Universal Concept Of Beauty Essay

952 Words2 Pages

Name: Mok Tsz Shuen LANG 1003A T23 Assessed Writing Task
People may sometimes have a misinterpretation that the concept of beauty can be defined effortlessly. They may instantly think of some beautiful objects, but not the way to explain the beauty with precise wordings as it is harder to express what beauty is than they think. The debate on how to delineate beauty remains in a stalemate. One of the major arguments is that whether there is a universal perception of beauty. This essay will argue that there are no universal concepts of beauty because people are influenced by culture and social environment.
The diversity of culture results in the heterogeneous ideas of beauty. The way that people perceive beauty is affected by their own cultures. …show more content…

For instance, some professional journal authors agree that all human favor symmetric face because it represents high genetic quality and fulfills evolutionary fitness (Brichacek & Moreland, 2011). However, this argument is insufficient to conclude that uniform idea of beauty exists. Referring back to the symmetry of the face. Although studies show that people do not prefer asymmetry as it is a sign of developmental instability, but this may due to publication bias. When this problem is eliminated, asymmetry and physical attractiveness are almost unrelated (Van-Dongen, 2011). The above example shows that the effect of biological factors may be theoretical only. It is worthwhile to consider the reality together with experimental findings. The effects of culture and social environment on judgments of beauty can be refuted by both investigation results and daily examples. The proposition that having various expressions of beauty around the world seems to be more …show more content…

& Moreland, R. (2011). “Is Beauty Truly in the Eye of the Beholder?” – The Universal Nature of Facial Beauty. UWOMJ, 80:2, Fall. Retrieved from http://www.uwomj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ENT_05.pdf
Frith, K., Shaw, P., Cheng, H. (2005). The Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising. The Journal of Communication, 55(1), 56-70. doi: 10.1111/j.14602466.2005.tb02658
Gregory, D. (1994). Heavy judgement: a sister talks about the pain of 'living large.'. Essence (Essence), 25(4), 57.
Grubow, L. (2006). Chinese Culture and its Effect on Skin Care Trends in China. Global Cosmetic Industry, 174(8), 26-28
Harter, P. (2004, January 26). Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm. BBC News. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3429903.stm
Robson, D. (2015, June 23). The myth of universal beauty. BBC Future. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150622-the-myth-of-universal-beauty
Van Dongen, S. (2011). Associations between asymmetry and human attractiveness: Possible direct effects of asymmetry and signatures of publication bias. Annals of Human Biology, 38(3),

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