“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, is a very famous quote by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. Martin, Gary. ("Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder." Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder. The Phrase Finder, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014) This quote means that many different people see beauty in their own way. Beauty can be found in many different forms such as personal appearance, nature, personality, art and architecture. Modern societal values and those of the ancient Greeks hold both similar and different ideals of beauty. Today we value beauty most often as hair, body shape, money, and face. Ancient Greeks valued beauty as a sum of parts formed into a coherent whole with symmetry, harmony,and proportion as the key elements. (Sartwell,Beach) We can see the ancient Greeks ideal of beauty given physical form through their statues, architecture, and paintings. Women are the major focus in terms of the physical display of the ideal beauty. In today’s modern world women just go out and get plastic surgery to correct perceived physical faults, dye their hair to the desired color, or artificially tan to get a darker skin color. However, back in ancient Greece women would stay inside to become paler to retain a lighter skin tone. They used sheep grease for foundation, and like today they would pluck out unwanted hairs to get their natural hair line. (Valentine, LaNae. "Beauty through the Ages | Recapturing Beauty) Each era has their own and different ways to define beauty. There are many different philosophies of beauty in each era because people try to interpret the real meaning of beauty. Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates are three very important figures from ancient Greece whose philosophies on beauty capture the views of that era on beauty. P... ... middle of paper ... ...r current definitions of beauty Today Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines beauty as : 1 : the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : LOVELINESS 2 : a beautiful person or thing; especially : a beautiful woman 3 : a particularly graceful, ornamental, or excellent quality 4 : a brilliant, extreme, or egregious example or instance One can clearly see the classic Hellenic elements of beauty such as purity, the value of the whole impact of a person or thing that provides pleasure to the senses, the quality of excellence or goodness. These classic ideals of beauty were first proclaimed by the classic ancient Greek philosophers and the fact they are still found in today’s definition of beauty has proven those concepts to be timeless and eternal.
“The beginning of female art found in this Aphrodite depict her as a slightly overweight, broad-shouldered, wide-hipped figure with rougher textures and harsher lines” (Berz). The Greeks found this so appealing because it looked very similar to themselves in form but because Aphrodite is na...
“The world is full of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than man.” This quote shows that the Greeks valued themselves, but also their intellect in which they know that the world about them is great. The Greeks valued beauty, art, intellect, honor, and truth; the list is long. Some of these values are shown through the story of the Odyssey, which tells of the adventures of Odysseus and his family. In order to understand Greek values and how they are portrayed in Greek society, one must examine how some values are portrayed in the Odyssey: hospitality, intellect, and beauty.
Throughout time, these standards have shifted. In Susan Sontag’s piece, “Women’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?”, she goes into depth within this topic of beauty and how ancient times differ from present day views. In this passage, Sontag discusses the views of beauty in ancient Greece. Within the first few lines of this passage, Sontag states “For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: A kind of excellence.”…”If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a person 's "inside" and "outside," they still expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind.” (1). In times like these, beauty was seen as something that can be on the outside, physical beauty, as well as something on the inside, intelligence or character. Society has come a long way and this ideology of beauty has changed. Nowadays, we tend to focus on the “outer” appearance of someone, and almost completely disregard their “inner” beauty. Throughout this passage, Sontag distinguishes the difference between a handsome man and a beautiful woman. She states, “For the ideal of beauty is administered as a form of self-oppression.” (6). Sontag goes on to discuss this ideology by saying “Women are taught to see their bodies in parts, and to evaluate each part separately.”…” Nothing less than perfection will do.” (6). This statement is valid for present day society. Women are expected to act and look a certain way in order to be physically
The text I am analyzing is a news paper article clip from the 1950’s. At first glance, the article does not look much different from an article you might find in a Cosmopolitan magazine today. Upon further examination, you will see the article is promoting ways for a woman to gain weight for an increased sex appeal rather than how to lose weight. The first image that pops out when looking at this article is a woman seductively posing in a one-piece swimsuit. There is a three-part cartoon next to her of a skinny girl walking on the beach near men stating she is a ‘beanpole’ and has no sex appeal. The cartoon then shows the woman crying and being consoled by another woman, presumably her mother, telling her to try ironized yeast tablets to gain
middle of paper ... ... Then Diotima summed up the object of Love as “the permanent possession of goodness for oneself”. 48. In another aspect, Love’s purpose is to attain immortality.
Love and beauty is another theme that recurs in Greek discussion, especially in Plato’s dialogues. In the Phaedrus and especially the Symposium, Plato discusses the nature of erotic love and give the argument for the ultimately transcendental object of love: Beauty. In both dialogues, Plato presents Socrates as a quintessential philosopher who is a lover of wisdom, and through his great speeches we are able to grasp Platonism and Plato’s view on the interesting theme.
In Crispin Sartwell’s Six Names of Beauty, he discusses the numerous ideas and meanings behind the word beauty, highlighting how it can be taken in an infinite amount of ways, though the way that Sartwell explained “Yapha”, meaning “to glow or bloom” in Hebrew was the explanation of beauty that was most relevant to me as it speaks of the small moments in life that allow us to experience the overall beauty of the world. Sartwell explains that “…a thing, as it were, sheds or exudes its beauty. Beauty is something the beautiful object emits, like a light: a thing is beautiful in virtue of what it gives” (28). As an artist, specific paintings, like “Starry Night” by Van Gogh, for example, is a piece that has it’s own beauty, that emits beauty from within. As it was said, something is found beautiful because it simply is: it is beautiful, in the way that Van Gogh worked his way along the canvas in rushed, frenzied strokes, yet when the rapid strokes blend together, they ultimately produce a piece that is able to emit its own beauty and its own virtue; it must rely upon nothing else but itself.
much value is placed on beauty it is essence is lost and the effects on society can be
This essay is for women who believe their thighs are too big, their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny, or their clothes are outdated. This month's column is for women who believe their life would improve if they could lose 15 pounds; if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite concoction; if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck, etc. This month's column is for women who feel shame or unhappiness when they ponder some part (or all) of their body. In other words, this month's column is for 99.9% of the women reading it!
The idea of the ‘perfect woman’ is one that has been a popular topic of discussion over the past decade. Unreal Celebrity Photoshop Transformations was a video revealed on YouTube and Buzzfeed on January 7th 2014. The purpose was to educate the public on the effects altered photos has on society. Within a matter of one week the video gained over a million views. The argument behind the viral text has many different aspects and angles to view it from. The video argues the damaging effects of altering photos through a logical lens by displaying examples of unnecessary transformations of celebrity photos, grasping an individual’s emotions to understand the psychological toll photos take on young adults in society.
As stated by ‘The Duchess’, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford’s famous quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” As a result, beauty can describe as an inspiring view present in everything that can be seen. To begin, beauty can be viewed in a building as large and extravagant as the white house to the small hometown market or even in the sight of a single flower to a field filled with a million flowers. Also, beauty can be seen in the sunrise over the peaks of the mountains and also in the sunset glowing across a calm lake surrounded by the bright colors of the fall trees. Furthermore, people have physical beauty, which can be found in a person’s features, figure, or complexion. In the poem “Beauty & Dress” by Robert Herrick he explains the beauty he sees in his wife. Herrick states,
Throughout history there have been many claims about what is beautiful and what is not on the face and body. America’s idea of beauty in the past changed many times from the fragileness of the Steel-engraving lady to the voluptuousness of the Greek slave. The ideal beauty in America is not so different from the ideal beauty of cultures around the world and follows many of the traditions practiced throughout history. The widespread of advertisement and technology is something that’s said to be the contributing problem to the ideal women phenomenon, but I believe history and trend plays the bigger role.
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.
Beauty to me is something that is typically visually attractive, but also sensually pleasing. There are a lot of beautiful things that there are to favor, yet I always go back to thinking about nature. I think
Beauty means something different to different kinds of people and cultures. The meaning of beauty is influenced by our environmental surrounding, society, media, peers, culture and experiences. When people think about beauty they think about the physical visual appearance. Actually is “beauty in the eyes of the beholder” (Hungerford, 1878), but perhaps it is more accurate to say that beauty is also in the geography, as cultural ideals of beauty vary drastically by region.