Beauty

Many articles are written by modern psychologists and psychoanalysts that stress the importance of beauty in human and animal breeding as well as survival. One such article The Biology of Beauty suggests this importance and backs it up with many facts and figures as well as surveys on normal people. The article states many theories and hypotheses and also tries to explain why beauty plays such an important role in sexuality and power. What is beauty? According to this article, beauty is a combination of symmetry, special qualities, and traits.

Symmetry is perhaps the most supported part of beauty in this article. The article states that symmetry shows abundance of sexual hormones, health, and strength of the immune system. They support their hypothesis of symmetry’s affect on the abundance of sexual hormones with various scientific evidence. Two psychologists, Steven Gangestead and Randy Thornhill measured the symmetry of hundreds of men and women in college. They also asked them to complete a personal confidential survey that gave information on their health and sex lives.

What they found was that the men and women with better symmetry ad started having sex 3-4 years before the people with average symmetry. Gangestead and Thornhill also completed another survey involving women’s responses to symmetrical men and men with average symmetry. The results were as expected. The women with symmetrical partners responded twice as much compared to the women with men having average symmetry. The rate of contraception was also much higher.

Animals are much more severe in their choosing. Female penguins won’t accept males who aren’t plump and symmetrical, and female scorpion flies only accept males with symmetrical wings, as they are better at unting and protecting. Also, less symmetrical men and women surveyed had more ailments and more frequent accounts of illnesses compared to symmetrical men and women who were overall much healthier. Special qualities also play a role in beauty.

A person with normal features is not considered as beautiful as one with a few outstanding features. New Mexico State University’s Victor Johnston conducted a computer survey called FacePrints in which participants of all ages and ethnic groups were asked to give their accounts of a perfect face into the computer. What hey came up with was very surprising. Instead of selecting a female with average facial features, the men leaned toward a girlish face consisting of many outstanding features.

Their ideal face consisted of a small chin and jaws as well as large eyes and luscious lips. Women value the opposite of the face constructed by men: a face consisting of a strong jaw and chin, prominent cheekbones, a broad forehead, and a severe brow. Infants were also tested by psychologist Judith Langlois. In her experiment, Judith showed the infant pictures of attractive and unattractive faces.

What she found was that infants stared much longer at the pictures of attractive faces and quickly looked away from the pictures of unattractive faces. The infants, however, had no inkling of what was attractive from media or T. V, so our idea of attractiveness could very well be inate. So beauty is not just a means of selecting the most fit partner. Traits are also an important factor in attractiveness and beauty. Traits reflect fertility and sexual potency in particular. An expert in female traits, Devendra Singh works as a psychologist at the University of Texas tudying the attractive traits of the female figure. His survey on attractive female figures gives an outlook on what men find most attractive.

According to the results of his survey, men found figure N7 in Devendra’s chart the most sexually attractive. Following in popular choice were N8 and U7. The men that took the survey ranged in age from eight to eighty five and yet the favorite of each age group, N7, had a waist to hip ratio of . 7 or 70%. So here is the definition of beauty as portrayed by the article. The ideal man should be above average height, have a broad forehead, perfect ymmetry in wrist, ankles, and elbows as well as face, a strong chin, a large jaw, a prominent brow, slightly above average musculature, and a waist-hip ratio of . 9 or 90%.

The ideal woman, on the other hand, should have large eyes, a small jaw, chin, and nose, full lips, firm, symmetrical breasts, unblemished skin, and a waist-hip ratio of . 7 or 70%. My opinion concurs with the article for the most part, and their consistency of taking in account that beauty isn’t everything and that most people are married and have children despite physical mpurities is very admirable.

I think that appearance regretfully does have a strong influence in how we perceive people, but it is good that these limits are not severe, and that we can earn others respect with kindness, intelligence, and a good personality. I think that this ability to break through physical barriers separates us from the animals, and even though we may not be as fit for survival as if we had full physical choices, the ability to choose not just on physical attributes makes us a better, smarter more admirable species.

Helen Keller once said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Beauty is a kind of quality. Websters dictionary defines beauty as something that is pleasing to ones sight or mind. However, beauty encompasses so much more than that. Beauty may not be recognized at once in people that you meet. After time, though, beauty shines through a person by them giving of their hearts. So, the sterotypical guy or girl model that most of the world perceives as beautiful, is not the same beauty that I see.

There was a time in my life whe I met a guy named Jeffrey. At first, Jeffrey was definitely not found beautiful in my eyes. After time, I got to know Jeffrey. I began to see him in a whole different light. His beauty came from within. His love and care overflowed when he came across people who needed help. He didnt think about himself. Rather, he made other people a priority in his life. Today, Jeffrey is a very good friend of mine. When I look at him now, I cant help but see beauty. I often see beauty when other people are happy.

Smiles and laughter are so beautiful to me. There is this girl in the Sunday School department that I teach in at my church. Her name is Vicky, and she has down syndrome. Her face is so full of beauty to me, but a beauty that most people would overlook. She finds joy in the simplest things. She is so loving and happy all of the time. Vicky is so beautiful because her heart is overflowing with love. Happiness is such a precious thing, that it comes forth as beauty in my eyes. Beauty can also be seen in nature.

Beauty, to me, is seeing a sunset or a sunrise. Watching an eagle fly through the sky, or little ducks swim in a pond are scenes of beauty in my eyes. The mountains that are covered in snow, or the beaches with blue and green water are so gorgeous. Everything that God has created is so beautiful and majestic. I can sit and watch nature endlessly, and I never seem to get tired of that beauty. There are only a few things that arent beautiful to me. Hate isnt beautiful. A sinful heart and life are not beauty to me.

Anything to do with sin is in no way beauty. So, to me beauty isnt fit into a simple definition. It is just something that can be seen pretty much anywhere. Beauty can be seen in almost anything, it is just not often appreciated. David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and historian, said, Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them. That is something that everyone should take to heart. Beauty is missed by so many people because they do not take the time to stop and appreciate all that God has created.

Internal and external beauty are both very important in our society. To be beautiful internally means to have a kind heart and be understanding. To be beautiful externally means to be beautiful on the outside such as having a nice figure and an attractive smile. Internal beauty is important because beyond looks, it is your personality that is noticed. External beauty is important because it is your attractive figure that brings notice to someones great personality or external beauty. To me, internal and external beauty are represented and influenced by family members, friends, and society as a whole.

Family members are important how we perceive internal and external beauty. Depending on which family member, there is an absolute distinction made between external beauty and internal beauty. Parents are most likely to look at the internal beauty rather than the external, while siblings look at the external part more closely. This, however, is not always true. My parents seem to favor their ancestry, as compared to others. Since I am of Polish descent, my parents believe that external beauty is irrelevant as that person is Polish. This changes when the person is not Polish.

If the person is not Polish, then his or her external beauty for some strange reason becomes very important. My brother on the other hand seems to be the most reasonable. Sure, he looks if the girl that I am dating is pretty, meaning if she has external beauty, but he quickly overlooks that, and stresses the internal beauty as well. I guess that the siblings are the most reasonable of judges concerning internal and external beauty. Parents have a duty to preserve their heritage, and look as someone from a different area of birth, as outsiders and therefore their external beauty has to severely overweigh their internal beauty.

My brother thinks much differently. He tries to balance both the internal beauty with the external beauty, make the most reasonable judgement between external and internal beauty. My friends are most likely to look at the external beauty before the internal beauty. If they like the external beauty, then they may also consider the internal beauty. If they however, do not like the external beauty, they most likely ignore the internal beauty altogether. So, although friends are friends, they tend to be one of the most hypocritical judges.

The thing that matters to friends is that if the girl is pretty, then chances are she may also have a nice personality. If she doesnt appeal to my friends externally, then her internal beauty must also be lacking. This, however, is not always true, since some of my real close friends tend to overlook the external beauty, or not stress it as much as others. Society is the most judgmental of all critics regarding internal and external beauty. In todays society, external beauty Is always stressed significantly.

This is one of the main reasons why there are so many girls in our country that have eating disorders. Successful women are perceived with external beauty are always perceived to look as if they were starving. Models like Kate Moss, all weight under 100 pounds it seems. Society rarely stresses the importance of internal beauty. Since society never real sees the persons personality, then their only judgement call would be by external beauty. It seems however, that society places too much effort than ever before how a person looks, their external beauty.

Rarely, does a society ever judge a person by the way they act. Based on the influences of family, friends, and society, it looks like family is the most reasonable judge of external and internal beauty. Siblings especially, are the fairest judges. Friends are somewhat neutral, and stand the middle ground in differentiating between internal and external beauty. Society is the harshest critic of beauty, always stressing the external beauty. It seems that society will always be one sided, and no one can do anything about it.