Beauty

Beauty….. What is it? The dictionary defines it as the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives greatpleasure, especially when you look at it(Dictionary.cambridge.org, 2014).

When I first began to ask myself what beauty was, I had a few of my own ideas of what it could mean, but I had no idea how the rest of my small little world around me felt about beauty and image. Beauty is something far deeper. Beauty is something you feel, it is something that just happens. When someone is said to be ‘beautiful’ we’re not saying they have a ‘great body’ or that they are ‘sexy’, we are establishing a kind of ora from within them, that more often than most, even they are un-aware of.

Beauty comes in different shapes and sizes. To me, beauty is a blend of expressions on a person’s face or unique features upon someone’s body; Maybe a strange birthmark, which they believe is ‘grotesque’. A fault with their body, maybe a bone that is abnormal and makes their foot curve in the most poetic way… even though it makes them feel self-conscious or insecure. Some people believe beauty only lives within a personality, and they are not wrong. Beauty is what you believe it to be. Annemarie Iverson says “Beauty, for me, is inconsistent, asymmetric, imperfect. Beauty cannot ever be perfect or it risks appearing unreal.” (Schefer, 1997)

Isabella Rossellini said, when discussing the prejudice of beauty, “never is anybody who’s unusual-looking celebrated as a definition of beauty. There is very little room for black, Asian, or mixed-race models.” (Schefer, 1997)

I believe beauty has no age limit; it lives in the wrinkles of a well lived woman, or the way a child laughs. Beauty has no gender discrimination; it won’t leave you because you don’t ‘bend that way’ or because you’re not happy in your own skin. Beauty is not racist; it’s not as simple as black or white. Beauty is not judgmental, it agrees with any decisions you make, the good the bad and especially the ugly.

Almost every person today has issues with their body. They don’t feel ‘beautiful’. “What puts the body squarely in the centre of debate is not fashion, but urgency. The body is being rethought and reconsidered by artists and writers because it is being restructured and reconstituted by scientists and engineers.” (Ewing, 1994)

Our modern society and culture has forced the general standard ideas of beauty to change to something that most of us can never achieve. Even when we do, we still push and aspire to be more because we are all so insecure in our own bodies that we never believe that we could be beautiful. I find this a very sad thing, especially for the next generation who need to learn now that being comfortable in your body rather than appearances are what make you beautiful.

“it may be argued, for instance, that pornographic imagery has contributed to the degradation of the body, both female and male, or that advertising’s glorification of wholly idealized youth sets up unrealistic expectations which alienate the common person from his/her own corporeality.” (Ewing, 1994)

If someone tells you that you are beautiful, appreciate that see something in you that is unique to them.

Every single person in this world is unique is some way or another.

Let your imperfections stand out and make you stronger.

Be proud of who you are and what you can achieve.