NationStates Jolt Archive

How do you perceive what is beautiful?

The question occured to me just now as I was in a grocery.

There were lots of people buying supplies for their Memorial day BBQ's (I was just picking up cat food, I have to work) including lots of women all fluffed and curled, their toe nails painted and their faces done up. Girls with skimpy shorts and tops, their hair just so. Women with high heeled sandals and expensive outfits. Every woman shopper seemed to have fixed herself up before going out.

But the one female who caught my eye, who actually seemed beautiful to me was a mousey haired stocker with freckles and no make-up. She wore jeans and work shoes and the uniform polo shirt of the establishment. She had work gloves on and was loading 20# bags of ice into the freezer in the front of the store off a pallet. She moved with purpose and grace and of all the women in that store, she seemed the most beautiful to me at that moment.

Who decided our societies norm for beauty? The 'beauty industry' seems like a joke to me but to the countless women who pour billions into it it must have some legitamacy.

How do you feel about commercialized beauty and what do you think is beautiful?

I don't need to state my opinion, because I agree with yours completely.

Beauty, aside form being overrated and overindulged, is the true "opiate of the masses" in this country.

Beauty is only visable in motion, not in pictures.

it is wise to look past the marketed beauty of magazines tv and movies. not even THOSE women look like that. its makeup, camera angles and airbrush.

How do you perceive what is beautiful?

Who decided our societies norm for beauty? The 'beauty industry' seems like a joke to me but to the countless women who pour billions into it it must have some legitamacy.

How do you feel about commerialized beauty and what do you think is beautiful?
No, the countless women who pour billions into the beauty industry do NOT have any REAL legitimacy, at least from the objective perspective of what is beautiful. I understand that they are simply prusuing what our culture tell us is beautiful, but the creation of a whole industry and subculture is the mark of a society that has some serious delusions about it. It's been a European flaw for centuries. Just look at what the Romans thought was beautiful - exactly the opposite of what the barbarians Celts that was. Which people truly recognized beauty? Neither, if they didn't look at the inside. Beauty is certainly on the inside, for truly beautiful people can appear beautiful despite what superficial people consider "physical flaws," though people who possess extreme physical attractiveness can also appear ugly because they are spiteful or superficial people. I'll bet that the girl you saw stocking the shelves in that store understood more about what it truly means to be satisfied with one's own life than any of the princesses you saw in the checkout lines.

No, the countless women who pour billions into the beauty industry do NOT have any REAL legitimacy, at least from the objective perspective of what is beautiful. I understand that they are simply prusuing what our culture tell us is beautiful, but the creation of a whole industry and subculture is the mark of a society that has some serious delusions about it. It's been a European flaw for centuries. Just look at what the Romans thought was beautiful - exactly the opposite of what the barbarians Celts that was. Which people truly recognized beauty? Neither, if they didn't look at the inside. Beauty is certainly on the inside, for truly beautiful people can appear beautiful despite what superficial people consider "physical flaws," though people who possess extreme physical attractiveness can also appear ugly because they are spiteful or superficial people. I'll bet that the girl you saw stocking the shelves in that store understood more about what it truly means to be satisfied with one's own life than any of the princesses you saw in the checkout lines.

HEAR, HEAR! Well said, sir!

How do you perceive what is beautiful?

Who decided our societies norm for beauty? The 'beauty industry' seems like a joke to me but to the countless women who pour billions into it it must have some legitamacy.

How do you feel about commerialized beauty and what do you think is beautiful?
I have personal and deep feelings about conspicious consumption, which a lot of the beauty industry thrives on. Mostly bad. But it's worse than even what you've noticed-they've discovered that they can now sell to men in the same way. Details and GQ where good attempts, but MAXIM has locked the formula down, and now men are being sold (to) the same as women.

Who gets on what cover or screen gets to say, "this is beautiful," but we can always make up our own minds. (But we already all knew that part...)

HEAR, HEAR! Well said, sir!
Why, thank you, sir. I just cannot fathom mature adults who can't see the pointlessness and lifelessness of the superficiality of modern "beauty." Yeah, unfortunately magazines like Maxim or Seventeen have my generation by the balls (or...ovaries?), and it pains me when people don't think for themselves.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. :)

Besides, I don't think you guys realise how much we need those easily suggestible beauty queens. So much of our economy depends on them that I shudder whenever I go to a drug store.

Beauty is either what the media say, or the opposite so you can sound cool and non-conformist, thus getting all of the conventionally beautiful people flocking to you.

I have a concept of beauty that seems to differ largely from the normal perception.
I can't tell "beautiful people" apart. They all look the same to me. It's very frustrating for my friends, especially if they are trying to tell me the latest show-biz gossip, I just can't remember the faces of the people they're talking about. I started calling them "the clones"
On the other hand, I see some people as exceptionally beautiful, as soon as there is one striking feature about them. It's difficult to explain, as I don't know any celebrity who falls into that category, but I sometimes find myself watching people in the street or on the bus for minutes, just admiring them. It can be anything : the shape of their eyes, the colour or style of their hair, the way they move or talk, the way they dress... as long as there is harmony in the person, they are beautiful to me.

Beautiful is me. (Sorry, no one else had made a stupid flippant comment, so I figured I had to)

Whoever you love suddenly becomes beautiful...

Whoever you love suddenly becomes beautiful...
LIES! She was ALWAYS beautiful! Oh dear, i'm behaving irrationally... :rolleyes:

I like women with small waists, very wide hips, and very thick thighs. Red hair is also a plus.

About the society norm thing, there is evidence to suggest that, scientifically speaking, we view beauty as a genetic average. The closer you are to that average, the more physically attractive you look.

Beauty is either what the media say, or the opposite so you can sound cool and non-conformist, thus getting all of the conventionally beautiful people flocking to you.
Well, not really. I know many people who would be considered strikingly beautiful and even hott by any media, who also contain inner beauty. It's just that those who look as good as the former and posses no inner beauty (in other words, spoiled brats) are not beautiful to me. Plenty of amazing supermodels actually have real depth to them, and it just adds to their beauty.

About the society norm thing, there is evidence to suggest that, scientifically speaking, we view beauty as a genetic average. The closer you are to that average, the more physically attractive you look.
I've also heard that subconciously (or instinctively, like in our animalistic instincts rather than in our cultured thinking) men find women with wide hips attractive, since it is connected to child bearing and therefore fertility.

I've also heard that subconciously (or instinctively, like in our animalistic instincts rather than in our cultured thinking) men find women with wide hips attractive, since it is connected to child bearing and therefore fertility.
And blonde hair is also a sign of high fertility i think. Plus roman hookers wore blonde wigs, hence "blondes have more fun."

And blonde hair is also a sign of high fertility i think. Plus roman hookers wore blonde wigs, hence "blondes have more fun."
Or simply put, Germanic women were wilder and connected with new fertility gods, and so Roman men found Germanic women enchanting and attractive. In a way, it would be like the "Yellow Fever" that strikes so many Americans who obsess over Japanese/Asian girls. It's just an amazingly attractive race type that enchants

I can't tell "beautiful people" apart. They all look the same to me. It's very frustrating for my friends, especially if they are trying to tell me the latest show-biz gossip, I just can't remember the faces of the people they're talking about.I'm a bit similar when it comes to having a hard time being able to tell them apart. But then, I'm completely unintrested in them.

I also find it a bit funny picturing your friends trying to tell you the latest gossip, and getting frustrated. But then, I find people in general mindlessly babbling on and gossiping tragicomical.

I can't remember where I heard this quote, but I agree with it completely.

"True beauty is debatable."

The "typical" idea of beauty gets old. It really depends on the individual, and on their personality.