Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What is Beauty?


What is Beauty?

Beauty can easily be found in nature, architecture, art, music, dance, the human body, and the like. However, for our purposes, beauty that manifests itself in the human body will be the only type acknowledged hereafter. Often we hear the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Yet, so much time, effort, and money is devoted towards making ourselves appear more pleasing to the general public. Women are known to willingly spend an hour each day altering their natural appearance. Both sexes exercise to maintain a desirable body shape for their pleasure and to appear more pleasing to observers. Unimaginable amounts of money are spent to acquire the latest clothing trends or even change a person’s natural skin color through tanning. A relatively new fad has hit the United States: cosmetic surgery. Why does this all occur? Almost everyone wants to be considered beautiful. If this is so, what exactly is beauty? Popular magazines may try to define it, favorite movie stars might have it, and the general public strives to obtain it. There is no ultimate beauty everyone can look to and idolize, contrary to popular belief. Human beauty is a characteristic found in an individual that produces pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction through any of the observer’s senses. Therefore, beauty is dependent on the observer’s culture, society, personal preference, and time period.

When thinking of beauty, a person would most commonly turn his thoughts towards the physical. However, it could be argued that the most important or meaningful beauty is that found on the inside, or the inner beauty. This type of beauty is often associated with positive traits such as a kind disposition, intelligence, an optimistic personality, charm, a high self-esteem, or willingness to do good works. Unfortunately, this type of beauty is often forgotten and to make up for this loss, more time and effort may be spent on the physical aspect. This could result in a greater mental inferiority and/or obsession with the outside appearance. It seems that more and more motivational speakers address the issue of focusing on the inner beauty. As they point out, physical attributes wrinkle and wither, but talents never cease.

The United Sates seems to have an impossible standard of physical attractiveness. In order for men to be considered good-looking, they must have noticeable muscles (but not too much), broad shoulders, a v-shaped torso, pronounced facial features such as a strong jaw, a healthy (or natural) tan, and be taller than most women. For women to be considered beautiful in the U.S. culture, they must have facial symmetry, a youthful appearance (including full lips, clear/smooth skin, healthy hair, good muscle tone, etc), large breasts, a healthy tan, a good body mass index, larger hips and round buttocks, and a shorter height than most males. For the most part, the rest has to do with preference and what the average American might find pleasing to the senses.

Different cultures and societies have their own ideas on what is sought after or considered beautiful. In Asian cultures, it is considered beautiful to be pale and special creams are sometimes used to reach this goal. In fact, my Taiwanese sister-in-law refused to believe that there were such things as tanning booths until she came to the United States for the first time. A unique tribe found by the border of Thailand and Vietnam, known as the Padaung, believes in elongating the neck as a sign of feminine beauty. At age five or six, girls are fitted with special rings that fit around the neck, and with each passing year, a couple of rings are added. In many African cultures, it is desirable to be obese or large in order to attract a mate. Students in Ghana rated heavier bodies more favorably than the skinny. As unpleasant as it may seem to the average American, the French don’t feel the need to bathe on a regular basis. It just isn’t that high on their list of priorities, along with shaving in areas such as the armpits.

The idea of what is beautiful and what is not, is evolving constantly. What once was fashionable is now considered hideous. A corset, a garment worn to mold the torso into a desirable shape, was first introduced in the middle of the 16th century. It continued to develop through the ages, correlating with the change of the desired shape. In the 16th, century, the corset was used to emphasize the breasts. It then evolved, during the Victorian age, in order to create an hourglass shape. Later, the S-bend corset was used to push the breasts forward while the hips went back. This gave the illusion of a slimmer waste, but then the corset evolved into a different garment—the girdle. Foot binding was a custom that took place in China from the beginning of the 10th century to the 20th. At age six or even earlier, girls would have their feet tightly bandaged. The feet became highly deformed, but retained their small shape. Because of the abnormality of their feet, women were forced to walk with a certain sway which was deemed attractive to males.

Since there have been mates to be won, beauty was sought after in many different ways. During the Mesolithic period (10,000 BC), people would attempt to soften their skin with castor oil and grease. Dye collected from plants, were used to tattoo the skin. Egyptians, such as Cleopatra, used finely crushed carmine beetles to make a deep red pigment for lipstick. Assyrian men and women wore elaborate braids and were very meticulous in personal hygiene and bathing. Ancient Greeks often wore beards which symbolized power and strength, attributes desired by their counterparts. The Romans were the first to introduce shaving and daily washing which later lost popularity in Europe. They also initially believed that blonde hair was a sure sign of prostitution. But when slaves from Scandinavia were brought down, noblewomen began dying their hair lighter shades. Chalky complexions were often desirable, which some women used white lead to obtain. This resulted in skin care products. High foreheads and a lack of eyebrows (that had been shaved off) also became stylish.

The popularity of wigs, especially among males, increased dramatically during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who was its great advocate. Wigs soon became an art form in France, only dying out after the French Revolution. After the revolution in France and during the Neoclassical period, the idea became fixed that men were meant to be rational and women emotional. Dress began to express this ideology turning male wear into plain, reasonable clothing. On the other hand, female wear became simplistic and light, decorated with frills and ruffles. Through time, brighter and more vibrant colors were sought after accompanied by more lace.

In today’s society, it seems as if men—but especially women—are plagued with their own ideas of what is the “ultimate beauty.” I, myself, skipped high school (more than once) because of insecurities pertaining to my physical appearance and have known others to done the same. Bratz and Barbie dolls are given to little girls who begin idolizing biologically impossible figures. Advertising and modeling is another blow to the mental mind set of the general public. More and more airbrushing and retouching occurs thanks to new-found technology. We are given false impressions that such people exist. Advertising companies don’t care about these false notions; their job is to sell products. What they try to do is sell beauty: “Buy this product if you want to look like this.” It is false advertising and keeps us reaching for the impossible. Do we give up? No.

One out of every one hundred female adolescents is anorexic. Anorexia is when a person has an intense fear of being fat. Therefore, they starve themselves, sometimes to death. Four out of one hundred college-aged women are bulimic. Bulimia is when the person has an episode of binge-eating followed by unhealthy ways of weight control (purging) including vomiting. Being thin for women is looked on favorably by the media and our society. Women go to extremes to reach these standards which are often portrayed in advertisements. Men are also known to go to extremes while becoming more muscular and don’t know when to quit. Most people never feel that they are up to par; it is not in human nature. We work diligently to be considered perfect, but what is that? These disorders exist because of the overwhelming concern for becoming what we believe is “beautiful.”

It is proven that the “ideal” beauty is dependent on people’s opinions that have been molded by their culture, society, preference, and time period. Beauty has evolved and will continue to do so because of the evolution of people’s thoughts or wants. Our posterity will look at our jeans with purposefully placed holes and our orange tan thinking, “Why?” just as we look at our mother’s prom picture and think the same thing. Some qualities will always be sought after, while others fade. However, two things are guaranteed. The first is that human beauty will constantly revolve around anything that gives pleasure or satisfaction to the human senses. The second is the fact that there will always be people that are considered more beautiful than you; it’s impossible to please everyone. The trick is to realize and move on. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

4 comments:

  1. Very thorough--the amount of knowledge made this very convincing. Would have liked to hear more of your opinion about how these all correlate.
    The audience is men and women seeking beauty, or those wondering how beauty is perceived in different areas.
    Your introduction was very compelling as you stated your claim that it beauty is dependent on culture, society, preference, etc.
    Very well organized and structured.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You had a good range of arguments. The statistics you used were impressive, and thus served as good rhetorical arguments. (You might need to provide some citation for your stats, though, to give them proper accreditation and to make your argument more credible.)

    The chronological organization of your paper was effective and helped to explain that the beauty obsession has been in place for centuries.

    I felt like the conclusion of your paper, or the "so what" factor, could have been more forceful. I felt like I needed to hear a stronger, more explicitly stated argument for the abandonment of the beauty obsession. By restating the adage "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," I felt like you hadn't moved on to a new point about society moving away from the beauty fixation. I could tell what you were trying to say, and your back-up evidence was nice and strong, but I felt that the conclusion could have had a little more "zing."

    Good paper! This is one of my favorite topics, so I was glad to see a paper written about it. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. All the history given was a great idea, very supportive of your argument. However, i do suggest that you make your argument a tad bit stronger at the end. Instead of continually saying what beauty is not, tell the readers what beauty is: yes it's in the eye of the beholder, but is there more than just that? What can you do to overcome these media challenges and find beauty within yourself and be comfortable with that? I think answering those questions will only make your argument stronger. A commonly argued topic, but very well stated. good job :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really liked the way your paper progressed from beginning to end. The history parts were great examples. I would do more at the end to make a stronger point.
    Main Claim: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
    Compelling Argument: Tastes and Styles change with time and location
    Issues not addressed: what is beauty
    Organization: Great job!
    Audience: General Public, maybe people who feel overly concerned about their appearance
    Good job!

    ReplyDelete