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Society and the pursuit of beauty
Essays on beauty and society
Beauty as a social construct
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Plato emphasizes that "human being naturally desires the happiness"(Pg.34). People live for achieving happiness and in every part of their lives they chase happiness. There are many things to make a person happy and humans try to add them in their life frequently. Also beauty can be a significant factor while being happy and it is a complicated subject that has been questioned since the beginning of human being. Many intelligent thinkers try to explain it and assert the importance of beauty in a person's life. According to Heisenberg "beauty is the source of illumination and clarity"(Pg.13). Plato highlights the importance of human beauty while achieving happiness(Pg.23). However, Socrates claims that a good personality is better than any type of beauty and only "the soul of beauty" can make a person happy(Pg.212). There are varied demonstrations about beauty and they can be extended. Yet actually beauty has an essential role while pursuing happiness. Although some believe that it is only “the soul of beauty” that can exactly make people happy rather than apparent, research studies indicate that this is not certainly true because apparently beauty can provide social and psychological privilege and give a chance to find true mate to people, which is directly connected with happiness.
Although some of the people may be concerned that being beautiful does not always create a chance to be satisfied since success is a reflection of beauty and community seem that attractive people are mostly accomplished but some beautiful people are not as powerful as to carry it and allure can be hazardous for them because it causes stress on them(Derner, 1175), it is not always true because beautiful people can easily impress community in order to ...
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http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/socrates/
In the essay “What Meets the Eye”, Daniel Akst explains scientific facts about the beauty of men and women matters to people. He argues that attractive individuals receive attention, great social status, marries, and gets paid more on a job. One can disagree with Akst’s argument because anyone with the skills and knowledge, despite the appearance, can gain a decent relationship and can get paid well. Akst looks at beauty as if it can lead individuals to an amazing and successful life, but he is wrong. Nancy Mairs’ and Alice Walker’s views on beauty are explained internally and through self-confidence. Both women’s and Akst’s arguments on beauty share some similarities and differences in many ways, and an
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
Women are told that in order to get anywhere in life they must constantly worry about their outer appearance. In Jennifer Weiner’s article, “When Can Women Stop Trying to Look Perfect?” she delves deeply into how today’s society women’s worth is based on how they look. Weiner believes that women who do not meet the standards of beauty do not have as many opportunities.
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart” (Kahlil). People focus more on the outward appearance instead of the inward appearance. One’s inward appearance is comprised of their character, values, morals, and the true nature of their heart. On the other hand, the outward appearance is composed of one’s dress and grooming. The inward and outward appearance determines whether or not a person is ugly or beautiful. The choices that we make also define whether or not one is ugly or beautiful; choices made in the past can sometimes be repeated in the future.
Beauty is dangerous, especially when you lack it. In the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, we witness the effects that beauty brings. Specifically the collapse of Pecola Breedlove, due to her belief that she did not hold beauty. The media in the 1940's as well as today imposes standards in which beauty is measured up to; but in reality beauty dwells within us all whether it's visible or not there's beauty in all; that beauty is unworthy if society brands you with the label of being ugly.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
How does this apply in today’s culture? When a woman is outwardly beautiful, she attracts a lot of suitors, many who only care about her appearance. They love her looks and do not care about her heart. Is this her fault? Absolutely not! She may be a beautiful godly woman, but the people she attracts will not always love her the right way. However, if a woman is plain in appearance (or even ugly), she will naturally attract less shallow suitors. These men are MUCH more likely to fall in love with her inward beauty, rather than her outward appearance. All of the conceited men instead follow after more attractive women, blinded by the lust of their
First, one must ponder a couple of questions: who defines beauty in today’s culture and society? Does the mass media industry define beauty? Everywhere one turns in advertisements, commercials, TV shows, movies, magazines, etc. someone is telling us what “beauty” is. The allure of celebrities and the beauty they exude, definitely influences the beauty those in the Western culture strive to be and are attracted too. Television, movies, magazines, advertisements that come from the Western culture have influenced cultures around the world. Due to the high i...
However, we can wonder if the pleasures that derive from necessary natural desires are what actually brings us happiness, since having a family, friends, a good job and doing fun things seem to bring the most joy in life. Plato’s ideas on life are even more radical, since he claims that we should completely take difference from our bodily needs. Therefore it seems that we should only do what is necessary for us to stay a life and solely focus on the mind. Although both ways of dealing with (bodily)pleasure are quite radical and almost impossible to achieve, it does questions if current perceptions of ‘living the good life’ actually leads to what we are trying to achieve, which is commonly described as
Throughout history, beauty has been seen as a value to humans. Beauty practices start as far back as foot binding and continues up to today with cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction. On every billboard, magazine, and commercial citizens are reminded that they are not as physically attractive as they could be and there is a solutions to their problem. In his analysis of beauty, Kant states that beauty is morality. Despite the fact physical beauty is highly valued in society, it is not the driving factor when it comes to determining morality and making ethical judgments. To support this, I will be introducing Aristotle’s virtue ethics and David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature to demonstrate that beauty is independent of virtue and does not influence morality as it is not considered when discussing morality.
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
The concept of “beauty” is something that everyone feels, thinks, or wants, in order to fit society’s standards. In today’s society, we are often faced with the unrealistic ideals of what beauty is. Due to society’s constant portraying of unrealistic beauty ideals, this reinforces a negative influence upon women’s idea of beauty, resulting in a negative impact in their confidence, and self-esteem, which leads to others, specifically women to be manipulated by society’s corrupted outlook of what beauty is. To add onto this issue, we are constantly surrounded by sources of this negative influence in our everyday lives, including magazines, television, advertisements, and so on. However, women specifically, are more prone to be victims of this negative effect, thus will have more pressure upon themselves to match society’s idea of “beauty,” which includes unrealistic and sometimes unattainable beauty standards. Women especially, can sometimes be so deeply manipulated by society’s unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful, such that it’s possible that they don’t even realize it Furthermore, in order to do so, women often will receive negative impacts rather than positive impacts, such as in their confidence and self-esteem. The negative effects of society’s beauty ideals also lead women to have an overall corrupted idea of what is “beautiful.” Society creates unrealistic ideals of beauty towards women through the media by creating an unrealistic image of what women should look like to be considered beautiful. Men negatively affect women’s idea of beauty by using the unrealistic beauty standards exposed by society which further pressures women to try to fit society’s idea of what is beautiful. Beauty pageants negatively affect women’s ov...
The first and most popular interpretation of the word “beauty” is seen as outer appearance. On that perception, “beauty” and “attractiveness” have a significant difference even though they are word cousins. A beautiful looking person may be attractive, but an attractive person does not need to be beautiful. One person may look at someone beautiful with “deep satisfaction in the mind” because that person admire how beautiful the other is. Someone, who is not striking beautiful looking, may attract other people just by how they express their personalities. The others who are attracted to that particular individual because they feel connected, happy, and comfortable around that person. While attractiveness may result in long lasting relationships, physical beauty only brings short term pleasant feeling in the mind. Yet, beauty as outer look conquers many societies around the world. For instance, American culture tends to value the way a person look. That value is transmitted from one generation to the next by families, peers, and media in the process of enculturation. Young children come to adapt ways of thinking and feeling about physical beauty from their families first. The show