No Downplaying nor Celebrating
(Some Insights on the Concept of Beauty and Ugliness)
by aLfie vera mella
I think that the adage "Beauty (or ugliness) is in the eye of the beholder" applies only to characteristics that fall in the middle of the ugliness-beauty spectrum, in which farthest left is ugliest and farthest right is most beautiful. Therefore, in extreme cases, beauty or ugliness becomes universally apparent.
Now, the challenge is to be able to describe something or someone as physically ugly in a factual manner (if she or it is really is), without ridicule, sarcasm, or condescension.
Further Challenges
* Is describing someone or something ugly automatically an act of ridicule?
* Could someone describe ugliness without a feeling of doing an act of ridicule?
* If someone describes you or a part of your body or something you made (like a project) ugly, will you feel hurt? Will you think that you are being ridiculed?
* Are you able to acknowledge if you have an ugly physical part of yourself?
Objectives
* for humans to be able to acknowledge factual physical ugliness as something that need not be changed unless this affects a certain physiological function (for example, cleft palate, which affects speech, thus must be corrected surgically);
* that being ugly is not the same as being unpleasant or repulsive;
* that describing something ugly is not automatically an act of ridiculing but is simply stating a fact (ridiculing is when you start to taunt the person for or laugh at the ugliness);
* that physical ugliness is something that does not need to be ridiculed;
* that something ugly need not to be described fakely as beautiful when it's obviously not, just to patronize ugliness;
* that physical ugliness must not affect a person's assessment of skills, talent, and intelligence;
* that physical ugliness or physical attractiveness should cease to be a job requirement or a criteria in selection of job applicants.
If ugliness becomes a characteristic that need not be hidden or be ashamed of; then beauty, on the other hand, need not be celebrated. In the same manner that ugliness need not be glamorized, downplayed, nor celebrated as well, because to do so is a form of sourgraping.
by aLfie vera mella
I think that the adage "Beauty (or ugliness) is in the eye of the beholder" applies only to characteristics that fall in the middle of the ugliness-beauty spectrum, in which farthest left is ugliest and farthest right is most beautiful. Therefore, in extreme cases, beauty or ugliness becomes universally apparent.
Now, the challenge is to be able to describe something or someone as physically ugly in a factual manner (if she or it is really is), without ridicule, sarcasm, or condescension.
Further Challenges
* Is describing someone or something ugly automatically an act of ridicule?
* Could someone describe ugliness without a feeling of doing an act of ridicule?
* If someone describes you or a part of your body or something you made (like a project) ugly, will you feel hurt? Will you think that you are being ridiculed?
* Are you able to acknowledge if you have an ugly physical part of yourself?
Objectives
* for humans to be able to acknowledge factual physical ugliness as something that need not be changed unless this affects a certain physiological function (for example, cleft palate, which affects speech, thus must be corrected surgically);
* that being ugly is not the same as being unpleasant or repulsive;
* that describing something ugly is not automatically an act of ridiculing but is simply stating a fact (ridiculing is when you start to taunt the person for or laugh at the ugliness);
* that physical ugliness is something that does not need to be ridiculed;
* that something ugly need not to be described fakely as beautiful when it's obviously not, just to patronize ugliness;
* that physical ugliness must not affect a person's assessment of skills, talent, and intelligence;
* that physical ugliness or physical attractiveness should cease to be a job requirement or a criteria in selection of job applicants.
If ugliness becomes a characteristic that need not be hidden or be ashamed of; then beauty, on the other hand, need not be celebrated. In the same manner that ugliness need not be glamorized, downplayed, nor celebrated as well, because to do so is a form of sourgraping.
posted by eLf ideas @ 7:24:00 PM
2 Comments:
At Sunday, December 30, 2012 9:38:00 PM,
rainbow said…
In the recent ms universe beauty pageant,our pride ms Philippines showed the world what beauty is all about,she was instantly judged as the 2nd most beautiful woman of the universe.I have seen up close all these women of the world and their culture now that I live in multiicultural country and I realized there is no standard for beauty ( except Donald Trump Business standard on beauty ) but however,if you choose to be discriminatory and begin to criticized and ridicule that's becomes literally ugly..
At Monday, December 31, 2012 5:53:00 PM,
eLf ideas said…
I agree that beauty and ugliness are affected largely by cultural exposure.
I mean, now that I have long been living in Canada--a very multicultural country--I long noticed that many people have a different perspective on what is beautiful and on what is ugly.
Even my taste of what is beautiful also changed.
For example, back when I was still in the Philippines, beautiful to me were the likes of Donita Rose, Lovely Rivero, and other "mestizas." But when I became exposed--on an up-close-and-personal level--to real blonde and "white" girls, this kind of beauty became so familiar that they don't interest me that much anymore compared with how mestizas back then could catch my attention.
I think, beauty can be greatly affected also by familiarity. I mean, if the likes of Paris Hilton are just a common sight to you, you develop the tendency to become not interested in them anymore, because they are already common.
==
As I said in this article, I am just exploring the possibility of being able to describe ugliness (when necessary) without accompanying it with a sense or intent of ridicule.
==
I think there remains so much insights that need to be explored in the concepts of beauty and ugliness.
I'm just presenting the reality that there is really beauty and ugliness--and that ugliness SHOULD NOT be equated with bad, evil, unpleasant, repulsive, and other ridiculing words.
My goal is to be able to see and acknowledge ugliness as it is without feeling that you are ridiculing or feeling that you are being criticized harshly.
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