It is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”…. as beauty can be a very subjective and a personal choice and experience of life.  This attraction or admiration, after all, is an interpretation of harmony, of proportion in the features attributed to a culture for beauty.

Is beauty measurable to a certain standard? Well according to the Golden Ratio, the ideal result for an attractive face would be 1.6.  Greeks believed a beautiful face is 1.6 times longer than its width. But then it has been refuted by attributing it simply to the ability of pattern recognition by humans. After all cultural differences have strange ideas of what is beautiful and they seem poles apart from each other. Such is the paradox of beauty!

From smooth skin devoid of wrinkles, a long neck and flowing hair, to face tattoos and body scars, long earlobes, shaved heads, pale skins to small feet, to full figures different countries and culture have different standards of beauty.

Take the case of some Eastern countries where straightened hair is considered beautiful and many are turning to chemical hair straighteners and flat ironing for holding up to standards of beauty. Girls in Mauritania,  West Africa when shown an article about liposuction, laugh so hard in disbelief as it shocks their concepts of what is beautiful. In fact, this goes to extreme measures like ‘Leblouh’ the practice of force feeding girls to have heavy figures and stretch marks like in Mauritania, to the overwhelming numbers of rhinoplasty in Iran and where women wearing post-surgical bandages consider it as a badge of honour and wealth.

The human capacity to appreciate beauty has perhaps radically evolved with the species and men and woman see and process beauty differently. Humans are complex beings and if beauty were a language, its expression would be unique to every individual with respect to their nature and nurture.

 So in the quest towards understanding the beauty and the ideals of beauty, there are many questions …

Is there a possibility of greater survival of what is considered beautiful.?

Or is the reverse true?

History is replete with numerous wars on account or on behalf of desire to possess own nurture, save and protect beautiful people animals or things.And beauty becomes a victim of situations and often is the cause of chaos and destruction.

The very beauty that emits an utter of exclamation of awe in the admiration of the exquisite creation can extract emotional outbursts and create and spread hate and malice, upheavals that can mar the course of peace in history and cause wars.

Beauty can thus become a two-edged sword.

Is there more to the reason there exists for the quality of beauty and its perception.The genetic codes that determine beauty can be there for the purpose of an evolution of the species and refinement in the subtlety of consciousness….

There is beauty in a soul that is kind without prejudice

There is beauty in choosing to transform to a better person inside out.

There is beauty in words spoken and deeds of generosity

There is beauty in making people feel valuable

As after all beauty is in the way you make another feel.

Savvy

 Image Credits:  An Artwork by Savvy Raj  from a series Titled: ‘Faces’

In the enigma attached to the exclusivity of beauty

What are the emergent ideals of beauty?

That which pleases the eye or that which awakens the senses.

Is the concept of beauty unique to the beholder? Why?

Is there an accepted universal norm of what is beautiful? Does it change with time?

Is the perception of beauty gender variant?

Is beauty attracted to the beast?

Is beauty a overplayed facade?

Is there a virtue in beauty?

Is beauty a boon or a bane?

Is beauty overrated?

What are prerequisites of beauty?

Has beauty anything to do with intentions and actions?If so what is the co-relation?

Is there a truth to ‘beauty is what beauty does’?

What defines beauty?

How important is inner beauty than mere external beauty?.

Who is setting these standards?

This calls for a deeper exploration into the enigma and paradox of beauty.
Dear reader

An invitation to reflect along in the next part of this series in collaboration.

Would love your feedbacks and thoughts to compile in the intersection of our thoughts and interpretation in consensus towards greater understanding, of the varied aspects of beauty through reflections.

Savvy Raj

About the Author

https://savvyraj.com/beyond-labels

 

Reference

http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/slideshows/global-beauty-standards

http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a3513/forcefeeding-in-mauritania/

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-golden-ratio-really-has-nothing-to-do-with-beauty-2016-7?IR=T