Tuesday, March 16, 2010

What Is Beauty???

Definition of Beauty: The quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

Above is the definition of what beauty is according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, although they are correct on one level, I still think that beauty cannot be defined completely. Everyone has their own definition of what they think is beautiful, yet we all seem to think that everyone else agrees with our ideas. This is so not true. I have been thinking about people's perceptions and definitions about beauty a lot lately, and especially after watching Jessica Simpson's new show, The Price of Beauty. When I first read about the shows concept I was imeditatly intreged, I thought it could have the potential to be a great way to educate people about other cultures and their views on what beauty means to them. After seeing the first episoide I think I was right, it was very interesting, and hopefully people will learn a thing or two. Although we have different opinions on beauty, the following list consits of things which I think are beautiful. You might agree with some, if not all, of my list or you might think its complete bull shit. Eaither way... I would love to hear what you think is beautiful!

  • I think self-confidence is beautiful. It is easy to reconize someone who is comfortable in their own skin, they just have a sense of aura about them.
  • I think the people who run the website, http://www.operationbeautiful.com/, are amazing for creating a site which tackles our ideas about beauty, one post-it-note at a time!
  • In Paris this past Fashion week, several "larger" models walked the runways. These curvey women are proving that skinny-mini is not the only beautiful look out there, women come in all different sizes and we need to embrace it.
  • Gaboury Sidibe in the film Precious: Based on The Novel "Push" has broken through Hollywoods sterotype of beauty. YOU GO GIRL!
  • Beauty is discovering that you can take a leap of faith and do something you never expected and succeed. One "plunge" which I took occured last year in my Sociology class. I have always said I would never eat anything really gross, such as crickets, but last year I had the chance to try a cricket. I was so scared, yet I knew if I didn't try the cricket I would regret that I missed the opprotunity to prove to myself that I can be daring. So I did it, I ate the cricket. And you know what? It wasn't terrible, and I am proud of doing something which I didn't know I could.
  • The sound of laughter is beautiful and is easily understood in every culture.
  • Beauty is reconginzing that every culture has something unique and beautiful about it, if you just know where to look.
  • Beauty is standing up for yourself and others, even if other people think you are wrong
  • And last but not least, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!
Jem

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