Beauty is Soul Deep

There has been a change in the characteristics of beauty amongst people in the society, from the internal and physical characteristics combined, to the physical looks of the people. The research looks into the reasons for the change and such factors as the media are mentioned as the contributing factors to this change. The paper makes recommendations to the media to avoid the use of only some qualities of physical looks, like the skin color and the body shape as the gold standard of beauty.

According to Gary, (2007), beauty is a person's characteristic which provides a perception of meaning, satisfaction, pleasure and meaning. An ideal beauty is a person or an entity which is admired by people or has some features which a particular culture attributes to beauty or perfection. Some people claim that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. This means that what is beautiful to one person may not be beautiful to another person. Gary, (2007) argues that people have different ratings and factors to consider in beauty and thus beauty is more of subjective than objective. However, there are others who claim that beauty is a universal quality and there are people who are seen as beautiful by every person while others appear ugly to everyone. Thus the notion that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder appears to only serve the purpose of consolation to those who are not beautiful. There are certain characteristics which the every society looks at to determine if a person is beautiful or not and these traits seem to be similar in most of the cultures (Rhodes, 2006).

On the other hand, beauty can also be defined as a state whereby a person is in harmony and balance with nature making the person has a sense of emotional satisfaction and a feeling of attraction (Rhodes, 2006). This illustrates that beauty can be looked at from an internal perspective, where a person has a positive reflection about him/herself and having a meaning to personal existence. Therefore, a person's beauty can be defined as any characteristic which goes hand in hand with a personal meaning. In other cultures like in Greek, beauty was regarded as being of one's own time. A lady who wants to appear older than she is was not regarded as beautiful just like a lady who wants to appear younger. As reported by Rhodes (2006), in Greek, the foundation of beauty was in the ability of a person to live his own time and not to try to live like you do not want to accept your status.

Historical Perspective of Beauty

The preference of people to have beautiful faces over ugly faces starts very early in life (Rhodes, 2006). Young girls and boys begin to understand what beauty is and start admiring those who appear beautiful. The standards of attractiveness are similar across most of the cultures and genders, according to Rhodes, (2006). Some researchers argue that symmetry forms an important part of beauty to any person. Therefore, people who appear like they have bodies which are not symmetrical are likely to be classified as ugly people while those who are symmetrical in shape are said to be beautiful. The history of beauty dates back to the architecture of ancient Greek where beauty was based on the view of proportion and symmetry. The architectures designed houses which were symmetrical and everything appeared proportion with the rest of the things in the house. The architecture had discovered that things which are symmetrical were more likely to be viewed by people as being beautiful while those which were not were regarded as ugly. The architecture used this believe and started constructing houses which would be very pleasing to the people. This is what made the architectures design houses which were considered as very beautiful even today.

According to Rhodes (2006), human beauty has been based on both physical and internal beauty whether by community consensus or individuals. The inner beauty is further classified in to the following psychological factors: grace, intelligence, politeness, elegance, congruence, charisma, integrity and personality. This is regarded as the most important form of beauty in the society. a person who is very intelligent but physically appearing bad might be regarded as beautiful while another one who appears very beautiful outside but with a questionable character might not be regarded as beautiful. This illustrates the importance of the psychological factors in the definition of beauty on the communal perspective. The physical perspective of beauty involves the following: First, a health person is regarded as beautiful. This means an individual who appears like he or she is physically fit will be said she is beautiful compared to another who appears to be in bad health. A person with a facial symmetry will be regarded as beautiful as naturally people would like someone who appears symmetrically made. Other factors which mater on a physical perspective includes youthfulness, complexion and averageness.

Rhodes, (2006) further argues that our societies have given a lot of praise for to the youthful appearances and youthful actions. This has created a notion that being youth is being beautiful and thus made many people to start acting as if they were youth. These include the visiting of joints which are visited by the young people, the use of clothes used by the young people and the joining of groups of young people. People who want the society to appreciate them as beautiful have a tendency to behave like young people, standing out prominently as a person who is old but with youthful characters. Depending on the setting of the society, these people may either be praised or cursed.

For a long time, many societies have used skin color to determine if someone is beautiful or not. In some cases, people who have light skin are regarded as beautiful while those with dark skin are regarded as ugly. This is more common in the African societies whereby people born with a light skin will have an advantage over the rest of the people. Because everyone wants to be regarded as beautiful, the temptation of young girls who are black to bleach themselves is quite high. Most girls will apply steroids so that their skin can become thin and lighter than they were before. Although the person may appear beautiful, there consequences for use of such medications to change ones color. The person will become exposed to the direct sunrays thus making her be predisposed to skin cancers including squamous cell carcinoma. Others undergo plastic surgery to change their color and this predisposes them to the risk associated with surgery and the change in the skin color (Leroi, 2003).

In agreement with Rhodes (2006), Leroi, (2003) argues to the effect that this is the characteristic of an individual to appear like all the body parts are of the right size. The ability of the different parts of the body to be in harmony is very essential in the determination of beauty. People have realized this and they undergo plastic surgeries to correct deformities which make some of their organs appear either small or large. Averageness is also considered when people visit the gym. Their main objective is to trim the sizes of their body so that it appears proportional. If a person has a large abdomen, visiting the gym will ensure that the abdomen is reduced to the appropriate size so that her body appears average. They want to make the abdomen be in the right size like the rest of the organs. Gyms are gaining popularity as people start being sensitive to their looks. Although some people visit the gym for the purpose of maintaining their body physically fit and thus avoid diseases, a vast number of them visit the gym for the purpose of ensuring that all their organs are of the required quality and thus beautiful. It has been shown that there is a constant quest for beauty for all people and most of the people concentrate on the physical element of beauty.

Influence of Media

As argued by Leroi, (2003), the media the media has on the perception of beauty cannot be brushed aside. The televisions carry the pictures and videos of people who are perceived as beautiful. People will tend to make themselves appear like the person in the television or on the magazine since they take that person as the gold standard of beauty. This is the reason as to why when there is a person who is light skinned used in an advert, there will be a vast number of girls who will want to bleach their skin or undergo plastic surgery so as to look like that person. The increased desire of the people to develop beautiful images and bodies has been contributed partly by the media especially in the advertisements. The young people will tend to spend a lot of their time in a beauty parlor so as to look like a person who she saw on the television. The media has actually contributed to eating disorders in the viewers. This is because some of the viewers will tend to cut their diet so that they slim like a model seen on the television. Leroi, (2003) argues that the media has contributed to the use of the unhealthy habits in young ladies as they try to make their bodies appear like the one on the television or magazine.

Leroi, (2003) contends that naturally, human beings are programmed to be perpetual. For them to achieve this quality, they have attraction towards each other, which is for opposite sex so that they can be able to mate and procreate. Males are usually attracted to those ladies who appear beautiful. It has been argued that beauty in a lady is as a result of female hormones. Those ladies who have a lot of female hormones are likely to be more beautiful than their colleagues. Since the female hormones are the ones which determine the fertility of an individual, the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely that she will be beautiful. Males seem to have been conditioned to this naturally. This is because they tend to choose those ladies who appear very beautiful and those with an hour glass appearance, which is associated with high levels of estrogen. It is like the men have been conditioned to select mates depending on their hormonal levels and thus their fertility although they do so unconsciously (Rhodes, 2006).

According to Leroi, (2003), since all the people want to get partners, everyone is busy trying to make herself stand out as the most beautiful. Most of the ladies will do anything to make themselves appear the most beautiful and be recognized by all the men they come across. A research carried out by Carpenter, (1866) showed that the driving factor for most of the ladies to be more beautiful was to standout among the rest of the ladies and thus attract more men to their side. Thus, the issue of getting a mate is considered as the most important driving factor towards the individuals search for beauty.

Beauty is a term which has been put across by several authors as being subjective and not objective. There has been an increase in the number of people who want to change their natural build to acquire a new look which they consider as being more beautiful. Although this may be beneficial to them socially on the short term basis, the people are likely to suffer a lot of consequences in the future. The media can be blamed for the change in attitude about beauty in the people especially in the young people.

People should change their attitude on beauty from the current physical looks to be both internal and physical looks. Beauty comprises of these two components and the leaving out of one and concentrating on another will distort the purpose and the meaning of beauty. The media should try and eliminate the adverts and other pictures and videos which seem to favor certain physical characteristics in regard to beauty. Lastly, people especially young people should desist from trying some things which in short term will make them beautiful but at long term will make them suffer.

It is rare to walk over long distances in an urban centre, especially in the western world, without finding a beauty shop. This is observed due to the fact that most if not all of people seek to have superior looks. Unfortunately, they try to achieve that by using different beauty products that are commercially available. The current obsession with these products is obviously being driven by a formidable force, which contributes to its strength. One thing that seekers of artificial beauty seem to forget is that beauty is natural. According to Aristotle, a famous ancient philosopher, beauty is a gift from God. In this sense, beauty cannot be acquired through individual efforts but is acquired naturally. However, this notion is no longer valuable because people, especially the youth, believe in using additional substances to improve their look.

In the western world, the media have made it a custom to portray beauty differently. Contrary to the traditional belief that beauty lies in the hands of the Beholder, the media have made it appear the other way round. This has made many people become preoccupied with efforts to make other people satisfied with their looks. It is worth remembering that the media is an extremely powerful tool of influencing the society. Therefore, many people are gullible to any misconception by the media about beauty. One of the most conspicuous tools that the media utilizes in doing this is making people feel that their life is controlled by beauty. For instance, for one to secure a job, the outward appearance is highly emphasized in media houses. Although one has to look decent, the aspect of having physical appearance such as on the screen is total misconception. This gives room to the concept of ‘lookism’, prompting people to adapt to what is perceived normal by the society.

The misconceptions of beauty have also found their way in the clothing styles. This has affected young females more as compared to males, although both are greatly affected. The culture of models being the determinants of what is fashionable and what is not is the principal force behind this trend. This implies that when a celebrity designs or appears in public dressed in a certain manner, many young men and women start striving to have the same outfit. Take, for example, the pictures of Christina Hendrix, who is regarded as the sexiest woman in Hollywood, which are in most cases depict a half-naked woman. She puts on scanty clothes, meaning that she is almost naked. Hence, since most people consider that to be beautiful, such clothing styles are adopted by people for the sake of satisfying the craving for becoming likable. In addition, the media have always fuelled shows that promote such dressing modes in the name of beauty. The most popular shows of this nature are branded as dating, reality, or even comedy. Whichever way they are branded, these shows corrupt the mind of many people and change the way they perceive beauty.

Beauty products are advertised on the day-to-day basis all over the world. These products are referred to as cosmetics. They range from skin creams and hair dyes to weight loss pills among many other things. Unfortunately, the media have always contributed to persuading people that these products are of a significant value for their normal existence in the society. This has lead to brainwashing, especially among the youth, who easily fall prey to using these products. One of the reasons why the youth are vulnerable is because standards of beauty have been imposed on them. This means that for one to be considered beautiful or attractive, he or she has to supersede certain beauty levels as presumed by the public. For example, the acceptable body size is presumed to be slender. Therefore, those with larger bodies are assumed to be out of the beauty realms. Affected individuals will always look for personal solutions by opting to use slimming pills in order to achieve the desired body size or weight.

Although product liability is expected to be operational at all times, beauty products have managed to outdo this law. According to the product liability, a manufacturer is liable for prosecution if the products they deal in causes harm to the user. This goes along with the fact that some skin bleaching lotions that are used particularly by young women burn the skin. To make the matter worse, the media advertises these products ignoring their potential to harm the users. Use of such products is witnessed among the African-American citizens who seek to become light skinned. Some of them may choose to use these products for the sake of unifying their presence with that of the whites, given that America is assumed to be a whites’ land.

Advertising techniques act as notable bait, which is being used to trap the youth. For example, some beauty products are advertised using photos of renowned individuals like musicians. This is intended to convince potential users that a certain product will have similar effects on them too. The presence of such images is unavoidably placed in almost every part of the cities, in print and electronic media among other advertising agents. The youth are known to be curious; therefore, most of them are enticed by such illusions and end up purchasing the products and using them in search of beauty. This is terribly wrong, because the eventual outcome is never even near to what they expected. Therefore, this could also be considered an irregularity, since what one buys is not what he or she is told it is; which is done due to the persistent use of false images. The major pillar on which this perceived malpractice is founded is the ignorance of the people. Beauty has been misinterpreted and hybridized to mean something truly different. The youth are the first group to accept these misconceptions and to embrace what the world is dictating.

Unproven myths about beauty have also taken the centre stage in shaping the beauty industry. People have been deluded and made to believe in some dogmas that have no scientific basis. For instance, most young people are convinced that if they are not thin, then they are not beautiful. Others believe that if they do not eat, then they will always lose weight. The western society is preoccupied with such believes, which are not probable. For instance, scientists argue that skipping a meal or two does not mean that one will lose weight. In fact, the body might respond by taking up everything available in response to frequent starvation experience. In return, one grows fatter instead. This may lead to opting for other means of slimming such as use of drugs or excessive exercise, which are both detrimental if not done correctly.

Traditional and modern versions of beauty in western countries are evidently contrasting. Beauty has been redefined to mean ‘satisfying other people rather than oneself’. Unfortunately, the society, especially the youth, have fallen for these redefinitions; thus, they have adapted new methods so as to make them beautiful irrespective of their efficacy in bringing the desired outcomes. In conclusion, the manner in which the western world perceived beauty has changed totally, leading to a similar effect on what people do to be beautiful. This has attracted and allowed the entry of unfair practices, such as illusion advertising. No matter what people do to become beautiful, the fundamental fact about beauty remains that beauty lies in the hands of the Beholder.