, but that she’s beautiful just the way she is. The last line of the chorus highlights this concept, with the words: “God painted you pretty, and I bet you've got a heart of gold.” This biblical reference reflects in Genesis 1:27, which says that we’re all crafted in the image of God. By framing beauty as a divine creation rather than social construction, he moves the idea of "perfection" away from comparison and toward individuality. Ultimately, he’s encouraging listeners to embrace our uniqueness, rather than striving to fulfill unrealistic standards shaped by the male gaze. Our value is not measured by external appearance, but is intrinsic to the way we’re created as individuals.
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