Beauty is one of the most subjective terms in the world. Beauty is most often defined as an aesthetic feature of things which makes these objects aesthetically pleasing to see. These objects can include humans, landscapes, Sunsets and beautiful works of art. In aesthetics, along with individual taste and art, beauty is probably the most significant discipline of aesthetics, probably one of the most important branches of aesthetic philosophy.
In today’s society where beauty is very much a factor in society, the definition of beauty has become important. However, most people have different understandings of beauty and what constitutes as beautiful. This has been compounded by the fact that beauty varies greatly from culture and society to society. There are beauty standards for men, beauty standards for women, beauty standards for cultures, and beauty standards for race and ethnicities.
The word beauty actually derives from the Greek word “aesthetics”. It was originally defined as “appealing to the eye”. But beauty has more than just being attractive to the eye. The meaning of beauty as an aesthetic object is more complex than this. For aesthetic beauty, the object must satisfy some basic, non-technical criteria, which are formulated by philosophers.
In western Philosophy, the most commonly expressed ideals of beauty are those that are attributed to universal beauty standards. These include: white skin, fair hair, fair eyes, slender figure and height. However, these ideals vary greatly between cultures and societies, even within continents. Similarly, there are cultural differences in the way people define beauty. While many people in the west and parts of Asia consider height and weight to be important beauty standards, these standards are not necessarily universal.
Cultural differences also help explain why there are so many ugly people in the world – it is because societies with different beauty standards have different standards of beauty. For example, physically unattractive women often have to endure enormous amounts of abuse, sexual harassment and other types of abuses. This sends the message that beautiful women are undesirable. This ugly treatment of unattractive women compounds the difference in definitions of beauty between cultures and societies, and makes it impossible for some physically beautiful women to find acceptance in one culture while she remains horribly ugly in another.
Barbie is a beautiful creation that appeals to the desires of all children. Many parents buy Barbie dolls for their little girl to represent a more idealized version of what a young woman should be. Unfortunately, many little girls grow up believing that Barbie is an icon of beauty, and are never able to accept or reject the cultural expectations surrounding her. As such, when their friend asks their opinion about what Barbie should look like, parents are likely to tell them they prefer her body instead of her face or her personality, because that is what the Barbie dolls look like.
