Beauty is skin deep

Abstract

Beauty is skin deep; refers to the outward beauty of a person. We know and realize that a person can be beautiful on the inside. A person witha beautiful mind, we can say him/her as a nice person. But when we listen something beautiful we generally indicate that something outward appearance. So beauty is skin deep; this statement tries to highlight that person’s outward appearance counts for nothing but it is what lies beneath the skin, the real person himself or herself is what actually matters.

AndI believethe underlying message of this saying is true. In my research I tried to justify this statement by applying different theories and real life examples. I tried to see what people think about the definition, dimension and criteria of beauty and also tried to know how they perceive it in their lives. After doing research I have confirmed that this statement is justified ethically because most people had gone with my opinion.

Introduction & background

Beauty means a person whose physical appearance would be appealing to a majority of people. Many people think that a person is only beautiful by their outside appearance such as weight, height, hair length, or face complexion. They do not pay attention to the important characteristics that make and mode a person. They feel that beauty is based on appearance alone. But on the other hand think differently. But some people think beauty is all about what is on a person’s inside.

Inside beauty consists of the person’s love for themselves, their love for others, and lastly theirpersonality. All these things create a beautiful person. In short beauty is-

1. A combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight.
2. A combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense.

Quotes about beauty- Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all. Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. (John Keats) Beauty is but a flower Which wrinkles will devour. (Thomas Nashe) There is no cosmetic for beauty likehappiness. Marguerite Gardiner) All the beauty of the world, ’tis but skin deep. ( Ralph Venning) From a study we found that

• Seventy seven percent strongly agree that beauty can be achieved through attitude and other attributes that have nothing to do with physical appearance.
• Eighty-nine percent strongly agree that women can be beautiful at any age.
• Eighty-five percent state that every woman has something about her that is beauty.

This study shows that two thirds of women strongly agree that physical attractiveness is about how one looks, whereas beauty includes much more of who a person is.

Women rate happiness, confidence, dignity, and humor as powerful components of beauty, along with the more tradition attributes of physical appearance, body weight and shape, sense of style etc. Researchers have found that good looking students get higher grades from their teachers than students with an ordinary appearance.

Furthermore, attractive patients receive more personalized care from theirdoctor.

Studies have even shown that handsome criminals receive lighter sentences than less attractive convicts. Studies among teens and young adults, such as those of psychiatrist and self-help author show that skin conditions have a profound effect on social behavior and opportunity. How muchmoneya person earns may also be influenced by physical beauty. One study found that people low in physical attractiveness earn 5 to 10 percent less than ordinary looking people, who in turn earn 3 to 8 percent less than those who are considered good looking.

Discriminationagainst others based on their appearance is known as lookism. The topic is too some extent controversial. Because some people say yes beauty is only skin deep nothing much more. On the hand, some say that although beauty is skin deep but it has much more significance in our lives. Their opinion is beautiful people are always treated beautifully. So they become compassionate individuals who treated others well. Some people give their opinion neutrally. There are some opinions of people based on some secondary sources.

Agreeing to the statement some said if someone looks beautiful on the outside that does not mean they will also beautiful inside also, they might be so despicable in the inside, or if someone is very ugly, may be nice in the inside. It is like the saying: Don’t judge a book by its cover, instead, don’t judge a person by its cover. Some people directly and clearly said that the only thing should matter about a person is their personality. Personality is the main factor which makes a person beautifully.

Image Survey Reveals: Perception is reality when it comes to teenagers. PRNewswire. On the contrary to the statement Socialpsychologydisagrees. It says that beautiful people actually are friendlier and nice. It is known that we subconsciously consign positive features such as friendliness and intelligence to beautiful people. Generally people treat these people nicer than treat others. So the result of having been beautiful and therefore nicely treated children they develop a positive self-image and they become mature, thoughtful, compassionate individuals who can easily treat others well as they have learned others treat them.

In this way this beautiful people become friendlier and nicer than less beautiful people. Some people disagree with the above thinking. They think that people who experience little difficulty he/she can often become incredibly uncharitable, self-centered individuals. Some people gave their opinion in the light of their experience. They said if someone look factually, it can be noticed that at school when there is done a drama topics on this, the words beauty is only skin deep, it implies that beauty cannot be on the inside. So if someone has beauty, it will only be on the inside.

But if someone is not beautiful on the outside, then he/she can’t be beautiful on the inside either as well. Methodology For my research purpose, I have divided the data collection procedure into two parts. I have used primary data to get the real picture of peoples mind. I have also used secondary data to collect various types of information about my topic. Primary data I did a survey on some 20 people where there were men and women of different ages, income and different educational background. For doing this I designed a questionnaire with different types of question which eventually helped me to answer of my research questions.

Secondary data For my secondary research, I used web blogs, online articles, and online magazines, different theories, abstract of research findings etc. Data presentation and analysis according to my research In my research I have tried to define beauty, its elements or characteristics and try to find out how different types of people perceive beauty. To the end I had been addressing the following research questions according to the Bangladeshi people. What is beauty? Majority agreed with the 2nd question’s statement.

They said that someone is really good looking but total jerk and a person with ugly looking but super nice, and then they would choose the ugly person who had a great personality. According to them the criteria to judge one’s beauty should be his/her personality. Their logic was beauty is something which goes over time but one’s inner beauty is something which does not go over time. They think that beauty is something which includes happiness, confidence, dignity and humor. Few people went with the option c. According to them physical appearance is the first thing to see than the other options can be realized slowly over time.

So they choose physical appearance as beauty. Beauty can gain genetically or not. Some people agreed with this statement and some did not. Some said that as beauty is the mixture of personality, humor, behavior, propereducationand lastly the physical appearance so most of these cannot gain by genetically. People have to achieve those. On the hand some people said it can be gained genetically like height, complexion etc. How can anyone value the beauty or determination of the value of beauty? There are some interesting opinions which I have got.

According to some people’s opinion especially male’s to marry or to make a relationship they first see at the physical appearance of women. Few people said that physically beautiful persons are self-worth; they think they are prince or princess and deserve to be universally treated better than anyone else. Sometimes they believe they have the right to treat others like dirt. So according to them most physically beautiful persons are bad in relationship. Some people said that most beautiful people are good in their relationship as they are treated well by others in their lives so they also learn to treat others properly.

Some people of my survey responded neutrally as they choose may be! According to some people they want to marry someone who has all the criteria in the person. Some people said personality is very important as a good personality holding person can be understanding, friendly, compromising which is very important to stay together. They believe that outward beauty might be disturbing when he/she cannot do compromise or not be understanding. Among twenty peoples, four peoples said that they got preference sometimes like they easily got attention in class from the opposite sex.

Seven peoples said that they never got this type of preference. Nine peoples said that they are not sure about this matter. Eight peoples said that they got refused by others but they are not sure for which reasons. Four peoples said that they refused others for this reasons. And the rest of the people said no, they did not refuse other’s proposal or did not get refused by other for this reason. Beauty is skin deep- agree or disagree. Majority agreed with this statement. Their logic was beauty is something which comes first in front of someone.

So for sometimes it carries some significance but ultimate beauty is the inner thing which never goes with time. They said outward beauty is superficial thing. But some people choose the third option. They said that beauty is something that depends in the eye of the beholder.

Different theories

Beauty is skin deep- this phrase can also be justified by some ethical theories. Ethical theories are the rules and principles that determine right and wrong for any given situation. And the normative ethical theory is something which proposes to prescribe the morally correct way of acting.

Here, Beauty refers the inner beautifulness of a person which refers to the behavior, dignity, proper education, confidence, humor, inner happiness, faith etc. Good behavior, self-confidence, good sense of humor, respectto others, truthfulness, faith, good education makes a person beautiful and this beauty comes through the way of morality. If there were no ethical and moral issues in our lives, then what is right and what is wrong we could not understand and could not identify who is good and who is bad. Ethical theories have given that guideline which differentiates between right and wrong.

A person has morality and ethics cannot do whatever he wants, he maintains all his relationships properly, his ethics always obstacle him to do wrong things. In thus way a person with ethics become a beautiful person.

Real life examples

From my experience I can say that beauty is only skin deep. My mother is not a beautiful woman but my father loves her a lot and they lead their life happily together. I think and can realize that it’s not the beauty rather than simplicity, understanding, sacrificing, and intelligence are most important issues which make them happy in their married life.

I can recall some of my relatives who divorced. My maternal cousin, married his girlfriend who was very beautiful lady, but they divorced after highly three months of their married life. I surprised how they took the decision, how they lose their love to each other… Now I am going to tell one of my friends name Siddiquea who is black and fat also. But she is the nicest person I have ever seen. She is polite, intelligent, reliable, friendly, truthful person. Every person of her known likes her a lot. She is the most respectful person to them.

Whenever i see her, I see a smiley face and I surprise how she could hold it all the times. And I can say that beauty is only skin deep Lastly I can strongly say beauty is skin deep when I turn into my personal life and see my beloved person who always gives me this realization.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, if we think for a while about the beauty and hear from someone that you are beautiful then we must fall in confusion that is he/she indicates it as inner beauty or outward appearance. Mass media and modernculturehave snatched the authentic and proper definition of beauty.

Beauty is defined by God and God alone. He sets the standard for beauty and gives us clues throughout Scripture as to what defines a beautiful woman. But unfortunately many people cannot get the key component which is faith. It determines a person’s happiness, confidence, humor and dignity. It is just as the Proverbs 31 passage concludes, “ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a women who fears the Lord is to be praised” (prov. 31: 30). Through the research it is found that people believe in one’s inner beauty and it is the main quality of someone.

But they also mentioned that outward looking or physical appearance is getting first priority in all the sectors in our lives as outward beauty comes first in front of people first and then his/her inner qualities. Finally they also said that an ugly people can become a nice and beautiful person to others when he/she has good qualities because those good qualities make him/her extraordinary and respectful person to others.

Reference

1. Begley, S. (2009). The link between beauty and grades” Newsweek.
2. Courtney, V. (2008) “ Focus on thefamily”. “ What is Beauty? ” B Publishing Group.
3. Lorenz, K. (2005). ” Do pretty people earn more? ” CNN News, Time Warner.
4. Coast, P. (2009). Image Survey Reveals: Perception is reality when it comes to teenagers. PRNewswire.
5. John Keats, Poems (1820), ” Ode on a Grecian Urn”, last lines.
6. Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Desultory Thoughts and Reflections (1839), p. 90.
7. Ralph Venning, Orthodoxe Paradoxes (Third Edition, 1650), The Triumph of Assurance, p. 41.