Beauty: Are you up for the challenge?

A common phrase that we hear is, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This is absolutely true because everyone has a different idea of what beauty is. Beauty can be referred to anything, whether it’s a work of art, person, creation, or mother nature. That’s the beauty of the word itself because beauty is highly subjective as well as arguable and it varies from one person’s definition to the next. Sometimes beauty is not even visual because it refers to a certain emotion or how a person is feeling on the inside.

People’s perception about beauty has evolved tremendously from different generations and cultures. For instance, currently, a majority of people think that women who have a tan, slender figure with big breasts and a large butt are attractive. In the past, the Greeks and the Chinese praised those who were overweight because it was a sign that they were wealthy. They had a comfortable life and enough money to spend on food. However, now women and men are constantly on odd diets and trying to lose weight. Even young girls who are skinny like a bean stalk are dieting. In China, Japan, and India girls prefer to have lighter skin versus the tan, bronze, sometimes orange colored skin as a result of excessive amounts of trips to the tanning salon. In Asia, girls are just the opposite as they go through the trouble of carrying parasols on bright, sunny days.

Each culture has standards and an ideal image of what is considered beautiful. In China, during the beginning of the 10^th century, girls starting at the age of three would bind their feet to obtain tiny feet and this idea of beauty. At the time, this is what men and women considered to be attractive; and in order to fit in and find a husband girls were forced to bind their feet. In some African tribes and Asian cultures the women wore stacks of neck rings to feel beautiful and attract good husbands. Other African and South American tribes also considered ear stretching and lip stretching to be beautiful. What and who are beautiful changes with time and it can be entirely situational and contextual. For example, a girl who is always happy and just her presence brings joy to the room can be considered beautiful. However, she may no longer hold this beauty if she goes into depression.

Beauty is what we make of it. Without all the clothes and possessions we are plain humans that came into this world the same way. People achieve beauty with how they present themselves with makeup, clothing, possessions, personality, and thoughts. For this reason, I feel that beauty has become a problem rather a word that can be used to describe “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind” or “something extraordinary” (dictionary.com). Today, when people think of the word beauty they immediately focus on the physical and visual aspects instead of what is unseen.

In the Dove Evolution video, most people would already think this girl is beautiful before and after all her makeup is done. However, obviously the ad campaign doesn’t think so as Photoshop is used to elongate her neck, make her eyes look larger and brighter, plump her lips to make them look luscious, and thin out her face. Magazine ads, commercials, and movies show celebrities with this perfection and this influences the viewer and makes them reconsider what beauty really is. All this exposure distorts people's perception of beauty. Now people constantly talk about dieting and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are very prominent. The number of people with skin cancer has increased due to excessive amounts of exposure to the sun and tanning salons. People also suffer and elicit pain on themselves to achieve “beauty” with plastic surgery and procedures to enlarge their breasts, tighten their skin to eliminate wrinkles, and wax unwanted hair. Others are wasting money on brand and popular items such as clothing, iPods, jewelry, and cars to make themselves feel and be considered beautiful when they are seen with these objects. Personally, I like to focus on what is on the inside rather than the outside. It’s just not worth it to me when physical beauty becomes a health risk. After all, should being beautiful (a good quality) have to involve pain and skin cancer?