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Morgan Dickerson
English 1020
21 March 2012
It is cliché for one to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in this day
and age this statement is very true. People coming from every corner of the world define
beauty in so many ways. Some may think beauty can be found in everything while others
believe beauty is only found on special occasions. Beauty has evolved drastically over
time, from centuries ago to present day. There are many different views on beauty from
the definition and history of beauty and cosmetics to the effects of the media, plastic
surgery, peer pressure and eating disorders; beauty is something that will never be agreed
upon amongst people of the world.
What is the definition of beauty? According to Dictionary.com the definition of
beauty is, “The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep
satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color,
sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in
which high spiritual qualities are manifest).” Personally, I believe this is the most
accurate definition of beauty because it covers all aspects of beauty; physical, internal
and spiritual. It seems in the twenty first century many people have forgotten about the
internal and spiritual segments of beauty. We have become a visual people, everything is
judged on its appearance. We tend to associate one’s physical appearance with his or her
personality, for example, when we see someone who is physically attractive or pleases
the eye we sometimes assume the individual is nicer or friendlier than someone who is
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less attractive. This is not a reasonable assumption we should be making; we are too
quick to judge someone solely based on their appearance while we should be taking the
time to personally engage with one another. Roger Scruton, the author of Beauty: A Very
Short Introduction states, “Moreover, since it is in the nature of tastes to differ, how can a
standard erected by one person's taste be used to cast judgment on another's? How, for
example, can we pretend that one type of music is superior or inferior to another when
comparative judgment merely reflect the taste of the one who makes them?”
(preface). Scruton states that no one person or group of people have the right to judge
what is or is not beautiful. One cannot judge something as beautiful or not if there is no
knowledge of another. Beauty is not just skin deep; it goes deeper into the mind and
spirit.
The history of beauty and cosmetics dates back centuries ago. Before scientists
and dermatologists created cosmetics, women took the production of cosmetics into their
own hands. They used objects found around town that they mixed together to create face
powders, lipsticks and eyeliners to beautify themselves. Ancient Romans were famous
for creating makeup early in history, “The first application of Roman Make-up consisted
of a layer of foundation. This could sometimes be dangerous as the wealthy often favored
a white lead paste, which was poisonous. Chalk and the orris root was also used to make
foundation pastes and a mixture of fat, starch and tin oxide was also used.” (“Roman
Make-up”). It is amazing that women would go to such extremes and put themselves in
harms way just to appear slightly more attractive. Women will go to great lengths for
their beauty. They will strive to perfection until it’s gotten so out of hand there’s no
turning back.
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It is fascinating to look back at the evolution of beauty and fashion. Fashion has
gone in every which way and it is nearly impossible to predict what the fashion trends
will be in the next decade. Centuries ago, women dressed modestly, they covered
themselves from neck to wrists to ankles. The only skin showing was their face. It was
taboo for a woman to expose too much skin in public. Now-a-days women are baring
almost everything out in public. It seems as decades pass, Americans are wearing less and
less clothing. At some point we are going to have to start putting clothes back on. Many
years ago women were considered upper class if they dressed extravagantly, yet still
completely covered. They also wanted to appear plump, which symbolizes wealth, and
they also wished to appear pale. Over the years this has drastically changed, now, women
are spray-painting their bodies orange and brown trying to get as tan as possible, and
taking off nearly all of their clothes and appearing thinner and thinner.
In this century people are shallower than ever before. The second we see someone
we make some kind of judgment based purely off his or her physical appearance. This is
something that we do in our subconscious mind. A quote from the article Definition
Essay on Beauty says, “When we see a person for the first time, we always start with
assessment of his/her physical beauty. Appearance is not a reliable guide to qualities that
a person may have, because we cannot catch them with our eyes. Maybe that is the reason
why sometimes parents are against friends of their children or against a person their child
wants to marry. They see only skin-deep beauty, but appearance is deceptive, whereas
their child knows this person from different sides and can judge him or her fairly.”
(“Definition Essay on Beauty”). Americans are too fast to judge someone at first glance.
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Maybe we should try getting to know someone or having even just a small conversation
with that person to get a small feel for whom that person really is.
Women have been going to extremes to amplify their beauty by mixing their own
cosmetics (sometimes dangerous), but more recently women have been seeing plastic
surgeons and going under the knife. Plastic surgery is quite possibly the most extreme
measure women have ever taken to beautify themselves. Every woman has their own
image of perfection in their head and some women are more willing to risk their lives and
body to be their own definition of perfect.
The effects of the media seem to affect Americans more than any other influence
because the images shown are celebrities that have been beautified by a whole team of
makeup artists and hairstylists and then are photo shopped on computers before the
images are released to the public; therefore giving Americans an unrealistic perception of
celebrities in the media. It is just a day in the life of celebrities to stop by the doctor’s
office and get a quick injection of Botox here and there. Celebrities have their faces
pulled so tightly back they look like scary monsters and clowns. Compared to the rest of
society and the way typical human beings look, celebrities have definitely raised the bar.
They are getting closer and closer to the object of perfection. They have fake breasts,
fake buttocks, fake noses, fake everything. When a person hears that their favorite
celebrities have gone under the knife or have gotten injections, people are more likely to
go under those procedures as well because they look up to those celebrities as role
models and will do anything these celebrities do.
Although celebrities are adding more to themselves such as implants, they are
also taking away so much more. Eating disorders are the norm in Hollywood. Women are
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so scary skinny walking around that they look like twigs. Again, because Americans see
the images of all these celebrities being extremely and unhealthily skinny, Americans
seem to be following in their footsteps. The amount of influence celebrities have on
Americans is astronomical. Celebrities such as Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Paris
Hilton are extremely skinny. All three of these celebrities are very popular celebrities
with several thousand if not millions of fans, and these three have also been reported to
have or have had eating disorders such as anorexia. This is not role model behavior and
these women should not be on the covers of magazines with such unhealthy bodies, they
are representing a horrible lifestyle that we do not want Americans engaging in. Women
need to learn that beauty is not skin deep. It is what’s inside a person’s heart that makes
them beautiful.
I have personally known a few people with eating disorders. It is incredibly sad to
listen to these people tear themselves down and compare themselves to so many other
people. It is physically impossible for some people to be any smaller than the size and
structure of their bones. Some women complain that they want to be a size 0 or 1, but
based on their body structure, it would be impossible for that person to ever be a size 0 or
1 unless they were to remove ribs or other bones, which is also highly dangerous. One of
my personal friends obsesses about everything she eats, sometimes she eats a lot and
purges afterwards in secret, or she will hardly eat anything at all. Both are not healthy in
any way and will not help her lose weight, but she has become so obsessed with it that
she has even started believing that what she is doing is working.
Another extremely influential factor in beauty is the pressure from one’s peers.
Peer pressure seems to be at its peak throughout the teen years of one’s life, such as high
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school life. In high school there are many types of kids wandering the halls; fat kids,
skinny kids, tall kids, short kids, pretty kids, and ugly kids. Kids at this age are known to
be the most brutal and ruthless. The “cool” or “popular” kids are usually the ones that are
the most attractive and the “uncool” students tend to be the less attractive. The “uncool”
kids are constantly striving to be cooler by wearing cooler clothing brands or styling their
hair the “cool” way, anything that will amplify their beauty to make them seem more
acceptable to their peers. Not only are teens affected by peer pressure. People of all ages
feel the pressure from their peers; from middle aged men competing against their friends
about who has more hair on their head to older women competing against their peers
about who has the least amount of wrinkles. It seems silly, but this is reality and physical
appearance will always be judged and compared to the rest of Americans.
In conclusion, Americans need to start seeing people for who they really are on
the inside; their mind and soul, rather than just their outward appearance. We need to
learn how to self love and realize that all the celebrities that are seen in the media are
made up dolls that are even still photo shopped on the computer to be made into almost a
perfect cartoon like human being. Therefore, self-harming and extreme plastic surgery
are not the solution to being beautiful. Americans need to fix their inner beauty and stop
worrying so much on their physical appearance.
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Work Cited
"Beauty." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beauty>.
"Definition Essay on Beauty." . EvolutionWriters.com. Web. 23 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.evolutionwriters.com/samples_and_examples/definition-essay-onbeauty.html>.
"Roman Make-up." Roman Colosseum. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://www.romancolosseum.info/roman-clothing/roman-make-up.htm>.
Scruton, Roger. Beauty: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford [England: Oxford UP, 2011.
Print.
Willett, Julie A. The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA:
Greenwood, 2010. Print.