Undefining Beauty
What is beauty? Is beauty able to be defined? We are told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however turn on the TV, open a magazine, surf the internet, look at a billboard and you can see that most modern cultures seem to strive to define beauty for us. This desire for cultures to define beauty is not new, ancient Greek cultures strived to define beauty as is demonstrated in their art. Writers and artists by virtue of their art have often directly influenced what we accept as beauty. As we look back through history it is clear that what is accepted as beautiful by a culture is a moving target, what was considered beautiful at one point in time is not always considered beautiful today.
Consider how we come to accept what is beautiful. Beauty is perception and our perception is greatly influenced by the culture we are exposed to. Most of us can look at another person and make a determination if that person is beautiful or not. The reason most of can do this so easily is because we have been trained by our culture to define what beautiful is and is not. Likewise most of us can look at a scenic view and make a determination of it’s beauty. Again this determination of beauty is often influenced by what our culture has defined beauty as. Defining beauty becomes a little bit more difficult when we go to an art museum. Many people who enter an art museum may find that they are confused by what has been deemed beautiful. One may find themselves looking at a painting or sculpture which have been said to be an object of beauty saying to themselves, I just don’t get it. Truth is, it’s not that you don’t get the beauty of the object, you simply have not be trained or conditioned to see the beauty of the object in the way that an art aficionado might.
See when we are exposed to something for which we have no cultural context of influence we begin to see beauty purely from our true inner perspective. The wonder of beauty is that the only definition that truly applies to beauty is what we see and how what we see makes us feel. This is why one person may look at a John Pollock painting and see random dribbles of paint while another stands in awe of it’s beauty.
Beauty is all about perception, our perception. The sad part is that our perception of beauty may be very twisted and influenced by our culture and therefore we miss the beauty of many things in our day because of what we have learned to accept as beauty.
I believe one of the biggest struggles we have with beauty is seeing our self as beautiful. When we look in the mirror do we see the beauty that is us, or do we compare our image, our self to beauty which has been defined by our culture? As it is that we must truly be able to love ourselves fully to be able to truly give love to others, we must be able to fully appreciate our beauty to truly see all of the other beauty by which we are surrounded.
We come in many shapes, sizes, colors and designs yet we are all part of the same whole and that from which we come is pure love and there is only beauty that can come from love.
Accept your beauty and the beauty of all that is around you. You will be amazed at how much beauty there is in this world and you will find yourself shaking your head in confusion at the limited view the most cultures have about beauty and how they try so hard to confine beauty to a set of rules.
I have a hard time accepting that because part of me still yearns to have a supermode’s face… I know what you are saying is true, Mark, and I’m getting closer to being okay with it, it’s just taking a while when I see so much attention paid to pretty women. I have to remember who I am inside matters more than being able to have lindsey lohan’s looks.
I feel blessed for I have reached a point in my life where I see so much beauty all around me – far outweighing the ugliness. I eve have found profound beauty within deep sorrow. And finally, I have made that leap to realise that it is, for me, all a reflection of my own beauty – that is why I can appreciate it. It is amazing the beauty in the smallest, tiniest things. I feel a very strong connection to the concept of beauty – in its fullest sense. It is important to me.
I would say beauty is generally conditioned by mathematical ratios, though we’re not aware of it.
The human mind is conditioned to look for patterns, its one of the cornerstones of human intelligence- it’s how we grasped at systems and science and all the rest of it to begin with.
What we ee as beauty, more often than not, it is recognition that something is ultimately harmonious, that something accords with the universe.
Yet it is allso observed that we seek a slight asymettry. The most beautiful faces are those which are near the mean, but not the mean, they have slight quirks which move them just away from the average.
Because again, our genes desire us to take risks- so we sek perfect- but not quite, we seek the norm, but with an edge.
I lived many years with the double edge sword, a compliment that ends up twisting and becoming a dagger of negativity. To short, not thin enough, one to many wrinkles, child birth, stretch marks, etc, all these and more were pointed out to me on a regular basis, so much so that the seeds of insecurity were germinated and began to grow. I had never felt attractive in any sense of the word. Though something amazing was happening as I began to explore outside the hollow, I found that people thought I was acceptable, people were complimentary, but as I had battled weight gain off an on, a friend said” you are beautiful with or without the extra twenty pounds, your beauty comes from within” The image in the mirror began to change, and still morps depending on my confidence and how I view myself.
It is about our own perspective how we view, what we absorb.
I had been out strolling and taking photographs. The stream is layered sheets of rock, limestome I think, not sure. I captured a part of the stream on camera that looks like steps,It reminds me of the steps of life, and the challenges we confront. I began to write to the photograph, my vision of what I see, I was workng at home and a comment was made, “it is the worst photography you have ever done, it looks like the bottom of a sewage pit, there is nothing beautiful about it “I was hurt, insulted, I didn’t see this as positive criticism. I turned around and said don’t you see the leaves the season is changing, the layers of rock are the steps i take each day as a challenge to life? Was his idea not trained to see what I saw,or did he not have the touch with emotion that saw how nature was so expressive. Or is it just plain ignorance, there are those who will always need to be led and others who have the ability to see through and surface with their own opinion. Beautiful or is it ugly? a matter of opinion. After reading your post I decided that I’ll post the photograph, because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and I don’t write to be like everyone else, I write to free my soul.
Nice thoughts Mark!
The uglier thing is beautiful towards love’s eye
Society has definitely had a major role in trying to define “beauty” for us, especially in this new tech age. It’s a billion dollar industry. We are bombarded from every direction with advertisements on how to look better, younger, older, dress, or what car to drive, etc. – it’s all too common that we constantly struggle with our body image to meet what is termed acceptable in a competitive world.
I really love this piece you’ve written and many of the points eloquently described here. So much of our perception and reactions are learned behaviors. It all changes; however when one can look through a different lens, so to speak. Photographers and other artists often have a totally different view of beauty and have learned to express that in various mediums.
Beautiful words, Mark!
Great stuff. Beauty is the creme de la creme of life. I think it is very subjective although the beauty of nature is eg appreciated by many. As you know I love kids and when you get to know them they all become very beautiful. Beauty is there were you want to see it. What touches me most is the beauty of music and dance
I believe beauty is best exhibited in a person’s inner confidence of his/her self regardless of whatever perceptions beauty may be defined.
A person’s self-worth and how he/she percives his/her beauty is more importantly than the opinion of others’ perception of beauty.
Conculsion: Love, appreciate and embrace your ownself- including weaknesses. Then you start to love the world more in spite of its imperfections.
Anyway thanks for writing this great piece =)
Your article reminds readers of the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The idea of perception comes into play. Great article. You prompt reflection and stir musings.
To me, everyone is beautiful. Knowing the outer wrapping is just packaging helps me look past the obvious to the true beauty within: the soul.
Mark, I read the most wonderful book this past summer that was all about defining and recognizing the beauty within and around us. You may be interested in it…..
http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Invisible-Embrace-John-Odonohue/dp/0060196432
When we can acknowledge our own imperfections as well as others as the place where beauty dwells, we can embrace ourselves far more openly.
The most beautiful things i have ever seen, are smiles, laughter and love. I guess i was trained to see beauty as an emotion, and not an inanimate quality…
now, how do we get that taught to a culture?
I agree with Sorrow.
‘Tis the inner light that makes someone beautiful…I have seen that so many times.
Someone may look ordinary, until you experience their light.
Then all of a sudden you not only see their beauty you are drawn to it!!
Thank you for reminding us of what real beauty is.
Beauty,
Equlibrium of reason and emotion, of strength and mercy. Hence beyond description, beyond feelings, yet both and all in one.
Balance. Ideal. In no preconceived sense of the words.
I only define beauty based on what I feel is right and genuine. Sometimes the looks outside is deceiving but feeling the object will fully define its natural beauty!
Thanks for your post, Mark. We are taught to go round labeling things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’, so we try to find both in equal measure. If we seek instead to see only ‘good’ or only ‘beautiful’, there will suddenly be a lot more good, a lot more beauty in our world.
(I like your beautiful new blog design…)
conditioned mind caught in concepts , circles in illusion and deceives The Real Beauty which is beyond the comparison of beauty with ugly.
Excellently you had pointed the way to the inner beauty that exists everywhere. Thanks for the wonderful sharing,Mark.
My son tells me that once upon a time artists and everyone else saw beauty as money. And in most societies, those who had wealth also had food. Thus the better endowed among us (fatter) were considered beautiful. Thin was out.
I cannot define it for I still haven’t seen the beauty in me. And if indeed you though you have seen beauty while all along you haven’t even seen what you have, think again. This could all be just some illusion.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
The beauty is all around us and inside us if only we open our hearts and eyes.
wow.
amazing post and such compelling comments as well.
makes me sad how many CAN NOT see the beauty in themselves….
I do not care much about what culture defines as beautiful. You can be on the cover of Vogue, and not be beautiful if your eyes show discontentment and boredom.
To me, beauty is the natural effect of a deep love for Life. It lights up any face, no matter what color, size of shape. I remember being 17 and seeing a man with a severely scarred face. When he smiled, the world lit up. He was as gorgeous as a human can possibly get.
As for this body. I am deeply grateful for this body. It’s a walking miracle. For example, take the liver. As advanced as we think we are, we’re nowhere near replicating this kind of ingenuity. I’ve learned gratitude cultivates love. And here again love equals beauty.
does anyone know about other cultures perception of beauty