OF BEAUTY AND BEAUTY STANDARDS!

“IN NATURE, NOTHING IS PERFECT AND 

EVERYTHING IS PERFECT. 

TREES CAN BE CONTORTED, BENT IN WEIRD WAYS, 

AND THEY ARE STILL BEAUTIFUL”

The definition of “what is beautiful?” shifts as society’s values change. There has never been, and perhaps never will be, a standard that will last for generations. As evident from the books of History, the Greek philosophers were the first people who asked what makes a person beautiful. Plato, who saw beauty as a result of symmetry and harmony, created the “golden proportion” in which, among other things, the ideal face width was considered as representing two thirds of its length, and the face must be perfectly symmetrical. Although I respect philosophers and their works but I think this is one of the works of philosophers those I strongly disapprove of, because what follows are disastrous consequences of the work mentioned above.Over the centuries, we have mauled and manipulated just about every body part - lips, eyes, ears, waists, skulls, foreheads, stomachs, breasts and feet - that did not fit into the cookie-cutter ideal of a particular era's idea of beauty and perfection, and to do the same we have been constantly tyrannizing and punishing our bodies.

As Professor Alma Gottlieb points out Barbie dolls have had a far reaching impact on young girls, and the statistics say that 80 percent of girls under the age of 13 diet in order to “look like Barbie.” The story doesn’t end here but goes a very long way; and a strange custom in Burma speaks loudly for this fact. The Padaung women  of Burma use brass neck coils which is among the most extreme mechanisms for the creation of a longer neck. This is achieved by young Padaung girls being fitted with metal coils from the young age of six! the coils are made up of two pieces, the bottom piece has a counterweight at the spine and widens over the collarbone, the neck coil piece is separate and looks like a cylinder that encases the neck. It is not actually possible for the vertebrae to be extended or stretched, the effect is actually achieved by redirecting the collarbone, which can be seen in the X-rays below. It is a lifetime commitment and not at all pain free.

During the Renaissance, well-born European women plucked out hairs, one by one, from their natural hairline all the way back to the crowns of their heads, to give them the high rounded foreheads thought to be beautiful at the time. Those who didn't want to resort to plucking used poultices of vinegar mixed with cat dung or quick-lime. The latter often removed some of the skin as well as the hair.

The pains taken to achieve beauty mentioned above are still the choices you make on your own however setting the standards on the basis of color complexions is even more disgusting. It is like someone coming and telling you that “You aren’t beautiful because you are born Black!” Imagine a black girl, a girl who is still in her tender years being teased and taunted about her night shaded skin, won’t she feel unbeautiful? Would she ever be able to garner that self respect for herself that a girl with pale skin and similar abilities has?

So the question those remain are can’t we see how fickle and foolishly defined are the standards and definition of beauty? Who decides and defines the beauty standard? Why do we let them? What if we’re already beautiful, but can’t see it because we’re blinded by all the lies that tell us we aren’t? What if we decided to see the good and the beautiful in all of us instead of competing for some arbitrary standard set by someone trying to make money?

The solution to this all is we must understand that we simply can’t rely on how we look to sustain. What does sustain us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for ourselves and for those around us. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. If we take this by heart I think world would be a little better and little more peaceful place to live and we will enjoy our limited time on the sphere a little more, being comfortable in our own skins and in our own ways!