“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” is a very common expression used around the world. This assertion is widely adopted due to the fact that every individual possesses a diverse perspective of how beauty is described. One person’s belief of beauty conceivably is different from another person, all build upon on their own viewpoint. However, the question remains; what is the legitimate definition of beauty? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, beauty is illustrated as the “quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit”. This widely-approved definition doesn’t provide a singular explanation but a general concept of beauty. The idea of beauty has been …show more content…
Is it The Eye of The Beholder?” Charlotte Kuchinsky makes the statement that beauty should be viewed as a combination of physical “attributes, inner spirit, personality, intelligence, and heart.” Kuchinsky perception of beauty revolves around the many factors a person can have. All individual have different attributions and each peculiarity is unique regarding the concept of beauty. In the CNN special news coverage article, “What is Beauty and Who Has It?” Alene Dawson also agrees that beauty is not a set standard but are aspects that people possess. Even in the modeling business, modeling agents aren't fully confidence to say what is the meaning of beauty. "The word beauty is such a controversial word," says Bethann Hardison modeling agent and Vogue Italia editor. "I think that the more that there's exposure (of different kinds of looks), you give people a chance to see what could also be beautiful besides what came before." Even though society has tried to label and even influence the definition of beauty, no one specific attribution can be considered as beautiful in the physical aspect. All people are different and look different which follows up the idea that beauty lies in the eyes of the …show more content…
From them, the ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, challenged this concept of beauty. In the article, “How Do Philosophers Think About Beauty?”, Andrea Borghini makes the statement that the perception of beauty can be carried by a personal means of senses. For example, “looking at a sculpture, trees in bloom, or Manhattan’s skyline; listening to Puccini’s La bohème; tasting a mushroom risotto; feeling cool water in a hot day; and so on.” The factor of beauty is not limited to simply any experiences a person goes through, but beauty can also be found in “senses, imagination, and intellect.” Borghini makes the arguments that if beauty was a specific universal factor, as Plato supported, then we wouldn't be able to understand it with our own senses because we wouldn't be able to pinpoint a similarity. Comparing the beauty of listening to Giacomo Puccini's famous piece, “Sono andati?” with a colorful oil painting of a field of flowers, Borghini states that there is “no single common element: not even the feelings or the basic ideas involved seem to match.” These two objects are completely different in every way, yet both share the title of beauty. In the same way, other factors such as poems, music, literature, art, nature, and any physical attributes can be considered beautiful. According to the Standford Eccocoplidia of Philosophy, Greek philosophers
According to Susan, nowadays, people often view a woman as a mixture of both inside and outside beauty. However, people are still surprised by woman “who is beautiful is also intelligent, endowed, and good”. The idea of good looks as a central is derived from Christianity’s point of view. The word “beauty” is often represented as woman’s feminine side, just like “handsome” is often a demonstration of man’s masculine and good look. Even though, “beauty” could be used for everyone, but people be likely to refer to woman as a symbol of their feminine.
What is the definition of beauty? Webster’s dictionary says “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses”, but to some people true beauty comes in fire. Such is it with the society seen in Fahrenheit 451. As Shown during the course of the novel the differences of character, acts, and opinions between Montag and Captain Beatty burn brighter that the kerosene drenched houses at night.
Some people don’t realize that and try to live up to the unrealistic standards that we have created in our heads of what is really pretty. In that same article it describes beauty standards as features that are considered “pretty” in today's society. “They determine what is “beautiful”, from body shape, to facial proportions, to height and weight.” (Povey) This shows that the issue of beauty standards is a problem we face today because we can’t change the way we look.
In the essay What Meets the Eye, Daniel Akst argues that look or beauty does matter in the daily life, that is, people’s life can be largely influenced or even controlled by look. Through reading Akst’s essay, I completely understand how people have different perspectives of others, as many people pay attention to and worry about how they look in the daily life. And people tend to judge others by their beauty or looks to a large extent. Akst’s ideas quite conform to and reinforce Paglia’s points that pursuing and maximizing one’s attractiveness and beauty is a justifiable aim in any society, and that good surgery discovers reveals personality. Both of them hold the idea that beauty plays an important role in people’s life and it is significant to enhance one’s beauty and attractiveness.
In the book “Two or Three Things I Know for Sure” by Dorothy Allison the theme of beauty is brought to light in a way that is intersectional and develops the story to new heights. Beauty is discussed throughout the book and is one of the main themes. Allison talks about beauty when referencing her family and herself, and the idea of what it means to be beautiful in her mind based on how she grew up and where she came from. Normatively, beauty is associated with outward appearance and one’s identity, however beauty should be recognized as intersectional and include everyone, based not only on their outwards appearance but based on the beauty of their personality and thoughts because every human is beautiful in their own way. Dorothy Alison transforms
What do you think is beautiful? Our cognition of beauty depends on several factors. How we were raised being one of them. We find Stephen as a young man, really still a boy, working at the local pulp mill with his father and all the other men in town. Stephen, whose father seems to be of influence to him, is not sure what is beautiful.
Beauty does not define who we are, I disagree with his mom as well as George Jackson does because like he said, "the truly ugly thing is the pretending, faking it", It looks ugly to try and be someone you are not. People are constantly trying hard to be able to be that someone that it results in making a fool out of yourself. The only true beauty is the one everyone holds within themselves because it shows who you truly
In “Aesthetic of Astonishment” essay, Gunning argues how people first saw cinema, and how they are amazed with the moving picture for the first time, and were not only amazed by the technological aspect, but also the experience of how the introduction of movies have changed the way people perceive the reality in a completely different way. Gunning states that “The astonishment derives from a magical metamorphosis rather than a seamless reproduction of reality”(118). He uses the myth of how the sacred audience run out the theater in terror when they first saw the Lumiere Brother Arrival of the train. However, Gunning does not really care how hysterical their reaction is, even saying that he have doubts on what actually happened that day, as for him it the significance lied on the incidence--that is, the triggering of the audience’s reaction and its subsequence results, and not the actual reactions and their extent. It is this incident, due to the confusion of the audience’s cognition caused by new technology, that serves as a significant milestone in film history which triggered in the industry and the fascination with film, which to this day allows cinema to manipulate and
The appropriate atmosphere is created also by the use of the words ”beauty”,
Thus, beauty, a concept that is assumed to be subjective, now morphs into something objective. Valenti notes that in popular culture, for instance, the most desirable woman is depicted as one
In 1.6 of Enneads, On Beauty, by Plotinus discusses the common questions surrounding beauty. Such as, what is it? Why are we, as humans drawn to it? Why are some things thought to be beautiful while some are not? And, how do we know when we see beauty, or something ugly?
Claudia recognizes that if we conform to the Western standard of beauty, we may gain beauty but only at the expense of others. However, Claudia learns to love Shirley Temple; Claudia “learned much later to worship her” (Morrison, page 16) This suggests that the idea of beauty is something that is learned and not natural or
In his documentary film “why beauty matters” English philosopher Roger Scruton introduces the idea of beauty is disappearing from our world. The philosopher implies, that Art has become ugly, as well as our physical surroundings, manners, language, and music. Nowadays, the main aim of art is to disturb and break moral taboos. It has now lost its initial duty and is used to show solely the ugliness of our world, instead of taking what is most painful in the human condition and redeeming it in the work of beauty. What according to Scruton is the main purpose of art.
Society 's Beauty Standards Hawkins (2017) stated that the definition of beauty has been shaped by society 's standards instead of what people actually look like. It signifies that the society sets up expectations of how we define beauty by manipulating beliefs of people to recognize that body shape, skin color, race, ethnicity, or anglicized features are what makes a person distinguish their beauty instead of what people actually look like in reality. This makes people believe that the beauty that they see, especially in films, is something that they need to attain in order to be considered as attractive. Unrealistic beauty standards affects physical and mental health Vitelli (2013) stated that content analysis of female characters
If I were to praise this concept of beauty, this would be like saying that everybody should have surgeries and as such to make themselves beautiful. This is what people would understand from my opinions about the concept of beauty. Everybody has their own definition of beauty. It is a concept that varies with place to place or even time to time.