Dong Wook Im
Seminar
Professor Chocos
4/01/2012
Essay 2
True meaning of beauty
It is obvious that all people want to be beautiful. Being young and beautiful
became an ideal to all the generations. When people look at the advertisements, all
expensive products such as branded clothes or watches are fancy and luxurious. Also,
people want to look like models on the advertisements and want to be like them, because
they look beautiful. However, the beauty is in the eyes and inner value that our outer
appearance beauty is not real. In our eyes we have our respect way to see others and love.
Our heart to understand others and that creates the society beautiful. Regardless the
generations, old people and young children become friends and share their true beauty.
This is what the society has to be like and people should realize the true meaning of
beauty. Sharon Curtin, a former nurse and published an article ‘Aging in the Land of the
Young,’ himself had experienced ideal society that “Grandparents were an integral and
important part of the family and of the community” (Curtin page 274 paragraph 10).
However, he describes the modern society how old people are separated among
youngsters. Frustratingly the false beauty that people are pursuing is destroying the
society by making wall between old and young, and impacting young people’s life
negatively by losing their self esteem and self satisfaction.
The Media and television highly affect young people today. Basically, the most
popular television stars are young. The idols came up and it means young and ideal
people who are praised by people who want to be just like one of those idols on television.
By looking at idols on media, youngsters start to hate their own appearance. They are
losing self-esteem. This is what the modern society impact to young people that they
began to destroy their uniqueness. All people are built in different way, built in their own
likeness, and built their own image. To those youngster, the beauty means handsome and
pretty with luxurious items. The beauty is somewhat related to happiness, but if people
wear Luis Viton clothes and Rolex watch, they would be satisfied but not really happy. In
South Korea, same problem is occurring among young people. In high school, girls
started shortening their skirts to exposure their legs, and tightening their uniforms to
highlight their body shape to be seen sexy. Furthermore, students make up their face like
famous idols. Beauty has also different stages by age. Young people look beautiful as
they are without any make up and with innocence. On the other hand, boys in high school
think smoking cigarette and physical violence is being cool. Their deviated notion is built
by watching movies, which glorifying and beautifying the life of gangsters.
In addition, as technology of science developed, more than half of women plan to
have plastic surgery. They could have desire to be beautiful but becoming beautiful by
fixing their face is not morally right. The individual uniqueness is fading as time goes. On
the popular street in Korea, people have all similar face that all women have pretty and
tall noses with thin and circular face. Lucy Grealy, an award-winning poet and writer of
‘Mirrors,’ had similar situation that she needed surgery. She said that people are obsessed
with the outer beauty. “How do I look?” (Grealy, Mirrors). This question is what all
people ask them every time before they go outside. Grealy shows how people are
obsessed with their image in the world.
Edward Iwata, a journalist and writer of ‘Personal Appearance: Should I Change
the Way I Look?’ also has experience of not appreciating his look. Because he was not
white, Iwata had difficulty with mingling in white society. He says “It’s a taboo subject,
but true: many people of color have, at some point in their youths, imagined themselves
as Caucasian, the Nordic or Western European ideal” (Iwata page 17, paragraph 10). He
described what majority youngster’s desire to be looked ideal.
I would soon discover I was different from white people.
A cosmetic surgeon was about to cut into my face that gray winter morning.
Hot lights glared as I lay on the operating table.
Surgical tools clattered in containers, sharp metal against metal.
I felt like a lamb awaiting a shearing of its wool (Iwata page 65).
Himself, Iwata seriously obsessed with outer beauty and he did not appreciate his
look. He decided to have surgery because he believed that Asian people are not beautiful.
Likewise, the media or the world has negatively impacted to youth and the media gives
youngsters an idea of false beauty. The true beauty of young people is their passion to
pursue their dreams with inundating energy that cannot be found from old people.
Truly old people have not much energy to achieve what they want and they do not
have that much time also. That does not define old people as useless. The reason that old
people are treated as outsider from the society is that the media tells only young and new
are beautiful. The idea given by media gradually made a wall between old people and
younger people. The experience of Sharon Curtin shows how old people are seen by
others.
…Whenever a youngster would run over to the “wrong” side,
chasing a ball or just trying to cover all the available space,
the old people would lean forward and smile. But before any communication could be established,
the mother would come over, murmuring embarrassed apologies,
and take her child back to the “young” side. (Curtin, page 274 paragraph 8).
What Curtin observed is that society is taking away the chance to unify among
different ages. The reason that mother did not feel comfortable with communicating with
old people is the prejudice, which old people are not normal and not beautiful that would
harmful for the kids. Because of false beauty minded, old people have to be mistreated by
the society. Curtin says "A kind of cultural attitude makes me bigoted against old people;
it makes me think young is best; it makes me treat old people like outcasts"(pg.2 par.7).
This unable to uniform is not beauty that people have to pursue. Does people have right
to judge people’s beauty by outer appearance and bigot against people who are not
‘beautiful?’ Just by staring at other people with inappropriate manner, they get
discouraged and lose their confidence. In South Korea, there was one girl who does not
look pretty. However, her picture was issued on the Internet and people made terrible
comments on her picture. The result was cruel that she ended up suicide. People have to
very careful on judging others’ appearance, or otherwise people should not judge others.
The answer to the question above is no. As people have individual characteristic,
people all have different stages and different values that are beautiful. The passion of
young people and their challenges to their goal, not having prejudice on each other and
respecting each others, breaking certain wall between ages and generations, and love are
the definition of beauty. The beauty is not something that people can recognize by the
eyes, but through the heart. Also, the beauty is not something that people can create but
its something that people born with. In other words, people have to preserve their inner
beauty and love way they are. It is almost impossible to change the society that has been
making false beauty, but people need to start change their notion to pursue the true beauty
that embrace the race and other cultural backgrounds.
Bibliography
Sharon Curtin – Aging in the Land of the Young
Lucy Grealy – Mirrors
Edward Iwata – Personal Appearance: Should I change the Way I Look?