Beauty

[haldir]

how do we define beauty?

 

[minsue]

You remind me of a question that's been nagging me for the past two days, Haldir. It was in an interview with artist Laurie Anderson and I've been chewing on it ever since I read it, though I've yet to be able to answer it - Who taught you what beauty was?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm not touching this one with Richard Nixon's dick.

Someone hasn't been drinking his hemlock.

---Zoot

 

[Black Tulip]

There's only one sensible thing I can contribute. I saw a program on Discovery Channel once about the definition of beauty.

Some psychologist (I think) has done extensive research and it has to do with the symetry of the human face.
Every face a large group of people labelled as beautiful had certain measurements in common.

Don't ask me what they were, but you have to think about the space between the eyes, the relative position of the mouth, the width of the face, things like that.
Based on the findings it's possible to create the perfect face. Checking the theory showed that most famous models and moviestars come very close to this perfection.
They showed this computer schedule that you could use as a transparent cover on top of famous faces. Very interesting.

Guess once who was the first/oldest face that came close?
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Nefertiti

Now, I am wondering about racial characteristics. Not sure about that. I can't remember if they mentioned them or what.

 

[Op_Cit]

I first saw beauty many years ago and it stunned me so deeply that I've almost never used that word again ("beauty"). At the time, I was ashamed at ever having squandered the term for lesser purposes. For lack of a better word, I still reserve my usage of the word "beauty".

For everybody it's different, for me it is the sum of the whole. Prior to my own epiphany it was simply physical. But that first time when I realized there was a depth of character within people not advertised or displayed, it brought me up short.

 

[Guest]

The first time I saw beauty was when my first baby girl was born. The second time I saw beauty was when my second baby girl was born. I now see it whenever I look at them.

Simply, that is it, for me.

Lou

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

This is a loaded question. I'll come back to this.

No, wait. Beauty is my nieces and nephews and the goodness of my friends' hearts.

 

[English Lady]

I see beauty everywhere.

In a kind action,in a loving embrace, in a derelict building. In the sunset and the rain soaked lead slates of the house over the road.

Isee beauty in my family and my friends.

I see it in words, in books, online. I see it in art, in erotica in something just being "right"

Beauty is that quality that makes you stop. It makes you think, it often creates tears and smiles and silence. Beauty is awe inspiring.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I see beauty everywhere.

In a kind action,in a loving embrace, in a derelict building. In the sunset and the rain soaked lead slates of the house over the road.

Isee beauty in my family and my friends.

I see it in words, in books, online. I see it in art, in erotica in something just being "right"

Beauty is that quality that makes you stop. It makes you think, it often creates tears and smiles and silence. Beauty is awe inspiring.

Beauty is an Erotic English Rose.

 

[English Lady]

Beauty is an Erotic English Rose.

aww shucks.....thank you

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

You've gotta be careful with definitions

Beauty, attractiveness, and sex appeal are not synonymous.

As BT indicated "beauty" can, to a certain extent, be measured and quantified. The ancient Greeks had it down to a formula.

Someone who is not a true "beauty" can still be attractive. I always thought Margaret Mitchell caught the difference with her description of Scarlett O'Hara in the opening to Gone With the Wind.

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a Coast aristocrat of French descent and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father. But it was an arresting face, pointed of chin, square of jaw.

Sex appeal is the most subjective of the terms and can include face and figure symmetry, past experience, and chemistry.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[haldir]

This is not a trick or loaded question.

Just interested in everyone's personal appreciation of beauty.

Not lookin to knife anyone, or make them feel small.

Minsue - holding my new-born kids in my arms taught me about beauty.

I see beauty in just about everything. Mountains, Lochs, good books, poetry, paintings, music, making love - the list is endless.

Please pardon a hick Scotsman for his passions.

 

[Black Tulip]

Funny that. I can be moved by beauty in nature or art, but living people affect me in other ways.

Their appearance can touch me, but seldom because they are beautiful.
I am talking everyday people here, not the glamorous untouchables.

Quite the contrary, I have a thing for the 4-year old kid with the thick glasses.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Beauty is anything that makes you feel good inside.

Some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen have not been pleasing to the eye at all but provided pleasure on levels I'd be hard pressed to explain with words.



~lucky

 

[impressive]

In a person? Altruism. Self-confidence. Generosity. Integrity. Passion. Enthusiasm. Laughter.

 

[Amy Sweet]

Funny that. I can be moved by beauty in nature or art, but living people affect me in other ways.

Their appearance can touch me, but seldom because they are beautiful.
I am talking everyday people here, not the glamorous untouchables.

Quite the contrary, I have a thing for the 4-year old kid with the thick glasses.

I used to work in costomer service.

I found beauty in most people. I find that I am attracted to a very wide variaty of characteristics, and I don't think I have a 'type'

Sometimes I find beauty in the 'realness' of people. I'm not sure exactly how to express that. Not that model beautiful people aren't real, that's not quite what it's about. It's almost impossible to explain. I think it's an artists perception type thing.

I have found a lot of beauty in peoples hands. (Dealing in retail, you have a lot of contact with peoples hands) And I see beauty in the many different skin tones I always see. (I live in a very diverse neighborhood and also near a college town) I've seen beauty in smooth skin and cracked skin, in wrinkles and in taunt, in young and old.

When dealing with people and money, I always make a point to let peoples hands touch mine. (but not force it) For one, people need to be touched (Mother Theresa and Princess Dianna where well known for there willingness to touch the sick and other 'untouchables') and for another, people can become offended if they get the impression that you are trying *not* to touch them.

A tidbit I heard about Donald Trump. He won't shake hands because he thinks it's unsanitary, but he will bend over in the gutter to pick up pennies. I think we can all see where his priorities are. That is not beautiful.

There are a lot of beautiful ladies here. There are many beautiful words here as well. And some beautiful avs, and some beautiful men. And I've heard many of your voices as well, and some of those are quite beautiful as well.


There is also beauty in sadness, beauty in loneliness, even beauty in pain.

Beauty I think, really has to do with the viewers capacity to appreciate it.

 

[Amy Sweet]

In a person? Altruism. Self-confidence. Generosity. Integrity. Passion. Enthusiasm. Laughter.

Altruism is very beautiful.

I won't name names... although I've mentioned it a time or 12 already...

 

[gauchecritic]

Tulip, I think that formula was for anglo-saxon white (although I believe it fits the Indian continent too, they being merely a shade difference)

That piece of 'science' always makes me suspect that they had their answer before they did the research.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

how do we define beauty?

That which is beautiful.

Ah, the wonderful world of dictionary language cop-outs.

On a more serious note, I tend to the more human beauty is an inner quality school of thought.

And visual beauty is a complicated process of descriptions and requires most of all being willing to see it. (Note: thinking mostly of environmental beauty. We only notice how beautiful the sky is when we look up, etc, blahdeblah)

 

[An Awful Cad]

With apologies to Justice Stewart (and the rest of you serious author types)...

I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I'm in it up to my ears

 

[fntguy]

Beauty is...

Of women...

* For some, Beauty is seen with time and for others the very first time "first sight".

* Beauty is the goodness in character that you see in someone, the many good qualities you find in someone which is very much the same as what you beleive in and thats when you think how beautiful that person is.

* Beauty can be found in the very least expected persons even if physically not considered for some. They are lucky who find this beauty!

My definition of Beauty: Beauty is not physical. But Beauty is with every single thing in this world. There is beauty in everything, only Lucky are those who discovers it.

 

[oggbashan]

Physical beauty varies according to cultural norms. The norms change over time and are sometimes influenced by consumer manipulation.

Fashion can be an influence on the perception of beauty. Models that were seen as truly beautiful in the 1950s would not be used on a catwalk today.

If you look at past beauty pageants, especially pre-WWII, you might be surprised at the physical attributes of some of the contestants.

I do not believe there is an absolute definition of physical beauty when applied to humans. Beauty is what you are conditioned to see as beauty. A painter, a sculptor, a photographer can force you to question your conditioning so that you see beauty that you wouldn't have recognised without their interpretation.

If I see and appreciate a brightly coloured flower in a bank of grass would it be any less beautiful if when I look closer I see that it is a discarded sweet wrapper? Or if I see a rainbow in a puddle, is the rainbow less beautiful because I know it is caused by spilt oil?

Beauty tends to be what your society says it is - today. Yesterday's beauty is passé. Tomorrow's has yet to be defined.

Og