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Definition of Beauty

Aug 17, 2014

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The Definition of Beauty --- different cultural construction of what beauty is....
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Page 1: Definition of Beauty

beautyWOMAN, FASHION, AND CULTURE

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What is beauty?

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction.

It is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An " " is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.

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What is beauty?

Our perception of what is beautiful is culturally constructed. The experience of "beauty" often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is

often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

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physical attractiveness It is the degree to which a person's physical traits are

considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful, this term also often implies sexual attractiveness or .

Physical attraction includes a universal perception common to all human cultures, as well as aspects that are culturally and socially dependent, along with individual subjective preferences.

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physical attractiveness In many cases, humans attribute , such as

intelligence and honesty, to physically attractive people without consciously realizing it. Research suggests that the association between intelligence and physical attractiveness is stronger among men than among women.

A person's physical characteristics may be suggestive of fertility and health. These factors contribute to the probability of survival and reproduction for continuing life on Earth.

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physical attractiveness Men, on average, tend to be attracted to

women who are shorter than they are, have a youthful appearance, and exhibit features such as a symmetrical face, full breasts, full lips, and a low waist-hip ratio.

Venus de Milo

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physical attractiveness Women, on average, tend to be attracted to

men who are taller than they are, display a high degree of facial symmetry, masculine facial dimorphism, and who have broad shoulders, a relatively narrow waist, and a V-shaped torso.

Adonis

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physical attractiveness Skin Color

The aesthetics of skin tone varies from culture to culture. Manual laborers who spent extended periods of time outside developed a darker skin tone due to exposure to the sun. As a consequence, an association between and the developed. became an because it symbolized wealth.

Over time society attached various meanings to these colored differences. Including assumptions about a person's race, socioeconomic class, intelligence, and physical attractiveness.

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Theideal beauty

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The ‘ideal beauty’“Chinese-American TV personality Julie Chen reveals she had plastic surgery to make her eyes look less "Asian" to advance her career. Korean women are getting surgeries for permanent smiles. In Venezuela, breast augmentation is so widespread, it's a popular coming-of-age gift for quinceañera, or 15th-birthday celebrations.

What century are we in, anyway? Around the world, women continue to go to extreme measures in pursuit of "beauty."

That women subject themselves to these complicated and bizarre, not to mention dangerous, procedures got me thinking about these notions of physical beauty — and who gets to define them. And what struck me is the irony that what's considered "beautiful" or desirable in one culture is often the exact opposite in another.” -- MAUREEN PAO

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ideal beautyIn the west, people look at models and celebrities

for their standards of beauty – commonly tall, thin, and elegant.

Since there are different types of people living in the west, specifically the United States beauty in this country is found in all colors and sizes.

But they all have some things in common—they are beautiful, fit, and have perfect features. Though it exists in other countries as well, a common thread in American thinking is that if you weren’t born with beauty, it can be created.

Western Countries

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ideal beautyBrazilians have long been regarded for their beauty

which caused achieving perfection to become a national obsession.

Being fit and thin is one standard in Brazil. The average weight of a Brazilian woman is 110–125 pounds—and the pressure to be thin leads many people to take extreme measures. This makes Brazil as the biggest consumer of diet pills in the world.

For women who can't achieve their ideal body naturally plastic surgery is becoming more and more common. The country is now second only to the United States in the number of plastic surgeries performed. Before, it used to be all about the butt, now Brazilian girls are concentrating a lot more on having really big breasts.

Brazil

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ideal beautyIn France, and other parts of Europe, the desired

look is natural beauty. French women are known to be graceful and glamorous at every age, without being too flashy, and often don’t understand the American tendency to use lots of makeup.

They may not have extreme standards when it comes to facial beauty, but fashion or clothing for them is considerably sophisticated.

France

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ideal beauty

East Asia

In East Asia, smooth and youthful skin is a primary criterion of beauty. Creams, lotions, and pills promising flawless skin are widely available. Compared to a typical American woman's skin care ritual, Asian skin care rituals are much more elaborate.

The typical daily beauty regimen for an Asian women include general cleansing, application of toners, emulsions, serums, skin massages, treatments, eye creams, general skin creams, and moisturizers. Some Asian women go as far as to shave their entire faces, not for hair removal, but for the exfoliating effects of the razor.

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ideal beautyHaving young and youthful skin is another standard

of beauty in most Asian countries. One feature of the Japanese is having beautiful skin that doesn’t seem to age very much.

An extreme example is Masako Mizutani, a 43-year old housewife who looks as if she’s only 20. In the pictures, her skin looks unbelievably soft, supple and practically flawless. According to her she supposedly spends five hours a day just taking care of her skin.

Her tips include: drinking plenty of water to flush out toxins, eating a fresh, healthy and balanced diet, using vitamin E based creams, sunscreen, cleansing, toning, moisturizing, plenty of sleep and no smoking.

Japan

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ideal beautyPerhaps the most shocking facet of East Asian

beauty is the fact that the male cosmetic industry is booming. In a society where flawless skin is considered an indicator of social success, South Korean males spend more on skin and makeup products that any other male population in the world. According to the Associated Press, this year's male South Korean beauty industry is expected to gross over US $850 million.

The trend for more feminine and pretty males in South Korea seems to be the result of an influx of Japanese cultural goods that portray male figures as romantic and effeminate.

South Korea

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ideal beauty

Another trend in South Korea is to have wide, round eyes, and many people are going under the knife to achieve them. One in ten women, and even some children, are having an eye-lift to make their eyes more Western and appealing.

South Korea

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ideal beautyIn a multitude of cultures subjected to the harsh

rays of the sun, having light skin meant that you were wealthy enough to pay someone else to toil in the rays of an unforgiving sun while you relaxed inside. An extreme example of this beauty ideal is seen in India.

With the southern portion if India residing in the Tropic of Cancer, India's close proximity to the equator has resulted in the characteristically dark skin tone of its citizens. India's infamous caste system, although based on birth and occupation, placed that vast majority of those with extremely dark skin into the lowest caste, classifying them as "undesirables" or "untouchables".

India

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ideal beauty

The Maori people of New Zealand have been decorating their faces with swirling blue tattoos called “moko” for centuries. Originally a sign of wealth for their ancestors, today most Maori people have moko. For women, the ultimate sign of beauty is full, blue lips and tattoos on the chin.

New Zealand

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ideal beautyIn Thailand from the Kayan tribe focuses on neck-

elongation. From the time they are young (from the age of two to five yeas old, female members of the Kayantribe add shiny brass hoops onto their necks one at a time as it is more comfortable to lengthen the neck slowly until they become beautiful “long-necks”.

The alternative is rapid and painful lengthening of the neck at around the age of twelve, when girls first begin to compete for the attention of boys.

Thailand

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Giraffe Women

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ideal beautyIn the African nation of Mauritania, food is a scarce

resource. Mauritania's climate is principally desert. Having a large wife traditionally meant that a woman is healthy enough to withstand a period of famine.

From this environmental constraint, fat women grew to be the ideal of beauty, as the body mass of females in a male's care became a criterion of social standing and wealth.

Extreme forms of this practice includes sending young girls (8 or 9 years old and above) to fattening farms, called "gavages", where they are force fed. If a woman doesn’t have fat legs and is not fa, then she is not considered as a woman.

Mauritania Women

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ideal beautyIn middle-eastern countries, such as Iran, nose-jobs

are the ultimate route to beauty—and the ultimate status symbol.

Both men and women wear their bandages with pride; in the so-called “nose-job capital of the world” over 70,000 people in this past year alone went under the knife to get a nose-job.

Because of the strict dress code in Iran and other similar countries, women want what they can actually show off to look perfect. Because of this, other beauty trends seem to focus on kohl-lined eyes and perfectly threaded brows.

Iran

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ideal beautyIn the Karo tribe in Ethiopia, young girls have scars

cut on their bodies in intricate, swirling patterns to create a beautiful design to attract a husband. From the age of around five the scars are incised on specific parts of the body in a particular order by experts, who are usually older women. When this program of scarification is complete, the women are finally viewed as adult and eligible for marriage and start a family.

Ethiopia

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ideal beauty

For the Masai women of Kenya, it’s all about the earlobes—they pierce them and then stretch them out, using materials like slices of elephant tusk. Sometimes, they even remove the two middle teeth from their bottom jaw and shave their heads.

Kenya

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fashion &

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fashionFashion is a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear,

accessories, makeup, body piercing, or furniture. Fashion is a distinctive and often habitual trend in the style in which a person dresses. It is the prevailing styles in behavior and the newest creations of textile designers.

Anthropology, the study of culture and human societies, studies fashion by asking why certain styles are deemed socially appropriate and others are not. A certain way is chosen and that becomes the fashion as defined by a certain people as a whole, so if a particular style has a meaning in an already occurring set of beliefs that style will become fashion.

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fashionFashion can be described as a mere adornment where there’s two types:

- changes very quickly and is not affiliated with one group or area of the world but is spread out throughout the world wherever people can communicate easily with each other.

- is fixed and changes little over time and it differs depending on the cultural or social group one is associated with or where one lives, but within that group or locality the style changes little.

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fashion

Fashion

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fashion

Anti- Fashion

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fashionHanbok (South Korea) or Chosŏn-ot (North

Korea) is the traditional Korean dress. It is often characterized by vibrant colors and simple lines without pockets. Although the term literally means "Korean clothing", hanbok today often refers specifically to hanbok of the Joseon (Chosŏn) period and is worn as semi-formal or formal wear during traditional festivals and celebrations.

Throughout history, Korea had a dual clothing tradition, in which rulers and aristocrats adopted different kinds of mixed foreign-influenced indigenous styles, while the commoners continued to use a distinct style of indigenous clothing that today is known as Hanbok.

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fashion

The kimono is a Japanese traditional garment. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" (ki "wear" and mono "thing"),has come to denote these full-length robes. The standard plural of the word kimono in English is kimonos, but the unmarked Japanese plural kimono is also sometimes used.

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fashionHanfu is the traditional dress of the Han

Chinese people. The term Hanfu derives from the Book of Han, which says, "then many came to the Court to pay homage and were delighted at the clothing style of the Han [Chinese]."

The hanfu is now worn during some festivals or coming of age/rite of passage ceremonies, by hobbyists or historical re-enactors, by Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist monks and priests during religious ceremonies, or as a cultural exercise.

It is often seen in Chinese television serials, films and other forms of media entertainment. There is also a movement in China and some overseas Chinese communities to revive Han Chinese clothing in daily life and incorporate it into Chinese festivals or celebrations.

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fashion

The Baro’t saya is the unofficial national dress of the Philippines. The name is a contraction of the Tagalog words baro at saya. Saya is women's dress while the baro means outfit. Barosometimes mean men's top. Barong tagalog is a contraction of baro ng tagalog. meaning a tagalog's clothing.

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fashionThe tantour (tantoor) was a form of cone-

shaped woman's headdress similar to the hennin, popular in the Levant during the nineteenth century, but seldom seen after 1850.

The tantour was held in place by a ribbons tied around the head. A silk scarf was wound around the base with a white veil attached to the peak. The height and composition of the tantourwere proportional to the wealth of its owner, with the most splendid tantours made of gold and reaching as high as thirty inches. Some were encrusted with gems and pearls.

The tantour was a customary gift presented to the bride by her husband on their wedding day.

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fashionA burqa is an enveloping outer garment

worn by women in some Islamic traditions to cover their bodies when in public.

The face-veiling portion is usually a rectangular piece of semi-transparent cloth with its top edge attached to a portion of the head-scarf so that the veil hangs down covering the face and can be turned up if the woman wishes to reveal her face. In other styles, the niqāb of the veil is attached by one side, and covers the face only below the eyes, allowing the eyes to be seen.

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fashion

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A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though women are more common wearers.

corsets

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The corset has been erroneously attributed to Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of France. She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendance during the 1550s. For nearly 350 years, women's primary means of support was the corset, with laces and stays made of whalebone or metal.

Other researchers have found evidence of the use of corsets in early Crete.

corsets

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The most common and well-known use of corsets is to slim the body and make it conform to a fashionable silhouette. For women this most frequently emphasizes a curvy figure, by reducing the waist, and thereby exaggerating the bust and hips. However, in some periods, corsets have been worn to achieve a tubular straight-up-and-down shape, which involves minimizing the bust and hips.

corsets

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By wearing a tightly-laced corset for extended periods, known as tightlacing, men and women can learn to tolerate extreme waist constriction and eventually reduce their natural waist size. Though petite women are often able to get down to a smaller waist in absolute numbers, women with more "fluff" are typically to reduce their waists by a larger percentage.

Many tightlacers dream of waists that are 16 inches (41 cm) and 17 inches (43 cm). Some went so far that they could only breathe with the top part of their lungs. This caused the bottom part of their lungs to fill with mucus. Symptoms of this include a slight but persistent cough, as well as heavy breathing, causing a heaving appearance of the bosom.

corsets

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corsets

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lotus feetFoot binding (also known as "Lotus feet") is the custom of applying

painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. The practice possibly originated among upper-class court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Imperial China (10th or 11th century), but spread in the Song Dynasty and eventually became common among all but the lowest of classes.

Foot binding became popular as a means of displaying status (women from wealthy families who did not need them to work could afford to have their feet bound) and was correspondingly adopted as a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture.

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Bound feet became a mark of beauty and was also a prerequisite for finding a husband. It also became an avenue for poorer women to marry into money; for example, in Guangdong in the late 19th century, it was customary to bind the feet of the eldest daughter of a lower-class family who was intended to be brought up as a lady.

Lotus feet

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The tiny, narrow feet of the "ladies" were considered beautiful and made a woman's movements more feminine and dainty, and it was assumed these eldest daughters would never need to work.

Women, their families, and their husbands took great pride in tiny feet, with the ideal length, called the “Golden Lotus”, being about 7 cm (3 inches) long. This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered silk slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet.

Lotus feet

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Walking on bound feet necessitated bending the knees slightly and swaying to maintain proper movement and balance, a dainty walk that was also considered erotic to men.

Lotus feet

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The process was started before the arch of the foot had a chance to develop fully, usually between the ages of 4 and 9. Binding usually started during the winter months since the feet were more likely to be numb, and therefore the pain would not be as extreme,

First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood; this was intended to soften the foot and aid the binding. To enable the size of the feet to be reduced, the toes on each foot were curled under, then pressed with great force downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke.

Lotus feet

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high heelsHigh-heeled footwear (often abbreviated as high heels or simply heels) is

footwear that raises the heel of the wearer's foot significantly higher than the toes. When both the heel and the toes are raised equal amounts, as in a platform shoe, it is technically not considered to be a high heel; however, there are also high-heeled platform shoes.

High heels tend to give the aesthetic illusion of longer, more slender legs. High heels come in a wide variety of styles, and the heels are found in many different shapes, including stiletto, pump (court shoe), block, tapered, blade, and wedge.

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The case for wearing high heels is based almost exclusively on aesthetic reasons, including that they:

1. change the angle of the foot with respect to the lower leg, which accentuates the appearance of calves;

2. change the wearer's posture, requiring a more upright carriage and altering the gait in what is considered a seductive fashion;

3. make the wearer appear taller;

4. make the legs appear longer;

5. make the foot appear smaller;

6. make the toes appear shorter;

7. make the arches of the feet higher and better defined;

8. according to a single line of research, they may improve the muscle tone of some women's pelvic floor, thus possibly reducing female incontinence, although these results have been disputed.

9. offer practical benefits for people of short stature in terms of improving access and using items, e.g. sit upright with feet on floor instead of suspended, reach items on shelves, etc.

high heels

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The case against wearing high heels is based almost exclusively on health and practicality reasons, including that they:

1. can cause foot and tendon pain;

2. increase the likelihood of sprains and fractures;

3. make calves look more rigid and sinewy;

4. can create foot deformities, including hammer toes and bunions;

5. can cause an unsteady gait;

6. can shorten the wearer's stride.

7. can render the wearer unable to run;

8. can also agitate lower back pain;

9. alter forces at the knee caused by walking in high heels so as to predispose the wearer to degenerative changes in the knee joint;

10. can result after frequent wearing in a higher incidence of degenerative joint disease of the knees. This is because they cause a decrease in the normal rotation of the foot, which puts more rotation stress on the knee.

11. can cause damage to soft floors if they are thin or metal-tipped.

high heels

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Are we still bounded?

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to what extent of could one go through in the pursuit for beauty?

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References:www.wikepedia.orgwww.hercampus.comwww.allvoices.com