Concept of beauty among people

Introduction

The etymology of the word ‘ beautiful’ comes from two sources, one being the word ‘ beauty’, and the other the word ‘ full’. The word beautiful is derived from the word “ beauty” in context with Romantic origins, and the word “ ful” is a suffix for forming adjectives with Germanic origins. Therefore the word “ beauty” is strictly derived from French beauté (early old French spelling biauté), beau which means beautiful in French (which is ultimately from Latin word bellus). The word “ beautiful” is used to describe a good-looking woman in a general way. Beauty can be used to describe both men and women. Men are often stereotyped as tall dark and handsome. Some may like men with beard and some may not.

They are perceived differently by females. It is a characteristic of an idea, animal, object, person, place or thing that provides a perceptual familiarity of preference or satisfaction. An “ ideal beauty” is something which can be admired and praised by people or possesses features widely venerated that attracts audience. Beauty has changed throughout time, various cultures across the globe. Beauty has been described and depicted through pictures and concepts all-pervading our minds. It’s the image, moments and reflection that inspire and represent the most different and amazing appeal of our souls. It’s the moments we feel ourselves. It’s the moments we feel confident and outstanding. It’s the moments we feel booming. The word beauty has a lot of meaning hidden into it that can be thought. social scientists have anticipated that attractiveness is artificial, random, and substantially different across cultures and countries.

Ancient Concept Of Beauty

Every age has been obstructed with the principled concept of beauty with respect to their culture, society and religion. India has an ancient civilization and women have a part of it since the very beginning. Women have always been given a mark of respect of families in indian history. It has progressed and improved within each province because of the evolving religions and social ideas and philosophies. Still the ideas of meeting the requirements to maintain the socially beautiful ways remained the same as women used new methods of makeup, clothing, and jewels.

Beauty has always played a role depicting cultures of different eras. People of various times are known because of their beauty and the way they depict and personify themselves amongst people for example people living in pre historic times during the Indus valley civilization discovered the art of weaving and stitching so cotton clothes were common and wool in winters. They depicted beauty by wearing cotton clothes for the first time. Men kept short beard their hair were combed backwards or cut short and made a knot on top of their head. Women wore rings, nose rings, anklets, bangles etc. men and women both wore ornaments at that time. People knew the use of cosmetic even in those times.

Whereas nomads are always depicted by wearing skirts and things made out of leaves and twigs. It was their society , and their beauty is shown in a whole different way than people living during the Indus valley civilization. The ideal Resurgence woman was more voluptuous than any other time in history. Paintings from that era depicted women with heavy weight and full-figured ladies were the epitome of beauty. They depicted women with slim waist and heavy breasts. The Greeks during pre-historic times wrote about the subject of beauty looking at various aspects of their societies and norms. The ideas were very fascinating. Fundamentally, they were made on the basis of being youthful and energetic. Like the above examples there are a lot of variations in which women are depicted from the ancient society all over the world, each one representing one’s society and culture and heritage.

Medieval Concept

In the medieval era indian women who were religious and wore heavy traditional clothes were considered beautiful. Women applied natural and manmade makeup. The appearance of a good-looking woman were described by comparing with the beautiful creations of God: eyes like a deer’s , lips with petals of rose, walking style like that of a deer, the whole body compared to a beautiful gold stick , fair skin color with the color of camphor. Women wearing beautiful sarees, lehngas heavily dressed up with jewelries were considered extremely beautiful. During that period women never applied artificial makeup. Every product they applied was natural and healthy. women used to wear an embroidered fabric waistband with drum headed knots at the ends. A string of pearls has adorned the necks of several queens all over the world.

Maharani Indira Devi of Cooch Behar known for her flawless beauty and pick on fashion was always seen with three strings of pearls that adorned her neck, and hence set the trend of the three strings which is famous even today. Playfully nicknamed princess pearl, Maharani Indira Devi never forgot to pair any sari with her perfectly aligned pearls.(Wikipedia)The queens of that era were depicted wearing heavy lehangas with loads of jewlleries. Queens like Jodha bai, queen padmavati were considered epitome of beauty were the other kings used to fall in love with them in first sight.

The mediveal period in England is usually classified as the time between the fall of the Roman Empire where the clothing of men and women varied on the basis of different social classes. In the early middle period the clothes were very expensive and only higher class could only afford it. Poorer people only changed their garments when it was highly necessary. It was then when beauty had started dividing on the basics of classes. Higher class women were considered prettier and elegant. Clothing was very simple and, particularly in the case of lower-class peoples, served only basic utilitarian functions such as unpretentiousness.

Clothing was over-lapped and tightly bound; “ The female chest was frequently exposed, yet the true structure of the female body was visually distorte. The open surcoat, a garment with an open bodice and a skirt that trailed to the ground, became “ one of the most elegant inventions of the Middle Age.(Wikipedia) Women wearing gowns, of the smock, hose, kirtle, gown, bra, belt, girdle, cape, hood, and bonnet were considered the ultimatum of beauty. “ The more fashionable would wear very large or wide skirts”. The petticoat made way for the skirt, which quickly became a popular garment because it “ wraps rather than enclosing, touches without grasping, brushes without clasping, coasts, caresses, skims, strokes”.

Modern Concept Of Beauty

In today’s times young adults are forgetting our ancient culture of personification of beauty. They are bringing up the western culture into picture because of which our ancient culture is diminishing. In today’s society, beauty and perfection is being striven for like never before. Antagonized with all the “ beautiful” celebrities and photo-shopped magazine pictorials, women are facing an unrealistic expectation of how they should look. They should be appealing to the society even if they have to go through a body treatment to change themselves into someone they aren’t. Television advertisements are defining the concept of beauty. Appling fairness creams and deodorants are shown to be attractive by females. Anti-ageing creams which are full of chemicals are commercially advertised and not the natural products which actually make.

Haven’t we’ve been told quite often as children that beauty on the inside is all that matters, yet we see and live by different statements. Why don’t we stick to the beauty inside us and not focus on immaterial things. But we don’t! Even the celebrities whom we see and admire to be like one of them are personified by the media in such a way that appeals the audience and they find them “ beautiful”. Girls aged between 20-30 apply so much artificial makeup to make up to the personification of beauty of their generation . They put on makeup, do nails, tie hair perfectly and wear the newest and most fashionable clothes so that the society accepts them as beautiful.. We live in a shallow culture based on looks. The expectations of beauty are unacceptably stereotyped, which creates unrealistic idealistic goals for our young people to try to achieve.

It is crucial to mention that as a society we need to strive toward teaching the proper balance between both aspects of beauty to offset the portrayal of what true beauty . A number of studies have found that facial attractiveness is related to how humans perceive others (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). People judged to have attractive faces are thought to be successful, intelligent, socially desirable, liberal, and even kind (e. g., Berscheid & Walster, 1974; Frieze, Olson, & Russel, 1991; Grant, Button, Hannah, & Ross, 2002; Perlini, Bertolissi, & Lind, 1999). A factor that has been shown to affect attractiveness perception is age; faces perceived as old are typically seen as less attractive than younger faces (e. g., Furnham, Mistry, & McClelland, 2004; Kissler&B¨aumi, 2000; Wernick&Manaster, 1984).

Variables Of Beautyphysical Appearance

Physical beauty is judged in two ways: based on an individual’s perception about his or her own beauty or the opinion of other individuals based on facts or feelings. Appearance is considered to be more important for feminine beauty . It has been distinguished among different societies and different generations in a lot different ways. It can be perceived and described as an amounting joy forever. It only increases and it would never cease. Physical appearance can be divided on the basis of :-Height-Body structure-complexion-Hair-Makeup- Physical Features – Way of dressing etc.

There can be numerous variables of beauty as “ Beauty” often involves an interpretation of some object, article or an individual which are taken as they are seen and in accordance with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Every person on this planet has their own definition of beauty. It is different for everyone and each person have different point of view on the same thing. In easy words beauty with respect to physical appearance refers to something we are glad to look at. For some people its drop dead gorgeous and for some it’s about a beautiful smile, or complexion. It also depends on the culture of society and development of the mentality. For eg some people like females with good height and some may not consider it.

Some people consider natural beauty more attractive over makeup and some may just detest it. For instance if you go for shopping and find a dress it might end up being your favorite one but at the same time your friend might find it dreadful and may ask you how can you even consider this dress. Beauty is always defined by the person who looks at it. It is a subjective element and different people have different views on a particular entity that is why sometimes it is said that “ beauty is in the eye of the beholder. “ Beauty has been recognized as an important aspect throughout history and in diverse cultural traditions. While beauty has cross-ancient and cross-traditional recognition, the standards and meaning of beauty differ from one period to another, as well as from one cultural tradition to another.

Beauty As Per Western Society

Youngsters are therefore running behind the misconception of beauty which is unrealistic and uncertain. Artificial beauty and beautiful faces fade away with time but what remains with a person is their personality and the inner beauty they carry within themselves. Youngsters are often discriminated and bullied on the basis of their complexion or their way of talking or a scar on their face and a lot more but they forget that inner beauty is permanent and a true representation of oneself which should be shown to the world no matter what a physical appearance a person has. But fair skin was considered highly beautiful. Facial attractiveness was very high at that period. Girls of fair skin were preferred for marriage over a girl with dark complexion.

Beauty standards in the world have changed throughout the years, and women of healthy and athletic figures are seen as the norm in today’s society. Dressing up according to latest trends is one of the most followed culture across the globe. Modern concept of beauty is going into the facial and physical attractiveness over inner and soulful beauty. A lot of people can even forget, that the important role plays not only beautiful body, but the beautiful soul too. It is impossible to have a lot of beautiful clothes, but when a person has a beautiful soul everyone recognizes them. Beauty does not often lies in the eyes of the beholder. It lies within oneself. It is the self-confidence a person has and one presents themselves in front of people. Based on physical attractiveness it is impossible to say, that one person is better than the other one.

Classification Of Beauty

There are many different types of beauty that a person can hold in today’s society. Beauty does not always revolve around looks and clothes and money and standards. It also compromises of various factors. The most common types of classification beauty are: appearance, personality and compassion, each of these are way different from each other and play an important role in representing a person.

Appearance

As discussed earlier appearance is causing a major corruptions in today’s society. Girls are wearing pounds and pounds of makeup, going on extreme diets just to be like girls on magazines or whom they admire so that they are acknowledged between the peers. Appearance matters when it’s in a professional way for example a job interview.

Personality

Personality is a big part of a person’s beauty, it helps you determine on what kind of person that person really is when you first meet them. A person’s first impression is important and that is when they usually let out their personality. A person can have good personality when they are kind, easy to get along with and you know that you two will make friends. But when making a bad first impression and they have an ugly personality, they are rude, judging you get the feeling that you don’t want to hang out with this person again. That is when you know that personality is a type of beauty that helps you determine what type of person someone is.

Beauty According To Various Age Groups

All the age groups of people have different aspects of defined beauty. Kids – kids aged from 0- 12 years old are not concerned with the physical beauty. According to them anybody who is playing or going out with them are beautiful. They are not attracted to physical beauty or appearance. Adolescents – children aged from 12-19 years old suffer from spotlight syndrome. They are always worried about how they are looking and what other adolescents would think of them if they are not physically presentable or dressed according to the standards of their peers. They are not usually concerned with the inner beauty and how a person’s personality is, rather they are always busy improving and enhancing their physical appearance. Young adults – people aged between 20-35 years of age are they are super conscious and are very judgmental about the appearance of the people around them. Middle and old age – the concept of beauty changes during this period. People get over the external beauty concept and concept of personality, gravity, and nature matters more.