Beauty
When we think of the word beauty when related to a person, it conjures up an image of a good looking, healthy and fit individual who obviously takes great care of their appearance.
What do we expect to see when we imagine a beautiful person?
If it is a woman, the visual image is of a slender body with all the curves in the right places, a pretty face made outwardly more so with the careful use of makeup, nicely styled hair and wearing fashionable clothes shown off with a great posture and gliding movement.
If it is a man, the visual image is of a moderately muscular, tall body, a clean shaven face, stylish hair and also wearing fashionable clothes shown off with a great posture and air of strength, composure and confidence.
At least these are the descriptions expected from the likes of fashion magazines and an industry that makes a serious amount of money from selling the aforementioned cosmetics, clothing and personal grooming paraphernalia.
What should we really see when gazing upon a ″so-called″ beautiful person?
Skin Deep Beauty
Stepping back from the pressure exerted by the fashion and beauty industries, what we should really see, in my humble opinion, is a genuinely nice, amiable and compassionate person.
The person should still have the outward appearance of having taken time to look after themselves in terms of health, fitness and to an extent, dress sense. However, more importantly, they should be a good person on the inside.
Why do I state that?
Well, while not everybody can pick up on that certain vibe a truly good person radiates, many people can actually sense whether a person is inherently good and that usually translates to some outward signs. What are these signs?
Beauty from Within
A person with a good heart tends to have an outward appearance of someone kind and gentle, with a genuine smile and that smile echoed in their eyes.
A good heart has a profound effect on the external body. It shows in the way a person holds themselves, how they act and who they attract to them.
It shows in their face, with a kind expression that makes them instantly likeable.
On the contrary, an inwardly disagreeable person will display some outward tells that people can pick up on. Such as a harder facial expression, and eyes that do not smile when the lips do.
It doesn't take too much practice when people watching to learn to see the difference.
Enhancing Beauty
For the most part, the beauty industry focuses most of its energy on women because women are their biggest and best customers.
The reason for this is historic, going back centuries when a woman needed to attract a man for marriage and stability. The best way to do that was to give the outward appearance of being attractive and desirable.
Enhancing natural physical beauty was and still is done by the application of compounds to the face that we call makeup. It is used to cover up skin blemishes while highlighting and accentuating areas that can be made to look more prominent and therefore more attractive.
By accentuating the cheekbones, reddening the lips, smoothing the forehead and highlighting the eyes, a woman can transform her face to look stunning. Of course, overuse of makeup can have the opposite effect!
Men are far less represented by the beauty industry, yet there are many products marketed especially for guys to make them look good and more desirable to a potential partner.
Summary
In all cases, the marketing of beauty products to women and men is big business and continues to grow year on year.
Of course, it doesn't need a bundle of cosmetics unless you need to fake a beautiful face or cover up something you would rather not show off to the world. After all the face is the only part of the human anatomy that is (almost) never covered by clothing, at least in Western civilisation.
Creating an attractive body is not so easy, as it takes physical exercise and healthy diet to produce the body beautiful, at least to the critical heights that certain fashion metrics demand. For most people, that can all be happily ignored by aiming for a moderately fit looking body that is as healthy on the inside as it is attractive on the outside.
Beauty may indeed be most especially identified in the eye of the beholder and what constitutes a beautiful person for one individual may not necessarily be the same for another.
Latest Posts
Please see below for the list of latest article titles posted in this category: