Society makes it out to be a perfect model or celebrity that no one can compare to. In order to understand why beauty is not a universal idea, one must know what beauty is, what each culture perceives as beauty, and the misperception society gives people. One’s idea of beauty should be based on his or her own cultural perceptions, reminding one that society, media, or any other source cannot define a universal idea of the art of beauty. Humans all want to be noticed and admired by that special someone. They also have the tendency to envy or want to be envied by others.
Beauty is not always about our outside looks but it’s about our inside personality also. First of all, beauty has negative and positive influences on about everything. By looking at the definition of beauty, I'm sure that beauty has various positive aspects because the positive aspects are noticeable. Everyone notices beauty in all sorts of ways by looks, personality, intelligence, body and eyes. Also, an attractive person gets the best out of everything said by almost everyone.
The definition of beauty is varying among different people in the world. Even though almost everyone knows the term beauty, many people are struggling in defining it and persuading others to agree with their opinions. Beauty is defined by a combination of qualities existent in a person or thing that fulfills the aesthetic feels or brings about profound gratification. Many people define beauty as a term to describe a person’s physical appearance; they often think that beauty comes from magazines, video girls, or even models. Although the term beauty can define a person’s physical appearance, true beauty lies in the way one acts and thinks rather than the way one look.
People are more likely to notice a beautiful person, to offer help to a beautiful person, and to trust a beautiful person (Morrison). Therefore, by assigning beautiful people more worth, society awards them more power. There is little more valuable to people nowadays than power; it is associated with superiority and success. Beautiful people are thus valued even more so because they are seen as more powerful individuals. The correlation of beauty with power is embedded in our cultural belief system, but the reasoning behind it is flawed.
Aside from that being the main focus intelligence, emotions, spirit and social attraction can also be used to contribute to one's beauty. Possibly the most bias way to describe it, beauty is often used in reference to someone's physical appearance, focusing mainly on facial features, body type and skin. This plays a big part in today's society causing it to affect both males and females of all ethnicities. In a discussion it is mentioned, "what society considers beautiful has a tendency to change, which means our pursuit of beauty tends to be lifelong and subject to the whims of trendsetters" (Edmonds). Pop culture has manipulated society into thinking that beauty is having a perfect facial structure, a slender body type, and flawless skin.
This strong stereotype, which powerfully influences each person’s concept of beauty, causes people to believe a beautiful person is more successful and superior. Dr. Herron states that “the ‘Beauty = Power’ formula is deeply entrenched in our psyches” (Herron 109). To be sure, beauty is a capital power which can determine and improve one’s life (Bennett, par. 1) since it can influence the clubs they join, the friendships they make, the people they marry, the jobs people get, and the salaries they earn (Berry 3). Attractive people are able to have many advantages and positive outcomes, such as having more popularity, greater confidence, more dating opportunities, more promotional chances, and higher salaries (Patel, Utpal, and Rebecca, par.4).
How do you judge if someone is beautiful for the first time you see them? By physical appearance is the most popular answer you may find. To the majority of people, beauty is solely depended on how a person look like on the outside. However, some might argue that inner beauty has to do more than outer appearance. It is difficult to fully define beauty because everyone has their own views about beauty.
The old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder remains truthful today. It is not only the person that dictates what is beautiful; the time period during which beauty is portrayed must be taken into account as well. The aesthetic ideal of the Renaissance is quite different from that of today's typical "beauty." When applying these questions to Cleopatra, the only way to judge her beauty is by the works in which she is depicted. One obvious obstacle with this judgment is that everyone creates his or her works during different time periods.
To even some of the world’s greatest philosophers, the idea of beauty remains an enigma. Is beauty a universal concept able to be defined or is it strictly perceived in the mind of the individual? While ideas of beauty are to some degree a matter of personal preference, they are also influenced by the social norms surrounding us; thus, beauty exists in the culturally-conditioned eye of the beholder. Cultures across the world have very different philosophies on what it means to be beautiful. In western countries, the unibrow is considered unattractive and is often ridiculed.
Likely, T. E. Jessop explains that “[t]he study of beautiful objects has become the study of their origination in a mind and of their effect on a mind.” (159) Beauty is something of personal taste and is something that has results in some sort of “effect” (i.e. : feeling of pleasure) on the mind. But is this definition the reality of what beauty really is today? Those who have studied history and the role beauty, specifically feminine beauty, in society, have come to the conclusion that beauty in theory does not encompass only the simple definition as stated above. However, beauty plays a large part in the status of a person in society, even more so with women.